From Computational Thinking to Systems Thinking

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From Computational Thinking to Systems Thinking :A conceptual toolkit for sustainability computingSteve EasterbrookDept of Computer ScienceUniversity of Toronto140 St George Street, Toronto, Ontario, CanadaEmail: If information and communication technologies(ICT) are to bring about a transformational change to a sustain-able society, then we need to transform our Thinking . Computerprofessionals already have a conceptual toolkit for problemsolving, sometimes known ascomputational Thinking . However, Computational Thinking tends to see the world in terms a seriesof problems (or problem types) that have Computational solutions(or solution types). Sustainability, on the other hand, demandsa more systemic approach, to avoid technological solutionism,and to acknowledge that technology, human behaviour andenvironmental impacts are tightly inter-related. In this paper,I argue thatsystems thinkingprovides the necessary bridge fromcomputational Thinking to sustainability practice, as it provides adomain ontology for reasoning about sustainability, a conceptualbasis for reasoning about transformational change, and a set ofmethods for critical Thinking about the social and environmentalimpacts of technology.

From Computational Thinking to Systems Thinking: A conceptual toolkit for sustainability computing ... programmers. That is, they look for algorithmic solutions to problems, in terms of data manipulation and process control. In a widely cited paper in 2006, Jeanette Wing termed this computational thinking [12], and argued that this …

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