From Computational Thinking to Computational Action

COMPUTATIONAL ACTION, A new framing for computing education, proposes that while learning about computing, young people should also have opportunities to create with computing that have direct impact on their lives and their communities. In this Viewpoint, we outline two key dimensions of computational action-computational identity and digital empowerment-and further argue that by focusing on computational action in addition to computational thinking, we can make computing education more inclusive, motivating, and empowering for young learners. Learners have the capacity to develop computational products that can have authentic impact in their lives from the moment they begin learning to code, all they need is to be situated in contexts that allow them to do so.