Tag Archives: Coding Education

Coding Education

Why Are We Pitting Coding Against Foreign Languages?

Education as a whole is in a crisis in this country. Throughout the globe, other countries are racing past us, especially in the areas of math and science. This has led to the necessary push for more coding education.

In Silicon Valley, one entrepreneur is taking this to the “Hunger Games” level. Consider a recent article for TakePart titled “Can the ‘Hunger Games’ of Coding Solve America’s Tech Worker Shortage?” Joseph Williams of TakePart writes, “It seems like the perfect solution to a national crisis: At a time when the United States needs a million computer science graduates within the decade—and college costs are spiraling upward—a French telecom billionaire is about to open a state-of-the-art, tuition-free computer coding academy in the heart of Silicon Valley. The innovative school, simply called 42, doesn’t care about secondary school grades or SAT scores and provides free dorms for up to 300 low-income students. Although it has a goal of educating 10,000 coders over the next five years, 42 won’t have faculty or a syllabus, but it will have classrooms stocked with the latest Apple computers.”

In other cases, there are arguments for whether coding should count as a second language. While making coding a necessity is a good idea, we have an obligation to prepare our students for a globalized economy. Part of being able to succeed in a globalized economy is providing our children with all the tools to communicate and collaborate with people from all throughout the world. For the most part, these future partners come from different backgrounds and life experiences. One of the best ways to create a path for communication is being able to speak other languages. Why would we want to replace that skill when we could invest in both?

In many cases, this means investing in programs outside of the school system where children can receive mentorship from qualified, experienced teachers. If you’re looking for the best of these programs, CodeRev Kids is the place for you. At CodeRev Kids, we offer customized coding education that focuses on computational thinking. Our programs allow students to engage in robotics, website creation, and app making.

In addition to offering immersive coding programs, we also put an emphasis on having fun. As a result, our students stay engaged while they learn.

If this sounds like the place for your child, sign up for one of our classes today!

Coding Education

Coding Coming to the Aid of the Homeless

While it would be easy to dismiss coding as the trendy thing right now and more of a buzzword than a solution, the reality is that it is one of the great equalizers. Coding jobs are the future for many, and they could solve some of the problems of the present for a number of people throughout the country.

One of these major, epidemic level issues is the homeless crisis. From city to city, state to state, more and more people are finding themselves living in shelters, couch surfing, and even on the street because they don’t have any other options. While it is certainly important that we need to provide more resources to serve this growing problem, that is ultimately a survival strategy. It addresses the immediate needs. The real question is, how do we help people move forward and reverse this horrible trend?

Coding could be the answer for some. WCVB takes a look at this in a recent article titled “Boston homeless shelter empowering teenage girls through coding.” The author of the article writes, “A homeless shelter in Boston is empowering its teenage girls in an unprecedented way: by teaching them how to code. During the past school year, a dozen or so girls have been coming together one night a week to take coding classes in the humble basement of Brookview House, a homeless shelter and affordable housing complex in the Dorchester Center neighborhood of Boston. The girls, ages 13 to 18, learn how to code small programs, apps and video games in Scratch and Python, according to Deborah Hughes, the shelter’s executive director. She explained that all the girls in the club are either homeless or at risk of homelessness. ‘We decided to start this club two years ago because we believe in all the beautiful possibilities for these girls,’ Hughes told ABC News Wednesday. ‘We know getting girls into the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) field is a challenge, but we know what are girls are capable of and that they can overcome any challenges.’”

If you are looking to help others gain coding skills, the first step is to gain that knowledge yourself. The best way to do this is to start young.

At CodeRev Kids, we offer customized coding education for youth. Our programs include robotics, app making, and website creation. Get your child signed up as soon as possible so he/she can learn and have fun in one of our many exciting programs!

Coding Education

How Prince Quietly Launched a Coding Program for Youth

People throughout the country and the world are still reeling from the news of Prince’s passing. They are also finding out about all the things the man touched that were never previously made public. One thing that the famed artist had a passion for was coding. Consider a recent article for Quartz titled “Prince quietly helped launch a coding program for inner city youth.”

Olivia Goldhill of Quartz writes, “Though many would say Prince changed the world through his music, the artist also took a hands-on approach to changing the world beyond music. The global superstar was the inspiration behind YesWeCode, an Oakland nonprofit, which works to help young people from minority backgrounds enter the tech world. The idea for the program came from a conversation between Prince and his friend Van Jones, who heads Rebuild the Dream charity, following the 2012 shooting of teenager Travoyn Martin. ‘Prince said … ‘A black kid wearing a hoodie might be seen as a thug. A white kid wearing a hoodie might be seen as a Silicon Valley genius. Let’s teach the black kids how to be like Mark Zuckerberg.’’ Jones told CNN. The program is aiming to teach 100,000 low-income non-white teenagers how to write code, and was launched at the 20th Anniversary Essence Festival in New Orleans in 2014—which Prince headlined on the condition that YesWeCode was included in the event. The organization now has 15 technology companies working with youth to help prepare them for Silicon Valley Jobs. Currently, the nonprofit’s website has a page dedicated to thanking Prince. ‘When you think about how great he was as a musician, just please understand that’s a part of the greatness,’ says Jones in a statement. Since Prince’s death, Jones, a former White House advisor on green jobs, also revealed that Prince helped fund environmental group Green for All, another nonprofit founded by Jones, which aims to bring solar panels to Oakland.”

When it comes to customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our camps today!

Coding Education

16-Year-Old Takes Coding to the Next Level

When you learn coding early on, you can impact your community in a variety of ways, even at a young age. Consider a recent article for the San Jose Mercury News titled “Coding: 16-year-old Fremont student writes AP test-prep book, creates online course.”

Sharon Noguchi of the San Jose Mercury News writes, “Moksh Jawa, 16, captures the essence of Silicon Valley startup thinking and energy. ‘Why not?’ might be his motto. As a seventh-grader, he studied up on the Internet and taught himself coding. As a freshman, after studying on his own, he passed the AP Computer Science A exam with a 5, the highest score possible. As a sophomore, because his Fremont high school didn’t teach coding, he developed his own online course and shepherded classmates through it. As a junior, he distilled those lessons into a 450-page test-prep book, now sold on Amazon. What’s next? Lots more. Jawa is a young man on a mission to spread the wonders and dispel fears of computer science. Quickly. On Tuesday, leaders of tech, government and education petitioned Congress to invest in computer science education. Even if Congress responds, it could take years for schools to see any funds, juggle schedules, hire teachers and enroll students — even as the University of California steadfastly refuses to credit computer science as anything other than an elective course, a stance that discourages high schoolers from enrolling. But Jawa is in too much of a hurry to wait for institutional action. ‘I’ve never met a Mark Zuckerberg or a Sheryl Sandberg, but that’s the type of drive Moksh has,’ said Mike Jan, who advises the computer science club that Jawa started at Washington High. His interest started in middle school, when his father gave him a link to Codeacademy, an online coding boot camp. He learned Python, an intermediate programming language. ‘I just fell in love with computer science,’ Jawa said. He found everything he needed to know online: ‘Every time you encounter a problem, the chances are that someone else has, too, and has figured it out.’”

If you’re looking for quality, customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our camps today!

Coding Education

How Election Season Demonstrates the Need for Coding Education

If there is a big takeaway from election season, it’s that substance is severely lacking, even amongst those who consider themselves informed. This is especially problematic because if adults can’t be counted to dig beneath the surface and truly explore the mechanics of their political system and justify their choices with more than catch phrases and canned arguments about likeability that don’t address policy, how can we expect the youth who take after them to do the same with their studies.

What does this have to do with coding? Everything actually. Coding requires substantive and creative thinking. It requires understanding how things work and being able to think deeply on your feet.

In addition to this, coding also offers plenty of opportunity for people to build lucrative careers as the nation and the world moves to a more digitized age. If adults aren’t doing their jobs, then it is clear that the only hope is the children and those that can educate them to appreciate what things like coding have to offer.

If you don’t want to take this author’s word for it, listen to a successful CEO. Yahoo News provides this insight in a recent article titled “This CEO says every kid needs to study coding.” Rick Newman of Yahoo News writes, “Accenture, the large consulting firm, has partnered with Code.org, the nonprofit that promotes better computer science education, especially among women and minorities. But that leaves many individuals out of the technology loop. When asked if every student today ought to study coding, Sweet says, ‘Absolutely. Not because they all need to be computer scientists, but because coding is a basic skill required to be digitally fluent.’ There’s a big gap, however, between the skills companies want and the skills schools teach. Sweet cites research showing 92% of jobs today require some degree of digital fluency. Yet coding is not taught at all in many high schools, and those that do teach it often offer just one course. Virtually all of the young workers Accenture hires are digitally aware, Sweet says, ‘but not all are digitally savvy.’”

At CodeRev Kids, we provide the immersive coding education that prepares your child for success as an adult. Our customized curriculum is geared to keep your child engaged while he/she learns the ins and outs of computational thinking.

Don’t miss out on this fun and educational opportunity. Sign up for one of our classes today!

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On Immersive Learning

One of the major benefits of CodeRev Kids is that it immerses your child in coding. EdSurge explores immersive learning in a recent article titled “The Benefits of Immersive Learning: From the Eyes of a Coding Bootcamp Student.”

Rex Salisbury of EdSurge writes, “I went to a selective liberal arts college and studied economics. Over the course of four years, I spent about 1,000 hours to get an economics degree. Four years after graduating, doing work I found unfulfilling, I went to a coding bootcamp where I spent 1,000 hours learning to code in around 14 weeks. At this point, you might be thinking, ‘Wow, 1,000 hours in 4 years versus 1,000 hours in 14 weeks—that’s a big difference.’ You also might be wondering about the utility of each of these programs. Am I more of an expert in economics—or coding? Becoming an expert in something isn’t easy. It takes work—a lot of work, in fact. Writer Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours. But just doing anything for 10,000 hours isn’t enough. It has to be rigorous, self-reinforcing learning that continually challenges you. While most coding bootcamps fall quite short of Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule, these programs will get you 1,000 hours of some of the most rigorous, self-reinforcing learning that you could ever imagine in an incredibly short period of time. How are bootcamp students able to learn so much, so quickly, you may ask? It’s simple—for 14 weeks, you don’t do anything else. You immerse yourself in coding as deeply as possible… Immersion is nothing new. We’ve known for years that it’s an incredibly effective way to learn. Consider, for example, learning a foreign language in that language’s country of origin. Learning coding at a bootcamp is similar to studying abroad when you want to learn a language; it’s immersive, it’s exciting, and there are tons of people surrounding you and supporting your learning every hour of every day.”

If you’re looking for quality, customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our camps today!

Coding Education

The Secret to Why Coding Computer Game Courses are So Successful

The best learning experiences are the ones where students have fun in the process. Consider a recent article for the Florida Times-Union titled “Coding computer games class is not all fun and games.”

Denise Smith Amos of the Florida Times-Union writes, “The Duval County School Board will vote next month on whether to change Andrew Jackson High into a technology magnet, which would offer computer coding and gaming among other career options. And Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said last month he plans to introduce computer coding next year into elementary school curriculum. Duval so far has taught coding through video game design at Kirby-Smith Middle School, a science, technology, engineering, arts and math magnet. There James Vail, a former natural science educator, teaches several coding languages as students build video games. It’s an elective nearly every student takes, he said, and some take multiple classes, using several languages. In a given semester he may have 240 students in six classes, or an average of 40 students per class. On a recent Thursday, his eighth-graders were finishing newly created two-player video games, using their imaginations, knowledge of coding and a few prods from Vail. Luke Underwood, who Vail said is one of the more advanced students, used a commercial grade programming language to create a game featuring a spaceman walking up inclines while dodging deadly dots from a green fish. Earlier he created an ‘Old MacDonald HAD a Farm’ game, where tanks shoot at cows and elephants fleeing a barn. His classmate Oscar Vargas used a different advanced language to touch up a Capture the Flag game. Both students say they want to master 3-D modeling and animation. Vail told Vargas: ‘This is commercial-level stuff. If you get good at this, there’s a job for you.’ Recently Florida legislators endorsed bills to let schools count coding as a foreign language, but the measure passed in the Senate and died in the House. Across the country, schools are being encouraged to add computer science classes, including coding. It’s needed if graduates will be ready for tomorrow’s careers, some experts say.”

If you’re looking for the best in hands-on, customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our camps today!

Coding Education

What is the Verdict on Coding Toys?

It’s no secret that coding could be the key to employment for many young Americans. For this reason, parents are looking for anything that can help get their child a leg up. Consider a recent article for Live Science titled “Do Computer Coding Toys for Kids Really Work?”

Tia Ghose of Live Science writes, “From beating the best human players at chess, to flying planes, to running stock market transactions, computers are now used in virtually every facet of modern-day life. But children aren’t being adequately prepared to understand and use this omnipresent technology, experts say. That’s why many parents are turning to coding apps and toys to help give their kids a head start. The toys, tailored to different age groups, range from robot turtles to stripped-down, visual coding languages made just for kids. But will that programmable robot or snowman game turn your baby into the next Alan Turing or Steve Jobs? [The Best Coding Toys and Apps for Kids] It turns out, no one really knows, because there’s very little research on the subject, and even less from outside a traditional classroom setting, said Andrew Ko, a computing education researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle. ‘We have a very immature understanding of how to teach computer science right now,’ Ko told Live Science. What’s more, coding apps and toys shouldn’t be taking the place of time spent in more traditional childhood exploits, such as playing in the mud or learning to read, experts said. However, early exposure to coding toys and apps can build enthusiasm, and that motivation could potentially translate to future computer science work, experts said. [The Top 5 Benefits of Play for Kids].”

If you’re looking for the best in hands-on coding education, there is no substitute for great mentorship. When it comes to customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our camps today!

Coding Education

USA Today Explores the Discussion of Coding Schools and “Technical Ghettos”

What is behind the discussion of coding schools and “technical ghettos?” USA Today explores this in a recent article titled “How talk of coding schools creating ‘technical ghettos’ gets it wrong.”

Kalimah Priforce of USA Today writes, “On the last day of Black History Month, The Atlantic published an article entitled Will the Push for Coding Lead to ‘Technical Ghettos’? The article uses an inflammatory and racially charged phrase, ‘technical ghettos,’ to voice concern from some quarters that programs such as Kimberly Bryant’s Black Girls Code are not teaching young people of color the kind of computational thinking needed to achieve success in the tech workforce. The contention: That these programs are myopically focused on teaching kids to code. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am one of those educators who provides opportunities for our kids through Qeyno Labs, an inclusive innovation company that three years ago launched Hackathon Academy as a ‘pop-up school.’ We do much more than teach kids to code, and that is what makes our programs widely popular among low-opportunity youth and their communities. In our coding programs, we teach young people to be hackers, and the first thing we teach them to hack is their own isolation, because poverty is not desperation or deprivation, poverty is isolation. Young people taking part in a Black Girls Code workshop, a Qeyno hackathon or in a boot camp at The Hidden Genius Project build apps that address the challenges in their communities such as sex trafficking, police brutality and teen depression. We provide culturally-relevant wrap-around education and workforce development that empowers and prepares our kids to succeed not just as engineers in the tech workforce, but as entrepreneurs and artists. And the experts cited in this article would know this had they ever visited our classrooms, hackathons or boot camps.”

When it comes to customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our camps today!

Coding Education, Education

Several Ways You Can Help Empower Girls to Learn Coding

it comes to coding education, a major issue is equity. Coding provides a lot of opportunities not just for underrepresented groups, but their families, friends, and communities as well. Consider a recent article for Mashable titled “8 ways you can empower girls to learn coding.”

Matt Petronizio of Mashable writes, “Before anything, you need to understand the systemic obstacles preventing girls from getting into coding. Both a culture that persistently ignores and discourages girls’ abilities in computer science, and the lack of access to tools and education, play influential roles. Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, says it’s deeply ingrained in our culture to let it be OK for girls to say they don’t like math and science. ‘We almost sensationalize it in culture for girls to promote that,’ she tells Mashable. ‘You can walk into a Forever 21 and buy a T-shirt that says ‘I’m allergic to algebra’ … You’re always showcasing these really smart girls hiding their intelligencewhen it comes to math and science.’ If girls can’t see themselves in these professions, Saujani adds, they’re not going to choose to pursue them. And that also extends to inside classrooms, where coding is rarely offered to students in general, much less focusing on girls — an obstacle Code.org founder and CEO Hadi Partovi says is equally as significant as culture. ‘If you enter a classroom and you see 18 boys and two girls, you automatically think, ‘I’m in the wrong place and I’m not welcome,’’ Partovi says. ‘And that makes it harder.’ … One of the most important ways to advocate for girls is to get schools to actually offer courses on the subject. On the public advocacy side, you can contact your local politicians and legislators to lobby on behalf of making coding a priority in public school education. As a parent or guardian, you can put pressure on school administrations to include more computer science courses in curricula for various age levels. And if you’re a teacher, you can effect change within the school system itself.”

When it comes to customized coding education, you can’t go wrong with CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our winter camps today!