Tag Archives: Coding Education

Coding Education

What’s Behind the Latest White House Coding Push?

The White House is pushing even harder than before to make sure children throughout the U.S. have the right tools to be proficient coders. Consider a recent article for the Atlantic titled “The Reality of Coding Classes.”

Mikhail Zinshteyn of the Atlantic writes, “The White House wants every child in the United States to learn computer science. The president’s plan to reach that goal? Ask Congress to fund a new $4 billion program for states and another $100 million for districts to train teachers and purchase the tools ‘so that our elementary, middle, and high schools can provide opportunities to learn computer science for all students,’ Obama said in his weekly address on January 30. With Congress’s approval, the $4 billion will be spent over three years to train teachers, connect schools with corporate and nonprofit partners, and expand instructional material. States would apply for a slice of the $4 billion and have five years to use the money. The funding programs, which will appear in the president’s forthcoming budget proposal for 2017, are just the latest effort from the White House to bring more science and technology education to students. The Obama Administration is hopeful that the recent passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced No Child Left Behind, signals support for additional education spending. But is advocacy for the plan relying on faulty notions about the economy’s need for more coders? And is the price tag enough to underwrite the president’s ambitious goal? The United States spends magnitudes more on educating the nation’s public-school students than the computer-science money the White House is proposing: Over half a trillion dollars go toward education spending, amounting to roughly $10,800 per student—a tenth of that coming from federal resources. On instruction alone, federal, state, and local governments spent $326 billion in 2013. With 50 million students in U.S. public schools, the $4.1 billion proposal and additional $135 million from currently funded programs would translate into $86 per kid.”

When it comes to sustainable, 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!

Coding Education, Education

Proposal to Make Coding a Foreign Language Shows Need for Customized Coding Education

The need for more computer programmers in the U.S. is very serious. People all throughout the country are taking steps, some more drastic than others, to catch up. Consider a recent article for the Tampa Bay Times titled “Proposal allowing computer coding as foreign language advances.”

Kristen M. Clark of the Tampa Bay Times writes, “A controversial idea to allow high school students to count computer coding classes toward foreign language credits cleared its second committee in the Florida Senate on Wednesday — but senators did not seek to resolve concerns it could impose an unfunded mandate on schools. Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, had previously said the Senate’s education budget committee would address the fiscal impact of his plan (SB 468), but that panel on Wednesday discussed nothing about the dollars that might be needed to fund it. Ring said after the meeting that he felt there were no financial impacts, because Senate committee staff didn’t note any when reviewing the bill. The analysis acknowledges, however: ‘The bill may have a minimal fiscal impact on school districts as they shift resources to offer more computer coding courses.’ Some senators previously worried that the bill would place a burden on schools — especially those with already strapped technology resources — by requiring them to have sufficient computers, software and specialized teachers to meet the demand of students who opt to learn coding in lieu of a foreign language. Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, said he voted against it again Wednesday because his concerns weren’t addressed. The rest of the Senate budget committee voted in favor of the bill. ‘All it takes is that one parent and it overburdens schools when they say, ‘I want my child to have computer coding,’ because now you have to figure out how to facilitate a teacher and space,’ Bullard said. ‘All of those have dollars attached, and none of those concerns were remedied.’”

When it comes to sustainable, 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!

Coding Education

The Connection Between Coding and Empathy

Can coding go beyond the interaction of simply programming on the computer? For example, what role can empathy play in coding. Fortune takes a look at this in a recent article titled “Why This Coding Bootcamp Is Teaching Empathy.”

Rebecca Grant of Fortune writes, “The explosion of coding bootcamps has made it easier than ever for women to break into the tech industry. Now, one such program has a plan to help keep them there. Women represent around 20% of engineering graduates, but just 11% of practicing software engineers, according to the Center for the Study of the Workplace.Of the women who persevere through academic and social obstacles and secure developer jobs at tech companies, 56% leave those companies within a decade, citing hostility and isolation in the workplace as their primary motivation for quitting. Dev Bootcamp created the Engineering Empathy program in an effort to slow—and hopefully eventually halt—this exodus. Engineering Empathy is a series of seminars that ‘focus on the human side of software development’ and make up 20% of the bootcamp’s curriculum. Dev Bootcamp is a 19-week program that trains students to become full-stack web developers, then helps them find jobs. The program was founded in 2012 and has since graduated 1,700 students across its campuses in Chicago, New York, San Diego and San Francisco. It is one of many ‘code bootcamps’ to crop up over the past few years in response to growing national interest in the tech industry and its abundance of high-paying jobs. Many code schools and bootcamps tout diversity as a top priority, and in fact, women represent more than 36% of the students in these programs. Some, such as Women Who Code, focus on a specific group, while others offer scholarships to women and minority candidates. However, Anne Spalding, the director of Dev Bootcamp in San Francisco, says these efforts alone won’t create significant change, since developers don’t work in a void. Overcoming the gender gap not only requires getting more women into developer positions, but also ensuring that they stay there, which requires more than coding chops. ‘Every week, it seems like there is a new report about how women should ‘lean in’ and be more assertive,’ says Spalding. ‘I think rather than asking women to adjust to the majority, we should help create systems of inclusion, and ask the majority to open up so more voices can be heard.’”

Are you looking for the best in 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 winter camps today!

Coding Education

Code.org CEO Discusses Coding’s Impact on His Life

Coding can be life changing. Just ask Hadi Partovi, the CEO of Code.org. He discusses the impact of coding on his life in a recent article for Entrepreneur titled “Code.org CEO: Coding Provided ‘Order Amidst Chaos’ as Bombs Fell Near My Home.”

Kim Lachance Shandrow of Entrepreneur writes, “Hadi Partovi, 43, remembers when he got hooked on coding. He was 10 and bombs were falling outside. The co-founder and CEO of Code.org, a Seattle-based nonprofit dedicated to expanding global student access to computer science, first learned to program video games while growing up in war-torn Iran in the 1980s. His family’s home was in the capital of Tehran near the local TV station, a prime bombing target. One day, Hadi’s father brought home a computer — a Commodore 64 — for him and his identical twin brother, Ali. ‘He said, ‘This doesn’t have any games on it, but here’s a book to teach yourself BASIC programs. You can write your own games,’’ Hadi recalls. And, together, they did. For the Partovi twins, the PC’s monochrome glow was a beam of light in the darkest of times. When Saddam Hussein’s air raids raged at night, they huddled in the basement with their parents, covered their ears and hoped their apartment wouldn’t get hit. Then, in the morning, when the electricity was back on, downstairs to the keyboard they returned, coding ‘order amidst chaos.’ In 1984, the Partovi family emigrated to America. By that time, Hadi and Ali were expert programmers. Their parents worked three jobs each to make ends meet. Later, in high school, when their friends punched in at gas stations and restaurants, the twins worked professional coding gigs for 10 times the pay. They paid their way through Harvard University teaching computer science to their fellow classmates. Three decades, two remarkably successful careers in tech, two multimillion-dollar acquisitions of their individual companies by Microsoft and several lucrative ‘unicorn club’ investments later, the Partovi twins are giving back. Launched in 2013, Code.org is their way of sharing the hope and freedom that coding afforded them with children everywhere.”

Coding can change your child’s life too. 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 winter camps today!

Coding Education

The Importance of Quality Mentorship in Coding Education

One key to great coding education is flexibility and quality mentorship. Consider a recent article for the Independent titled “Ireland’s coding teachers plead for more mentors.”

According to Jane O’Faherty of the Independent, “The call was made by CoderDojo, the country’s leading volunteer-led organisation in teaching coding, which is looking to expand. The charity, which was founded in Cork four years ago, has provided free classes in coding for up to 70,000 people both in Ireland and abroad. Now, it is calling for volunteers to help address a growing demand for classes across Ireland. The classes cover programmes such as Scratch, TouchDevelop, HTML, Javascript and Project Spark. Mary Moloney, CEO of CoderDojo, said that the charitable organisation had reached an additional 40,000 children around the world this year. ‘As of this week, we are in 63 countries around the world,’ she told the Irish Independent. ‘There are 180 dojos currently in Ireland, with 5,000 kids coming in on a weekly basis,’ she added. ‘All of them need mentors to help out.’”

Slate also explores coding in the classroom in a recent article titled “Can Coding Make the Classroom Better?” Chris Berdik of Slate writes, “There are two other STEAM labs in this school for third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders, which South Fayette opened in 2013. They’re in the center of each floor, with regular classrooms on either side, a layout that reflects a philosophy transforming the entire district. In the past five years, South Fayette has leveraged grant funding, new school construction, and creative scheduling to give nearly 3,000 kids, from kindergarten through 12th grade, dedicated spaces for hands-on projects—coding, 3-D printing, computer-aided design, and robotics—as part of their regular curriculum. The STEAM labs, STEAM coordinators, and technology education teachers are part of a districtwide embrace of ‘computational thinking.’ Computational thinking is intimately related to computer coding, which every kid in South Fayette starts learning in first grade. But they are not one and the same. At its core, computational thinking means breaking complex challenges into smaller questions that can be solved with a computer’s number crunching, data compiling, and sorting capabilities. Proponents say it’s a problem-solving approach that works in any field, noting that computer modeling, big data, and simulations are used in everything from textual analysis to medical research and environmental protection.”

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 winter camps today!

Coding Education

Teaching Coding to Military Members

When veterans return from service, they often face hurdles in attaining the proper healthcare and employment opportunities. Teaching coding to them could be an answer to many veterans’ problems. The Northwest Guardian discusses this in a recent article titled “Coding class taught to service members.”

Christina Carmen Crea of the Northwest Guardian writes, “Code Fellows, a software development trade school in Seattle, conducted a 12-hour workshop for 43 attendees Nov. 13 at Camp Murray, near Joint Base Lewis-McChord, to give current service members and their families an inside look at a post-service career in coding. ‘Coding is the backbone to all businesses, whether online or offline,’ said Jeff Pecor, Tailwind Public Relations. ‘If you can learn how to write code, the job prospects and salaries are lucrative, and there will be a job out there for you.’ Stephanie Lingwood, Code Fellow main instructor, said she enjoys teaching these classes and seeing those ‘light bulb moments.’ ‘Coding is a challenging but rewarding career,’ Lingwood said. ‘To be able to teach some transitioning service members and give them transferable skills to find jobs after their service is rewarding. Service members already know what it’s like to be faced with challenges, so teaching them is easy because they’re willing to put in the work.’ Staff Sergeant Kelby Faulk, Bravo Company, Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, I Corps, said the class provided a condensed and easy-to-understand knowledge of the Web programming language known as HTML. Faulk transitions out of the military this month and will have served in the military for six years. ‘I’m not sure if I will go into any coding career right now, but getting a chance to feel it out in today’s class has been awesome,’ Faulk said. The workshop, called ‘Code 101,’ taught attendees about establishing a path software development career, how websites are built and deployed and how to code a website using industry-standard tools and professional coding practices. Sergeant Joko Riley, 864th Engineer Battalion, said the class was informative and a ‘brush up’ on skills he learned a long time ago. ‘I’m jump-starting this to see if it’s something I want to dive into after I transition out in June (serving six years in the military),’ Riley said. Antonio Garcia, Code Fellows teaching assistant, who transitioned out of the military in 2008 after serving six years, and has been a Code Fellow student since September, said it’s hard to transition out of the military into the civilian workforce.”

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!

Coding Education

Preschool Coding Classes in China

When we discuss the importance of coding, it is often in the context of the global workforce. We discuss how the U.S. has dropped from prominence in terms of math and science testing. While we focus a lot on what the U.S. is not doing, it is good to look at what other countries are doing. Consider a recent article for Bloomberg titled “Latest Craze for Chinese Parents: Preschool Coding Classes.”

Lulu Yilun Chen of Bloomberg writes, “Wu Pei began teaching her 6-year-old son to code this year, thinking he’d enjoy learning a skill that might boost his future job prospects in an increasingly digitized world. Now, she runs classes in Nanjing, China, and is helping more than 100 parents introduce their children to coding. The 35-year-old former computer programmer with Foxconn Technology Group is tapping growing demand from parents intent on preparing their preschoolers for a world in which Oxford University researchers predict half the jobs in some countries may be eliminated by robots and computers. Similar classes are taking off across China. Reynold Ren has taught about 150 primary school-age children in Beijing to use Scratch, a project developed by the MIT Media Lab and Arduino, which enables users to create interactive objects such as robots. In Hong Kong, about 2,500 students have taken courses that Michelle Sun runs at her First Code Academy. ‘Teaching the next generation coding is something that should be elevated to a strategical national importance,’ said Wang Jiulin, the Xi’an-based creator of Kidscode.cn, a website that shares free information and courses. ‘Even today, the majority of programmers in China can only perform very basic-level tasks and there’s huge demand for top notch coders.’…Wu thought over weeks about how she could introduce the fundamentals of coding to preschoolers — who are only just starting to learn math and Chinese — in a way they could understand. She settled on showing them a 3-by-3 unit grid on a board and invited them to play a game in which the students were asked to identify locations using simple directions, such as up, down, right and left. She then switched to a number system and asked the children to pinpoint locations using coordinates. When students are familiar with the concept of an X and Y axis, she teaches them to play simple games involving airplanes on Scratch. Once they are hooked, she encourages them to learn how to create similar games themselves.”

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!

Coding Education

A Customized Coding Education

One of the prime reasons CodeRev Kids is so successful is because we offer customized coding education. Giving students the space to explore at their pace is essential to engaging them. When we take a factory approach to coding education, we do our children a disservice. Consider a recent article for the Tennessean titled “If you want to kill coding in schools, make it universal.”

Jackson Miller of the Tennessean writes, “As software development in schools becomes the focus of public education in Nashville, take note: standardizing coding in schools will kill the very thing that propels its success. Teaching students to code is definitely a good idea. As a longtime coder myself, I am well aware of how software development is a strong career choice and a path to developing and honing critical-thinking skills. I see firsthand how coding nurtures both analytical and creative minds. But coding is not a silver bullet. The easy way to show support for coding in schools would be to announce some sort of poorly thought out and rash Universal Coding Initiative. While that kind of initiative would get great press and would likely include 6-foot, cardboard checks from area business partners — it would be the opposite of what is working now, and it would be the opposite of what Nashville’s students, teachers, and tech companies need. The Academy model in our high schools has given school principals and leaders the autonomy to choose focus areas within their building. High schools, middle schools, and even elementary schools are using clubs and after-school programs to create new opportunities for students. The student-based budgeting model that Metro Nashville Public Schools Interim Superintendent Chris Henson and his team developed is a step toward pushing the control of more dollars to the school level — where educators have deep understanding of students’ unique needs. When schools — and the high-performing teachers and administrators that run them — are given the ability to choose the programming that their students need, we open the door to great things.”

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 concepts and languages.

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.

If you are trying to give your child the best possible coding education, you can’t go wrong with CodeRev Kids!

Coding Education

Customizing and Engaging Young Coders

Jobs are a very enticing argument and/or motivation for coding education for adults, but young coders need more hands-on engagement. For example, consider the impact of robotics. News 6 takes a look at this in a recent article titled “Muskogee Students Learn Coding, Robotics After School.”

Tony Russell of News 6 writes, “It’s a first for Muskogee Public Schools. Starting next week, more than 80 students at Robertson Junior High School will get a chance to do more extra curricular activities after school. When the bell rings around three, students who don’t play sports at Alice Robertson Junior High School go home. That gives them about two and a half hours to do whatever they want while they wait for their parents to come home from work. So the school decided to ask for grant money from the Oklahoma Department of Education to keep the students learning after school. Austin Robinett, an eighth grader, is signing up for the program in hopes of getting hands-on learning after class.  He and his fellow students believe the program is needed in Muskogee. ‘You have a whole bunch of kids who have nothing to do after school, so they go out and do whatever they want to do with their friends and go get in trouble,’ he said. ‘I think it’s a great opportunity for kids to learn something that would actually benefit their future and their career.’ ‘It’s really important because it gives us something to do after school,’ said Phuong Ngyuen, a seventh-grade student.”

Or for another look at engagement, consider a recent article for CBS DC titled “Maryland Coding Contest Encourages Students to Pursue Computer Science.” According to the author of the article, “An hour of computer coding might be the first step toward a well-paying career in computer science. That’s the idea behind the Hour of Code challenge happening across the country and in Maryland Public Schools. According to Code.org, Maryland currently has nearly 20,000 open computing jobs, but only 2,000 computer science students graduating from the state’s colleges and universities. ‘We are not graduating enough students in computers science fields to fill those jobs,’ says Cindy Hasslebring, special assistant to the state superintendent of schools. The average salary for a computer science occupation in Maryland is $98,593. To encourage more students to learn this profitable skill, the Maryland Hour of Code contest will give a $10,000 technology award to a public school that provides an hour of coding to each of its students during Computer Science Education Week, Dec. 7-13.”

When it comes to youth coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, we offer a customized coding education that focuses on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming concepts and languages.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. Even though we are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, 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 classes today!

Coding Education, Education, Skills

How Coding Can Kill Two Birds With One Stone

There are more coding jobs than there are people to fill them. This provides opportunities for women and minorities who have been systematically denied chances in other industries. Consider a recent article for the Atlanta Black Star titled “Study: Coding Boot Camps Bring More Women, Minorities into Tech.”

According to the author of the article, “As technology increasingly becomes a vital part of our lives, diversity in tech will continue be a major issue.According to a study by New York startup Course Report, coding boot camps like Black Girls Code and Code for Progress are filling the diversity gap at a quicker rate than the diversity initiatives of tech giants. The report revealed that 36 percent of the attendees at coding camps are women. Course Report co-founder, Liz Eggleston, said that may be a result of the tech industry’s on-going diversity movement. ‘The market demand is there,’ Eggleston said. ‘Tech companies want to get closer to a 50-50 split, so they’re demanding more female applicants.’ The report findings suggests that companies like Twitter,who announced months prior that they intended to add more women to their work force, should consider attending the coding camps to begin their recruitment process.”

UALR Public Radio also explores the importance of coding, especially for young people, in a recent article titled “Governor’s Radio Address: Coding In The Classroom.” The author of the article writes, “Teachers like Gerri McCann are our schools’ secret weapons. As a high school French teacher from the Manila Public School District, Ms. McCann’s first impression of computer coding was that it was like ‘learning another foreign language.’ But she realized its importance and dived right in. By the end of her training, she was confident enough to add teaching Computer Science to her other subjects, including French, English and Literacy Ready classes. Now Ms. McCann can offer her students even more opportunities to succeed beyond high school. Learning the ‘foreign language’ of coding was challenging, even for someone who began her career teaching French. But Ms. McCann understood the value of coding and earned a master’s degree in Information Systems. Why would she do that? To better prepare her students for a technologically driven world — a world in which computers touch everything.”

When it comes to providing youth with a customized coding education, we’ve got you covered at CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide range 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 fall classes today!