Tag Archives: Coding Education

Coding Education, Education

Why Many Schools Are Not Making Investments in Coding

Investing in coding would seem like common sense at this point. However, schools in all parts of the world who have the ability to make that investment are refusing to do so. Consider a recent article for Computer Weekly titled “One-third of schools admit to making no investment in coding training for teachers.”

Claire McDonald of Computer Weekly writes, “One-third of schools admit they have not invested any money in training teachers to deliver the new computing curriculum, according to research. Freedom of information (FOI) requests by enterprise software company MapR have revealed that the support teachers are receiving is inconsistent across the country, with some schools investing nothing in training and others investing more than £3,000. Paul Tarantino, director at MapR Technologies, said: ‘Last year the government pledged £3.5m on new curriculum training. But this information shows that it’s simply not being filtered down so that every young person has a trained teacher. It’s shocking to see such a huge discrepancy in what was said in the run-up to the election compared to what these promises have translated to on the ground.’ Of those asked, 22% were investing over £3,000 on training teachers to deliver the computer science curriculum, 33% spent between £500 and £1,000, while 11% spent between £100 and £500.”

To understand why making an investment in coding is so important, consider a recent article for Forbes titled “How The Coding Explosion Has Changed The Programmer Job Market.” Harsh Patel of Forbes writes, “In the past two decades, the landscape for computer science has changed. Part of this comes from a general increase in education availability: from traditional CS degrees to online learning and coding bootcamps like ours, nearly everyone has access to learn programming if they want to. The other part stems from the technology itself. In the 1990s, coding was based around singular purposes — enterprise applications, self-contained games and custom databases for corporations. In the 2000s, the rapid growth of always-on Internet connections and the emergence of smartphones added new layers of security, small phone-based apps, cloud-based interfaces and databases, and increasingly complex web environments. Now, software systems power everything from tablets to car systems to home appliances. As a result, the United States job market is undergoing a dramatic shift, such that by 2020 nearly one million coding jobs will be unfulfilled based on projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. With the field of computer science rapidly expanding, key traits for smart hiring in the field have changed from even just a few years ago.”

To prepare your child for this job climate where coders are in high demand, you need personalized coding education. At CodeRev Kids, we customize all of our lessons to fit your child’s expertise.

Our lessons emphasize computational thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming concepts and languages. Students can choose from a variety of different tracks, including robotics, app making, and website development.

Although we are the most educational camp out there, we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, your child is both engaged and receiving a top flight education at the same time.

If you’re looking to take your child’s coding skills to the next level, check out our afterschool programs and fall classes!

Coding Education

Seeing Rewards for Coding Early

When we talk about coding, the conversation is often in the context of the future. We discuss filling the need for technology-related jobs. The conversation veers to a competition with young coders in other countries. However, sometimes, it’s most effective to stay in the present. Viacom takes a look at how some students are seeing immediate coding rewards in a recent article titled “Look What These Girls Can Do: A Summer of Coding Wraps at Viacom.”

Stuart Winchester of Viacom writes, “This summer at Viacom’s New York City headquarters, 20 girls learned that coding can do exactly that, creating these experiences with skills learned through Girls Who Code (GWC), an organization built to inspire, educate and equip girls with the computing skills to pursue 21st century opportunities. Last week, these girls gathered with their families and teachers, Viacom staff and GWC staff to demo these final projects and celebrate a remarkable summer. ‘From speakers to mentors to my fellow coders, we all believe in the Girls Who Code message – that females can and will achieve greatness in the STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] fields,’ said Sejal Mehra, who represented her class with remarks. ‘Over the summer, we not only learned how to code, but have also made 22 new best friends. I know for a fact that when we leave this week, our friendships will grow with our coding abilities.’”

The Roanoke Times reports on a coding competition with governmental implications in a recent article titled “Coding competition: Time running out to try to help government.” Yann Ranaivo of the Roanoke Times writes, “A competition for coders across the state to build and submit software aimed at making Virginia government more efficient and transparent is entering its final keyboard clicks. The software submission, with a Sept. 2 deadline, is part of Datathon 2015 — a competition that lets coders use open state data to build apps for platforms that include the Internet, personal computers and smartphones. Top projects will be chosen during regional events throughout the state before they are presented at a final event in Richmond, according to the competition’s website. The person or persons responsible for the winning entry will meet with the evaluation panel with a goal of launching the idea as a business. The data participants must use for their applications can be found at data.virginia.gov, where they can find datasets on education, agriculture, elections, health and human resources and public safety. Participants are asked to use at least one dataset. Submissions, according to the site, must include a paragraph explaining the app’s purpose, functions, intended audience and problems it aims to address. They also must include a text description of the app, a narrated video demonstration of the app and a link to the software.”

When it comes to youth coding education, no one provides a better, customized coding education than CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, we emphasized 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.

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.We offer tracks focusing on everything from robotics to website development, to app making.

If you’re looking to give your child the foundation he/she needs to be a successful coder, sign up for one of our afterschool programs today!

Coding Curriculum, Coding Education

CodeCloud Seeks to Help Adults Learn Coding on the Move

For adults trying to catch up on their coding knowledge, it generally requires a class. However, a Seoul/Singapore startup is looking to create an app that allows them to learn coding on the move. E27 takes a look at this in a recent article titled “CodeCloud is an interactive coding platform that gets you a job.”

Iris Leung of E27 writes, “Within the past few years, coding as a skill became anybody’s game with the likes of rap star Will.i.am telling the media that code can help fight global inequality. World leaders also followed suite, with Obama became the first President to write a line of code and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong recently showed his C++ prowess by sharing his source code for a Sudoku solver. Online and physical coding schools have also cropped up ranging from easygoing interactive platforms like Codecademy to all out four-month curricula from General Assembly. Between the freemium models and fairly steep tuition costs, are students of these programs actually landing development gigs after? CodeCloud, a new interactive coding platform, wants to bridge that gap. Claiming to be the only ‘school’ that that lets users build projects for real companies, the one-year-old Singapore/Seoul startup (and incoming JFDI incubatee) already has had three projects completed included an Airbnb-Expedia mashup and a Bitcoin trading bot that uses machine learning and natural language recognition to predict movements in the cryptocurrency realm… Mike De’Shazer, NYC coding school App Factory Founder and CodeCloud Co-Founder believes that adult neophyte coders need a solution that’s fun, non-committal and actually leads to job opportunities. More importantly, it needs to be a passive way for people to learn at their leisure, which is why CodeCloud’s is plugging away on a free mobile game where budding coders can absentmindly tap away on their daily commutes. ‘The whole thing is very interactive and touch-enabled. Essentially the way it works is you drag words into slots. You start with very simple code then it gets more complex so this is a way that people can learn how to code passively. We found that there’s a huge gap — most adults that want to learn how to code don’t have the time. But they have time on the train or bus, so we realized that we needed to create a mobile experience,’ he said.”

No app, however, can make up for a classroom environment with an experienced educator. At CodeRev Kids, we provide just that, as well as a customized curriculum to give your child a solid foundation in coding.

Our curriculum emphasizes computational thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming concepts and languages. The lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized.

Furthermore, while we are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, we also keep the focus on having fun. By doing this, our students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology. Our learning tracks include robotics, apps, websites, and game development.

There is no better place for your child to develop coding skills than CodeRev Kids!