Tag Archives: Coding

Coding Education, Education

Getting Young Children a Start in Coding

There are a variety of strategies parents use to engage their children with coding at an early age. An increasing number of games are being released to help meet this need and prepare children for the necessary coding education institutions like CodeRev Kids can provide. For example, consider a recent article for USA Today titled “How to get kids to start coding.”

Jinny Gudmundsen of USA Today writes, “If you have a Frozen movie fan in your household, head on over to code.org to explore 20 programming puzzles focused on making Elsa and Anna skate to create patterns on the ice. Created in collaboration with Disney for the Hour of Code initiative, these fun puzzles start with an inspiring video where women coders encourage children to learn programming. The puzzles introduce a visual language called ‘Blockly’ that lets kids snap together blocks of commands to create a program.  If interested, kids can toggle to discover what the commands look like in the programming language JavaScript… Similar to the Frozen coding project above, Tynker also uses code blocks to teach kids how to program. Tynker introduces its visual programming language within a series of puzzles called Codey’s Quest. In each puzzle level, kids use the code blocks to make Codey, a cute purple alien, move to his beloved candy. Kids exercise logical thinking to create programs that stress efficiency; and in that process, they learn about programming using loops and conditionals. The app also has a set of Crash Course puzzles that works with connected devices such as the Sphero and Ollie robots. In addition to the free puzzles, Tynker offers a section in which kids can use the block codes to create their own games. Additional content is available via in-app purchases ($1.99-$4.99). A separate school version app costs $5.99. Parents can also find more free content on www.Tynker.com, as well as paid courses.”

If you’re looking to provide your child with a quality coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. Our classes are customized to give your child a unique educational experience.

Lessons at CodeRev Kids focus 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. Furthermore, while 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.

If you want to give your child a quality, customized coding education, sign up for one of our Fall classes or after school programs today?

Coding Education

The Secret to Quality Coding Education

Providing quality coding education isn’t as simple as sitting a child in front of a computer and expecting magic to happen. Unfortunately, many institutions don’t seem to think this all the way through. The Washington Post explores this in a recent article titled “Coding for kids makes sense — but it’s going to take more than just classrooms to make it work.”

Dominic Basulto of the Washington Post writes, “In order to be successful, these coding for kids programs need to recognize that the traditional approach to learning — instructors in a classroom, homework assignments and specific curriculum requirements planned out years in advance — may no longer be the optimal approach. Coding is no longer a full-year, degree-driven program. It’s become a world of boot camps, flipped classrooms and nanodegrees earned in a space of months, if not weeks. That means ‘Computer Science for All’ and similar programs need to think creatively about how they teach programming and to remain adaptable to changing trends within the technology sector. Educators must realize that schools are always at risk of being disrupted as superior digital alternatives emerge. It also means educators must balance on-screen time with on-floor activities to ensure the right mix of experiential learning for kids. You can’t just hand out tablets or smartphones and expect everyone to start programming. However, preparing for a future in which coding is included in the same company as the three Rs (reading, writing, arithmetic), may not actually be as hard as it sounds. For a five-year-old, an algorithm can be something as simple as a kitchen recipe or a morning routine. Games can make tech learning seem more like play than work. And the flipped classroom means that fellow students can become teachers and mentors. The exciting part of coding for kids is that there’s now growing evidence that coding helps develops parallel cognitive skills. Coding may be a catalyst for learning — much like learning a foreign language or a musical instrument helps to stimulate parts of the brain and boost skills such as reading comprehension. Here’s one example: after taking a class in coding, kids who once saw ‘brushing your teeth’ as a 3 or 4 step process suddenly saw it as a nuanced, 20-step sequential process.’”

When it comes to providing an innovative, customized coding education, no one does it better than CodeRev Kids. Unlike others, we adjust starting points to each of our students’ levels of expertise.

Our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming languages. Although our lessons are highly informative, we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, our students stay engaged while improving rapidly as coders.

If you’re looking to provide your child with a quality coding education, sign up now for one of our fall classes and/or afterschool programs!

Coding Education, Education

Australia Mandates Coding Education for All Primary School Students

How seriously does Australia take coding? A recent decision will now mandate that all primary schools provide coding education. Beta News takes a look at this in a recent article titled “Australia’s primary schools to teach coding.”

Sead Fadilpašić of Beta News writes, “Australia is preparing for the jobs of the future by having children learn coding and programming at a very young age. According to a report by Mashable, 21st century computer coding will be taught in primary schools from Year 5, and programming will be taught from Year 7. The curriculum was approved by Education Minister Christopher Pyne in one of his last acts before being sworn in as Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science. The Department of Education and Training recently announced it will be pumping AUD$12 million (£5.54m) into four different science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) education initiatives as part of the Industry, Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda. Those initiatives are the development of innovative mathematics curriculum resources, supporting the introduction of computer coding across different year levels, establishing a P-TECH-style school pilot site, and funding summer schools for STEM students from underrepresented groups.”

PBS Newshour also explores this in a recent article titled “Australia will teach primary students computer coding.” Alexandra Sarabria of PBS Newshour writes, “Coding will soon replace history and geography under Australia’s revamped national curriculum. Australian students will begin coding at age 10 and computer programming at age 12, Mashable reported. The move was one of the last acts approved by Education Minister Christopher Pyne, who will be sworn in as Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science. The Australian government plans to invest $12 million to strengthen science, technology, engineering and math education initiatives and improve the country’s innovation and economic sectors. The demand for STEM subjects in primary schools has gained momentum worldwide. Last year, the United Kingdom ambitiously changed the national curriculum, which includes coding classes for children as young as five-years-old.”

When it comes to coding, the best education comes when a child is having fun while learning. At CodeRev Kids, we customize our lessons for your child.

Our curriculum focuses on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming concepts and languages. We adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise and our lessons build upon one another.

Although our lessons are highly informative, we also pride ourselves on making learning fun. As a result, our students stay engaged and become better coders at the same time.

If you would like to provide your child with a quality, customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids!

Coding Education, Skills

Using Coding to Combat Piracy and Unlock the Secrets of the BMW Electric Car

Many people are turning to coding to find the solutions to societal problems. If you want to understand how important coding is becoming, consider a recent article for the Guardian titled “Musicians back coding solution to win fair deal for artists.”

Vanessa Thorpe of the Guardian writes, “After more than a year of campaigning under the banner Free At What Cost?, the musician, who was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for her film score for Skin in 2010 and who writes music for many television shows, including The Only Way is Essex, has built up a growing movement on both sides of the Atlantic to push for a solution: a coding device for all, that would label and protect creative material before it is viewed. She believes deploying a technical protection on a new file to charge the online audience a small amount each time they click offers a practical solution. Last week the artist Imogen Heap put forward her plan for recording artists to use the technology behind bitcoin, the internet currency, to solve the problem. Muddiman and the Free At What Cost? movement believe they are closer to an answer. Their system would allow artists and creators to make a small amount of money, sent direct to their accounts, when their work is viewed. In an age when most professional artists and writers struggle to make money, Muddiman believes this would provide a regular income, securing a supply of content in the future.”

BMW enthusiasts also have reasons to invest in coding. Popular Science reports on this in a recent article titled “IN BMW ELECTRIC CAR, SOFTWARE ‘CODING’ UNLOCKS HIDDEN FEATURES OWNERS WANT.” John Voelcker of Popular Science writes, “At least some are choosing to follow instructions posted online and in BMW forums to ‘code’ their cars–which is to say, modify the car’s software to provide these functions. That, not surprisingly, is highly frowned upon by BMW, for a very rational reason. Software updates could go awry, creating safety hazards from modified electronic control systems that operate every aspect of the car. Nonetheless, at least a few intrepid i3 REx owners have enthusiastically taken to coding their cars.”

In order to be in a position to solve major problems with coding in the future, your children need a quality coding education today. At CodeRev Kids, we offer a customized coding education that is both informative and fun.

Our lessons emphasize computational thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming languages. With CodeRev Kids, the lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. As a result, the entire curriculum is customized.

If you want a quality coding education for your child, you can’t go wrong with CodeRev Kids!

Coding Curriculum, Coding Education

An Ancient Coding Language Called SPITBOL

When we discuss coding, we often talk about it in the context of jobs and competing with other countries. But that’s only part of it. At CodeRev Kids, we embrace the fun and wonder of coding. There are so many wild things people can do. Consider a recent article for Motherboard titled “This 70-Year-Old Programmer Is Preserving an Ancient Coding Language on GitHub.”

Jordan Pearson of Motherboard writes, “Dave Shields is trying to save a dying machine language. Shields has been coding for more than 50 years, and over the decades he’s worked at both NYU and IBM as a research programmer—someone who pushes the boundaries of software design. Shields has racked up a few accomplishments worth bragging about over his long career, including being one of the developers behind Jikes, a Java compiler that was also IBM’s first open source project. But Shields, now 70 years old and retired, is mainly interested in just one thing these days: an obscure programming language called SPITBOL that he worked on in the 1970s and then abandoned for 30 years. SPITBOL is, Shields says, a ‘quick and dirty’ implementation of a 60s programming language called SNOBOL4, written by Robert Dewar. It’s terse and to the point—28,000 lines of code altogether, half of which are comments—and is chiefly meant to manipulate text and symbols, and recognize patterns. While SNOBOL4 was seen at the time as powerful but slow, SPITBOL was built for speed. Now, Shields is trying to keep SPITBOL alive as an open source project hosted on GitHub, all by himself. Since taking the project online in 2009, Shields has been the sole contributor to SPITBOL’s code. So far, he’s succeeded in reconfiguring the language, which he at one time ported for a 60s supercomputer called the CDC 6600, to work on modern Linux and Mac operating systems.”

Once upon a time, Dave Shields got a coding education that forever changed his life. At CodeRev Kids, we want to provide that experience to as many young students as we can.

Our lessons emphasize computational thinking, which ecompasses a wide range of programming concepts and languages. These lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. As a result, 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. When the lessons are fun, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

If you’re interested in providing your child with a customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids!

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 Curriculum, Coding Education

National Coding Week Was a Blast!

Coding enthusiasts rejoice! National Coding Week just happened in the UK. Electronics Weekly takes  a look at the event a recent article titled “National Coding Week aims at adult learners.”

According to the author of the article, “Taking place over September 21-27, there will be free-to-attend training sessions across the UK, where people will be taught the basics of coding alongside other beginners with little or no previous knowledge. There is a clickable event map on the National Coding Week website. ‘The key aims of National Coding Week are to encourage adults of any age to learn an element of computer coding, to encourage digital experts to share their skills, and to collaborate, share, learn and have fun,’ said event co-founder Richard Rolfe. ‘If I can learn to code at age 51 then anyone can.’ According to organisers, 52% of adults in the UK said they would feel ‘extremely or very daunted’ at the prospect of learning to code, while 41.3% believed that the older they are, the harder it is to pick up a skill like coding.”

The Bend Bulletin explores the rise in adult coding camps in a recent article titled “Adult coding camps boom as employers seek tech-savvy workers.” Kathleen Gallagher of the Bend Bulletin writes, “With eight employer requests for every student currently accepted into its computer coding classes, Milwaukee-based DevCodeCamp is expanding the amount of space it leases and the number of students it will train. It’s all part of an educational coding surge that is happening in many other cities, as well. This school — the first of its sort in Wisconsin — is taking an additional 2,500 square feet in Ward4 Milwaukee, a co-working space just south of downtown Milwaukee, said founder Jim Brent. The expansion will nearly double the space it occupies. DevCodeCamp, which since June has been running intensive computer coding boot camps here that last for months, rather than years, is attracting pilots, teachers, sales reps and others from a range of occupations, Brent said. All of them are seeking the same thing: good-paying technology jobs with employers who are begging for this type of talent.”

With so many adults trying to catch up with coding, it’s clear that young people who got their education early have a decided advantage. To give your child an advantage in the future job market, your best bet is personalized coding education.

At CodeRev Kids, we customize your child’s lesson plan. Our curriculum emphasizes computational thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming languages.

While our customized lesson plans provides a thorough education for your child, we also like to focus on having fun. As a result, your child leaves both highly educated and motivated.

For more information, 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 Education

Facebook’s Spam-Killer and Peeking into the Future of Coding

What can Facebook’s new spam killer tell us about coding? Wired Magazine attempts to tell us the answer in a recent article titled “Facebook’s New Spam-Killer Hints at the Future of Coding.”

Cade Metz of Wired writes, “LOUIS BRANDY PAUSES before answering, needing some extra time to choose his words. ‘I’m going to get in so much trouble,’ he says. The question, you see, touches on an eternally controversial topic: the future of computer programming languages. Brandy is a software engineer at Facebook, and alongside a team of other Facebookers, he spent the last two years rebuilding the system that removes spam—malicious, offensive, or otherwise unwanted messages—from the world’s largest social network. That’s no small task—Facebook juggles messages from more than 1.5 billion people worldwide—and to tackle the problem, Brandy and team made an unusual choice: they used a programming language called Haskell. In the early ’90s, a committee of academics built Haskell as a kind of experiment in language design, and all these years later, it remains on the fringes of mainstream programming. At GitHub—the primary repository for software code on the ‘net—Haskell ranks 23rd on the list of the most popular languages. Even so, Facebook chose it as the basis for its enormously complex anti-spam system, which went live earlier this year. As I chat with Brandy inside the new Facebook building in Menlo Park, California, I’m trying to understand what this choice says about the evolution of programming languages as a whole. That may seem an innocent enough question, but any straightforward discussion of the merits of one programming language over another is inevitably met with at least a modicum of vitriol as it spills into the wider community of software developers. Coders choose programming languages for any number of technical reasons, but they also choose them for very personal reasons—and these personal reasons inevitably intertwine with the technical. If Brandy praises Haskell too heavily—or indeed criticizes it too heavily—so many others will cry foul. They’ll probably cry foul anyway.”

One way or another, the future of coding will most likely involve your child as more jobs make these skills a requirement. In order to prepare your child for this economy, you need quality, early coding education. When it comes to youth coding education, no one does it better than CodeRev Kids.

At CodeRev Kids, we emphasize computational thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming concepts and languages. These lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise; thus, the entire curriculum is customized.

Furthermore, we keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

For more information, check out our afterschool programs!

Coding Curriculum, Coding Education

Leveling the Playing Field with Coding

Structural and systemic inequality are realities of the school and work world. Growth industries like coding provide the opportunities to level the playing field for underrepresented groups. Consider a recent article for the Huffington Post titled “Coding: The Ultimate Equalizer.”

Joel S. Bloom of the Huffington Post writes, “Should ‘coding’ be taught in all-American public schools? We know the U.S. is falling behind the rest of the globe in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. By exposing kids to coding, starting in kindergarten, we give them the tools they need to both compete and make smart life choices in a digital world. Coding is how technology, including software, apps and websites, is created. There are thousands of coding languages, such as JavaScript, Python and SQL, and early exposure helps young people understand and interact with the devices that provide the means to shape our technology-driven culture. Coding is valuable in that it teaches problem solving, design and innovation. It is practical in that it creates solutions to immediate challenges. It is creative in that it allows people to imagine and invent with few boundaries. It is liberating in that one can go from knowing code to owning one’s own company. It is equalizing in that code is not limited by the stigmas humans readily cling to, such as race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion. But even more exciting, children love to code. That’s why the U.K. last year infused coding into the national curriculum starting at age 5. That’s why there are movements all across Asia to get young people, particularly girls, to code. They understand that you don’t expose young people to code simply to create a bunch of computer scientists. Exposure to coding can open up a love of learning that builds pathways to other critical skills, including many important ones in STEM.”

Even if coding were taught in all public schools, there is still a major need for individualized lesson plans. The only place to find this style of customized education is with a program like CodeRev Kids.

At CodeRev Kids our students learn 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, making the entire curriculum 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.

Whatever youth coding education needs you might have, we’ve got you covered at CodeRev Kids!