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The Hour of Code was started a few years ago to provide an opportunity for more students (and teachers) to get exposure to coding and programming.  It’s been an overwhelming success and here we are at the brink of Hour of Code 2016 held in conjunction with Computer Science Education Week, December 5-11.

The initiative has seen some pretty substantial levels of success…

there are more languages and robots to code with today than ever before

teachers who might never have ventured into this area are giving it a shot

in Ontario, there are many TLLP projects with their roots in the Hour of Code

it’s not a strange thing to see a Computer Science club at schools where inquiring students go beyond the hour

coding has come a long way from the days of learning commands and evolved to block programming

and I’m sure that you can add your observations to the list

The mother ship, if you will, is the Hour of Code website and the links to rationale and many activities.

There is lots of discussion about the “why” to the Hour of Code.  One that you hear constantly is that there are 200,000 technical jobs unfilled in Canada.  If you need that as inspiration, go for it.  Somehow, I think that the Grade 2 student doing a bit of Scratch isn’t quite ready for it yet.  As I was out this morning, I saw a big tube television left at the side of the road.  You know the ones that dimmed the lights in your house when you turned it on?  I have no doubt in my mind that the owner thought this might well be the last television that they’d ever buy.  Technology is such a fickle partner.

But it’s the deliverables that were important.  A huge screen let them see ever detail.  The audio was stereo.  Awesome.  The analogue signal pulled in by antenna was probably the best they’d ever seen.  Try to find something with the same specs on sale in a store today!

Ditto for learning code.  If you just focus on the code, you’ll miss the point.

Check the deliverables.

Student

student can learn some new commands

student can make an object move on the screen on command

student might even get the computer to make a sound or play a song

Teacher

students work collaboratively to solve problems

students explain their thinking and explain/debate the logic with other

students take a big problem, break it into its component parts, and solve it

students ask “what happens if I do this?”

students demand “what next?”

Every subject area would die for these opportunities.

Hopefully, everyone will be involved in the Hour of Code in their classrooms at whatever level works.

Please don’t consider it 60 minutes to check off to say that “we did it”.  Please do consider that this is the launchpad for something pretty amazing.  It’s there that you make a difference and set students off to benefit from all that coding offers.

Once again, I’ve cobbled together a collection of resources that I’m happy to share.

Hour of Code 2016

Good luck.

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Graphic novel series

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Secret Coders Old School Coding School - Lesson 1

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A few stats to ponder

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What is National Computer Science Education Week? It's a national celebration of computers, and advocating for kids to learn more about how they work so they're better equipped to deal with them in their lives.

Why is this important?

The majority of schools don't teach computer science - 90% of parents want their kids to study computer science, but only 40% of schools teach it.

15% of households in the US don't have a computer. So if the kids in those households overlap with the 60% of schools around the country that don't teach computer science, they won't have any access to computers or learn about them in school.

There are fewer students in the US graduating with a degree in computer science than there were ten years ago - and half as many women.
Computer science majors can earn 40% more than the average college graduate.

Computing jobs are the #1 source of new wages in the US; there are more than 500,000 open jobs in computers right now (in every state around the country), and these jobs are projected to grow at twice the rate of all other jobs.

Computer science only counts towards graduating in 32 states.

Check out computer facts and quotes on the these great blogs throughout the week:

Computer science education is a vital topic in our country right now, and we hope you can follow along to learn more about it.

( thanks to Hour of Code for help with these facts! You can also celebrate NCSEW this week by coding for an hour through their excellent program.)
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Celebrate National Computer Science Education Week with Gene Luen Yang and Secret Coders!

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What is National Computer Science Education Week? It's a national celebration of computers, and advocating for kids to learn more about how they work so they're better equipped to deal with them in their lives. Why is this important?

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Ideas for K-5

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Free set of elementary curricula that introduces students to the foundational concepts of computer science and challenges them to explore how computing and technology can impact the world.

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Best Golden State Warriors Commercials Ft Steph Curry

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Draymond Green ROASTS Klay Thompson & Teammates

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Draymond Green from the Golden State warriors visited Oakland High School to do an Hour of Code with students. Special thanks to Draymond, The Golden State Warriors, NBA and Oakland High School for supporting computer science education. Start learning at http://code.org/ Stay in touch with us!

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