Share

Hour of Code Campaign Encouraging Youth To Learn Programming Gets PM’s Boost

Syed Akhter Hossain also announced in 2017 Daffodil International University will organize Hour of Code in their permanent campus with MentorNations and around 3000 students can code together at a time in DIU Labs.

Advertisement

“We are pushing ensuring that students across the USA are getting involved in computer science because by the year 2020, that will double”.

This year, it seems the students and educators have even more reasons – and opportunities – to explore computer science in K-12 education.

Gov. Matt Mead signed a proclamation Monday declaring this week – December 5 through 11 – Computer Science Education Week.

According to information on the district’s website, the students will be participating in Code.org’s global Hour of Code during an entire week, starting Monday. “Like I said it isn’t magical, it isn’t something they are afraid of anymore which is the best we can hope for in an hour”.

As Mike Harvey, a technology teacher in Falmouth, Maine, puts it, “The 2016 Minecraft Hour of Code tutorial builds on the success of the original in a great way”.

One of the most exciting programs being propped up by Hour of Code this year is Swift Playgrounds, an iPad app which breaks down the complex language and nuance of coding, and presents it as a game for kids.

The US now faces a wide gap in qualified employees who can fill computer science positions, Kirda said.

Without classes that give students opportunities for deeper learning, they are more likely to be exposed only to coding.

Program Director Maggie Cline says activities surrounding Hour of Code help show students that gaining computer science skills can be “fun to do and achievable”. Like numerous Hour of Code tutorials it uses drag and drop blocks of code.

The puzzles teach the basics of computer logic by asking parents and students to create lines of code by dragging and dropping commands like move forward or turn left to move pieces on a game board. Using a digital audio workstation, students write code to create and remix music in popular styles such as hip hop and dubstep.

Kaylene summarised the program, and its impacts: “The Australian curriculum asks for collaboration, problem solving, creative and critical thinking”.

“I like coding”, Barney, a third grader, said. “We’re not teaching computer science to create programmers, just as we don’t teach English to produce more novelists”. “So what we’re doing here today is technically, we’re showing the middle schoolers what we are learning about coding”, she explained.

Advertisement

Anne Maldonado, vice president of Summit’s business services, said 524,000 jobs in the United States a year are computer science driven.

Justin Trudeau encourages youth to get into computer programming