Category Archives: Coding Education

Coding Education

Could 2016 See the Downfall of Coding Bootcamps?

Coding bootcamps are big business these days. They are everywhere. Seemingly, they offer a quick-fix to someone looking for a career change who knows nothing about coding. However, is it really that easy? For that matter, are coding bootcamps sustainable as business ventures? Consider a recent article for Wired titled “In 2016, The Coding Bootcamp Bubble Is Bound to Burst.”

Issie Lapowski of Wired writes, “Coding bootcamps had their moment in 2015. They were celebrated by everyone from President Barack Obama to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton to Republican Senator Marco Rubio as one-way tickets to the middle class in the 21st century. The Department of Education even rolled out a new pilot program that would allow students to use federal financial aid for some bootcamps and so-called massively open online courses, or MOOCs. But in 2016, the bootcamp bubble is bound to burst. The fact is, thanks to all of this attention, the number of bootcamps around the country has ballooned. So have the number of graduates. And while many of these schools are reputable institutions with solid relationships in the tech industry, others are, like so many for-profit schools before them, just jumping on the bandwagon and offering a less than satisfactory education in the process. The more people are encouraged to enroll in these bootcamps, the more likely a good percentage of them will find themselves six months later out several thousand dollars and out of a job. And as financing options for these bootcamps proliferate, and more students take on debt to pay for them, the model will only become more controversial. Another threat facing the coding bootcamp world is the fact that many tech recruiters are still skeptical of bootcamp graduates. They’ll come around eventually, but for the people who are putting their lives and careers on hold to take these courses today, change may come too late.”

When it comes to customized, sustainable 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

What Does a Chinese Coding Boot Camp Look Like?

While we encourage children to code to expand their opportunities and explore the fun of programming, we also have to keep in mind that their is a global competition of sorts to be at the top of the coding mountain. Sometimes it’s important to take a look at your competition. Consider a recent article for the Huffington Post titled “Inside A Chinese Coding Boot Camp.”

Matt Sheehan of the Huffington Post writes, “In this fluorescent-lit classroom in northwest Beijing, a bespectacled Chinese man who calls himself Shrek is doing his part to haul China’s economy into the 21st century. He is the founder of a coding boot camp and online education platform that trains thousands of young Chinese to program Apple Watches, maintain Oracle databases and build Android apps — the very skills that China’s leaders hope will vault the country toward a high-income economy. The country’s traditional sources of growth, cheap exports and massive infrastructure spending, are sputtering — and economists warn that if China doesn’t move up the value chain, it could fall into the notorious ‘middle-income trap.’ Transitioning away from these mainstays of economic growth will be wrenching for China’s industrial rustbelt, but Chinese leaders are banking on ‘mass innovation’ to pick up the slack. China’s Premier Li Keqiang has spent two years exhorting the country’s youth toward ‘mass entrepreneurship,’ frequently rhapsodizing on the power of innovation to provide high-paying tech jobs and to upgrade traditional industries. Government-orchestrated mass mobilizations are part of the Maoist DNA of modern China. But how can an education system that rewards rote memorization and a government that prizes stability above all else train a new generation of innovative coders intent on disruption? That’s where Shrek comes in. (His real name is Qie Xiaoye. He chose ‘Shrek’ because his wife’s English name is Fiona and his personality matches the gentle green ogre.)”

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, Education

Engineering and Hands-On Coding Education

Kids need hands-on learning. They need to be engaged with whatever they are learning in order to truly internalize it. Everything else is just rote memorization that could get lost after a week. Consider a recent article for DNA Info titled “‘Creative Engineering’ Class Teaches Kids Coding and Programming.”

Camille Bautista of DNA Info writes, “Kids can get an early start on cracking computer codes through a new series of ‘creative engineering’ classes being offered in Bed-Stuy. Ada and Leo, a 12-week workshop for children ages 6 through 9, starts this January. Brooklyn-based programmer Ben Wheeler is offering the introductory classes out of his Putnam Avenue home in hopes of sparking kids’ interest in technology, he said. ‘The biggest thing I hope that they get out of it is to see themselves as the kind of people who make things with computers, who create technology,’ Wheeler, 36, said. ‘So that when they hear about a programmer as an adult, or a project a teen did, they’re imagining that’s something they might do.’ Students can 3D-print their own designs, learn circuitry work and construct their own robots with LEGO MindStorms kits. Wheeler and teacher Audrey Fox guide participants through programs such as Tinkercad, a free online design tool, and Scratch from MIT. The father of two has already hosted one 12-week session this past fall where kids have created their own games, he said. Wheeler was motivated to start Ada and Leo after teaching adult programming classes and seeing the creative spark in his young daughters. ‘I saw the way my daughter, who is six, and her little sister were becoming creative with drawing with markers, writing and starting to make little picture books,’ Wheeler said. ‘There’s really meaningful work and meaningful expressiveness at the end of that.’ ‘I want to find the same kind of things they can be doing with computers. How could I make them feel the same kind of delight in the simple version of coding the way they do with drawing?’”

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, Education

Coding and a Globalized Education

We live in an increasingly globalized society. Everything we do is tied together with someone thousands of miles away that we have never met. As we get more connected, we have to start thinking about how that applies to education. For many, the answer is a more globalized education system. This includes coding. Consider a recent article for Devex titled “Can coding become a building block of global education?”

Catherine Cheney of Devex writes, “A group of nearly 40 students gathered around tables crowded with laptops in a classroom at Laboratoria, a social enterprise in Lima, Peru, that teaches young women to code. Beyond learning technical skills and building websites, the girls also gain confidence in their own skills, said Ana Maria Martinez, one of the four cofounders of the shop. Earlier this month students from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe participated in the third annual Hour of Code. The event’s continued growth across the world demonstrates the increasingly global reach of digital literacy initiatives. But despite momentum from social enterprises, supportive policies from a growing number of governments, and events like Computer Science Education Week that unite these efforts, the global development community can do more to ensure that coding will become a part of a basic education. Teaching kids how to use computers but not how to understand their algorithmic language is like teaching them to read but not to write, said Cristina Pombo Rivera of the Inter-American Development Bank. ‘There is a moral obligation that exists to properly prepare children for the technology-focused world and job market they will inherit,’ she said. The IDB gave Laboratoria $1 million to expand its model in Peru Chile, and Mexico. Other donors have not provided as much support but a group of foundations and private capital has stepped up. The Omidyar Network, for example, invested in Andela, which offers coding classes in Lagos, Nigeria.”

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

Woman Uses Coding to Escape Public Housing

Coding has provided many people with second careers. In some cases, it has created the means for people to escape from undesirable situations. Consider a recent article for WFPL titled “To Escape Public Housing, Louisville Woman Turns to Coding.”

Jacob Ryan of WFPL writes, “With more than 17,000 people on the waiting list, securing a spot in Louisville’s public housing system can be difficult. Some spend years waiting their turn to move into one of the Louisville Metro Housing Authority’s 17 housing sites. Others can spend years trying to get out, people like Errin Johnson. Johnson, 51, lives on the eighth floor of Avenue Plaza at 400 S. Eighth St. in downtown Louisville, an 18-story public housing building that opened in 1974. For the past 20 years, she’s been in and out of public housing — mostly in, a result of some bad decisions and tough luck, she said. She knows that getting out of public housing is up to her, and now she’s trying to do just that by learning a new skill: computer coding…Before public housing, she was moving through the city’s homeless shelters. She came to Louisville from California in the 1980s after getting married. She had a daughter, had a job and a home. Then things began to unravel. She got divorced, turned to alcohol, started struggling at work and eventually lost her job. She said she was diagnosed with a mood disorder. Looking back, she remembers it as a confusing time. ‘I didn’t realize I was self-destructive as I was,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t hold down a job.’ After losing a string of jobs and getting deep into debt, Johnson’s self-esteem plummeted, she said. Spending days at the Avenue Plaza tower didn’t help much, either. ‘You walk down the halls and it’s just disparity,’ she said. She wanted a change. The layoffs and resignations made her realize she didn’t fit the mold of a typical 9-to-5 worker. She needed something different, something that fit her. Through the online learning program called Treehouse, offered at no cost by the Louisville Free Public Library system, she began learning the basics of coding. ‘Just teaching myself,’ she said.”

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, Education, Skills

Hackathon Aims to Strengthen Conservation

Coding provides the potential solutions to many of the world’s problems. This includes conservation. Consider a recent article for Mongabay WildTech titled “Coding for conservation: Hackathons generate apps and ideas.”

Sue Palminteri of Mongabay WildTech writes, “The general goal is to quickly develop a product that solves the challenge presented at the start of the event. Products generally take the form of websites, mobile apps, and robots, which can be created on the spot with limited time and resources. The Facebook ‘Like’ button, for example, was apparently designed at a hackathon. Participants also seek less tangible outcomes, including the chance to meet like-minded people, learn new skills, and use these skills creatively to build something new that addresses a particular challenge. The challenge proposed for the Hackathon for Wildlife was to ‘Develop innovative approaches and business models to connect 20 million people worldwide with wild animals, through a combination of technologies that include GPS hardware, data, games, and social media.’  The challenge built on the worldwide outrage about the killing of a lion named Cecil in Zimbabwe. Once people knew his name, he gained celebrity status and the concern of many thousands of people.  Might games or social media be venues for generating this kind of compassion for other wild animals?… Participants are typically technology developers, designers, programmers, and user-interface experts.  A themed hackathon might also attract subject-matter experts. At the Hackathon for Wildlife, attendees included 13 tech and wildlife specialists from companies including ESRI, BRCK, and Amazon, and seven local and international wildlife organizations. Among the 65 participants were also wildlife enthusiasts, computer science students, teachers, and working professionals… Participants mainly work furiously to complete a project that was likely proposed and agreed upon hours before. After a brief introduction to people and objectives, teams of 3 to 8 people, who often have just met one another, self-select to work collaboratively toward a particular idea or solution to the hackathon’s challenge. (Hackathon for Wildlife participants formed 10 teams.) They spend the next 24 to 48 hours (usually a weekend) brainstorming, designing, coding, and learning new technologies, with the goal of producing a prototype for that concept. They also might attend one or more short training sessions.”

Looking for the best in 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, Skills

JavaScript and Being a Star Programmer in 2016

When it comes to programming, a lot of the discussion right now is centered around mastering JavaScript. Consider a recent article for Mashable titled “To be a star programmer in 2016, learn Javascript and move to Utah.”

Anita Bruzzese of Mashable writes, “Coding is the hot job of the near future, and the word is out. It’s becoming more competitive and employers are raising the bar for jobs. While there are thousands of job listings for programmers and coders on various job sites, the increasing number of people capable of filling those jobs means that those in the industry will have to up their game if they want to thrive in their careers in 2016. First up: technical skills alone won’t cut it any more. Language skills — and we’re not talking PYTHON — are crucial. For example, one employer looking for a coder has told headhunter David Klein to screen out resumes that are not written well, or ones that contain grammatical errors. Klein, director of recruitment for KDS Staffing in New York, says that the employer is looking for coders and programmers who can ‘communicate well.’ Michael Choi, founder of Coding Dojo, says that employers ‘are doing more filtering,’ especially since there are more qualified applicants for jobs. ‘In general, the bar is going up,’ Choi says. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, computer programmer jobs are expected to grow 8% by 2022. While boot camps such as Coding Dojo continue to turn out coders in addition to various schools worldwide, other qualified personnel will enter the pipeline through the TechHire initiative, a public-private partnership aimed at filling tech jobs. At the same time, companies are placing more demand on coders to help them fill the strategic and business goals of the organization. No longer will coders specialize in certain areas – they will be asked to broaden their knowledge and be able to collaborate more, Choi says.”

Looking for the best in 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, Skills

The Coding Lessons That Go Beyond Computer Skills

For many people, how there is even a debate still going on the validity of coding in the classroom is mind boggling. Yet, that debate continues to rage on throughout the country. Consider a recent article for the Lancaster Online titled “What do kids learn from coding? Much more than just computer skills, educators say.”

Kara Newhouse of Lancaster Online writes, “Third-graders at Pequea Elementary School in Penn Manor can’t quite explain how computer coding is used in the real world, but they do know this: it’s a lot of fun. ‘I like coding because you get to play games, but it makes you think and stuff,’ said 8-year-old Kennedy Dings. Last Thursday, Kennedy and her classmates participated in Hour of Code, a global campaign in which children try software programming for one hour anytime during Computer Science Education Week. The event was launched in 2013 by Code.org, a Seattle-based nonprofit dedicated to expanding participation in computer science. During the first year, only a few Lancaster County schools and organizations joined in the Hour of Code. This year, at least 10 local districts and private schools participated. Kennedy and her Pequea classmates, who have been learning coding all year, served as ‘tech experts’ for older and younger students at Hambright Elementary during Hour of Code. (Pequea’s third-grade classrooms are located at Hambright this year because of school renovations.) On Thursday they introduced fifth-graders to coding with online and offline games. In the online games, students drag and drop instructions — ‘lines of code’ — into a sequence to make a character perform a task, such as navigating a maze. The instructions are in plain language, such as ‘turn right’ or ‘jump,’ but the principles are the same as for building computer programs. In a board game called Robot Turtles, players get a stack of cards with directions such as ‘move forward’ or ‘blast through the wall.’ They take turns picking choosing cards to create their code.”

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 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!