Skills

Study Shows Women Who Hide Their Gender Are Better Coders Than Men?

Recently, I became a fan of the ABC program Agent Carter. One of the underlying themes of the show is that society often overlooks women and their talents and accomplishments. In other cases, we as men assume superiority based on simply being men. While Agent Carter has her ways of addressing or manipulating these assumptions on TV, in the real world, we have studies to correct such erroneous assumptions. A recent study on women and coding serves as the latest case study. Consider a recent article for Fusion titled “Women are better at coding than men—if they hide their gender.”

Kristen V Brown of Fusion writes, “In a study published this week, a group of computer science students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and North Carolina State University examined how gender impacts the acceptance of contributions on the open source code repository site GitHub. ‘Surprisingly, our results show that women’s contributions tend to be accepted more often than men’s,’ the study’s authors wrote. ‘However, when a woman’s gender is identifiable, they are rejected more often. Our results suggest that although women on GitHub may be more competent overall, bias against them exists nonetheless.’ In other words, if you’re a woman on GitHub, the best way to get your code out there is to hide the fact that you’re a woman. The authors specifically examined ‘pull requests’ on GitHub, programmer parlance for suggestions for fixes to existing code. They looked at the contributions of women and whether the women had gendered or gender-neutral profiles. They found that women’s fixes were more accepted than men’s for every programming language in the top ten. But when gender was identifiable, the acceptance rate for women’s code fixes dropped to 62.5% from 72%. On projects where the woman’s gender was obvious and she was an ‘outsider’—an anonymous online stranger rather than a regular contributor to a software project—the acceptance rate of suggestions dropped below the rate of men.”

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!

Skills

Turning from Mining to Coding for New Careers

Coding offers plenty of potential for those looking to change careers later on in life. Consider a recent article for Arkansas Online titled “Miners switch from coal to coding.”

Tim Loh on behalf of Arkansas Online writes, “Today, he rolls into an office at 8 a.m., settles into a small metal desk and does something that, until last year, was completely foreign to him: computer coding. ‘A lot of people look at us coal miners as uneducated,’ said Ratliff, a 38-year-old with a thin goatee and thick arms. ‘It’s backbreaking work, but there’s engineers and very sophisticated equipment. You work hard and efficiently and that translates right into coding.’ He works for Bit Source now, a Pikeville, Ky., startup that’s out to prove there’s life after coal for the thousands of industry veterans who’ve lost their jobs in an unprecedented rout that has already forced five major producers into bankruptcy. Bit Source has hired only 10 coders, but almost 1,000 responded to its ads as the realization spreads across Appalachia that coal’s heyday is over. What fills its void is a challenge so immense that presidential candidates including Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have cited the industry’s woes on the campaign trail. ‘We’ve got a lot of high-skilled hillbillies here,’ said Rusty Justice, a 57-year-old co-founder of Bit Source. ‘We want to prove we can run a tech business from the hills of eastern Kentucky.’ Few places are as steeped in coal lore as Pikeville, a town of 6,900 wedged into a narrow bend in the Big Sandy Valley. Over the years, surrounding Pike County has produced more of the fuel than anywhere else in Kentucky. In 1996, when Ratliff was still a teenager and his father worked in the mines, the local producers dug up 35.6 million tons, a state record. He eventually followed his dad into those mines.”

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

Turner Joins Obama Coding Initiative

President Barack Obama has made no bones about his push to get more young people into coding. Now Turner Broadcasting is putting its name into the fold. Consider a recent article for Fortune titled “Why Turner Is Investing $30 Million in Obama’s Coding Initiative.”

John Gaudiosi of Fortune writes, “President Barack Obama has made the ‘Computer Science For All’ initiative a key priority for his last year in office. And Turner Broadcasting is the latest company to invest in this initiative, which focuses on making coding and other hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning an integral part of every student’s education. Turner’s $30 million investment in engaging kids in creative coding will roll out this year and become part of how Cartoon Network connects with its 6- to 11-year-old audience moving forward, according to Christina Miller, president and general manager of Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and Boomerang. The network’s multimedia platform reaches over 94 million children. ‘Technology is transforming the access point for the next generation of creators and we have the outreach to go to our audience and let them know that if they want to be an animator or a storyteller there are PC tools available at their fingertips,’ Miller says. ‘We know this generation of kids is different than the one before it because they want to participate. They’re more of an open source generation.’ Turner has partnered with the MIT Media Lab to alert kids that the free block-based coding language Scratch is available. The Adventure Time characters were used in a recent DIY.org animation contest as a way for kids to use Scratch to code simple animation like the show’s characters walking.”

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

Several Ways You Can Help Empower Girls to Learn Coding

it comes to coding education, a major issue is equity. Coding provides a lot of opportunities not just for underrepresented groups, but their families, friends, and communities as well. Consider a recent article for Mashable titled “8 ways you can empower girls to learn coding.”

Matt Petronizio of Mashable writes, “Before anything, you need to understand the systemic obstacles preventing girls from getting into coding. Both a culture that persistently ignores and discourages girls’ abilities in computer science, and the lack of access to tools and education, play influential roles. Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, says it’s deeply ingrained in our culture to let it be OK for girls to say they don’t like math and science. ‘We almost sensationalize it in culture for girls to promote that,’ she tells Mashable. ‘You can walk into a Forever 21 and buy a T-shirt that says ‘I’m allergic to algebra’ … You’re always showcasing these really smart girls hiding their intelligencewhen it comes to math and science.’ If girls can’t see themselves in these professions, Saujani adds, they’re not going to choose to pursue them. And that also extends to inside classrooms, where coding is rarely offered to students in general, much less focusing on girls — an obstacle Code.org founder and CEO Hadi Partovi says is equally as significant as culture. ‘If you enter a classroom and you see 18 boys and two girls, you automatically think, ‘I’m in the wrong place and I’m not welcome,’’ Partovi says. ‘And that makes it harder.’ … One of the most important ways to advocate for girls is to get schools to actually offer courses on the subject. On the public advocacy side, you can contact your local politicians and legislators to lobby on behalf of making coding a priority in public school education. As a parent or guardian, you can put pressure on school administrations to include more computer science courses in curricula for various age levels. And if you’re a teacher, you can effect change within the school system itself.”

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

What’s Behind the Latest White House Coding Push?

The White House is pushing even harder than before to make sure children throughout the U.S. have the right tools to be proficient coders. Consider a recent article for the Atlantic titled “The Reality of Coding Classes.”

Mikhail Zinshteyn of the Atlantic writes, “The White House wants every child in the United States to learn computer science. The president’s plan to reach that goal? Ask Congress to fund a new $4 billion program for states and another $100 million for districts to train teachers and purchase the tools ‘so that our elementary, middle, and high schools can provide opportunities to learn computer science for all students,’ Obama said in his weekly address on January 30. With Congress’s approval, the $4 billion will be spent over three years to train teachers, connect schools with corporate and nonprofit partners, and expand instructional material. States would apply for a slice of the $4 billion and have five years to use the money. The funding programs, which will appear in the president’s forthcoming budget proposal for 2017, are just the latest effort from the White House to bring more science and technology education to students. The Obama Administration is hopeful that the recent passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced No Child Left Behind, signals support for additional education spending. But is advocacy for the plan relying on faulty notions about the economy’s need for more coders? And is the price tag enough to underwrite the president’s ambitious goal? The United States spends magnitudes more on educating the nation’s public-school students than the computer-science money the White House is proposing: Over half a trillion dollars go toward education spending, amounting to roughly $10,800 per student—a tenth of that coming from federal resources. On instruction alone, federal, state, and local governments spent $326 billion in 2013. With 50 million students in U.S. public schools, the $4.1 billion proposal and additional $135 million from currently funded programs would translate into $86 per kid.”

When it comes to sustainable, 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

Proposal to Make Coding a Foreign Language Shows Need for Customized Coding Education

The need for more computer programmers in the U.S. is very serious. People all throughout the country are taking steps, some more drastic than others, to catch up. Consider a recent article for the Tampa Bay Times titled “Proposal allowing computer coding as foreign language advances.”

Kristen M. Clark of the Tampa Bay Times writes, “A controversial idea to allow high school students to count computer coding classes toward foreign language credits cleared its second committee in the Florida Senate on Wednesday — but senators did not seek to resolve concerns it could impose an unfunded mandate on schools. Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, had previously said the Senate’s education budget committee would address the fiscal impact of his plan (SB 468), but that panel on Wednesday discussed nothing about the dollars that might be needed to fund it. Ring said after the meeting that he felt there were no financial impacts, because Senate committee staff didn’t note any when reviewing the bill. The analysis acknowledges, however: ‘The bill may have a minimal fiscal impact on school districts as they shift resources to offer more computer coding courses.’ Some senators previously worried that the bill would place a burden on schools — especially those with already strapped technology resources — by requiring them to have sufficient computers, software and specialized teachers to meet the demand of students who opt to learn coding in lieu of a foreign language. Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, said he voted against it again Wednesday because his concerns weren’t addressed. The rest of the Senate budget committee voted in favor of the bill. ‘All it takes is that one parent and it overburdens schools when they say, ‘I want my child to have computer coding,’ because now you have to figure out how to facilitate a teacher and space,’ Bullard said. ‘All of those have dollars attached, and none of those concerns were remedied.’”

When it comes to sustainable, 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!

Uncategorized

Fisher-Price’s Code-a-Pillar

Getting a jumpstart on your child’s coding education can be highly beneficial in the future. Fisher-Price is taking this a step further with its new Code-a-Pillar. Consider a recent article for Consumer Affairs titled “Fisher-Price wants to teach preschoolers how to code.”

Sarah D. Young of Consumer Affairs writes, “Though they may not yet be potty-trained, you can now teach preschoolers how to code. Fisher-Price’s new caterpillar bot — the ‘Code-a-Pillar’ — teaches kids the basics of coding, such as sequencing and programming. Part of the company’s Think & Learn series, which seeks to inspire critical thinking and problem solving skills in three to eight-year-olds, the Code-a-Pillar is branded as a toy for the 2035 coders. If the idea behind connected pieces which form instructions proves thrilling to your child, then who knows: you could have a potential future coder under your roof… The concept is simple enough. The caterpillar’s body features eight segments that snap together linearly, all labeled with different colors and symbols. Each segment has a different function: turn left, turn right, make a funny noise. Once the segments are connected and the start button is pressed, the smiling caterpillar will take the route that it was programmed to by the child. The caterpillar ‘code’ can be as long as you want, too, thanks to the availability of add-on segments. Fisher-Price claims the toy builds the basic skills needed to understand more complex programming languages later in life. The Code-a-Pillar also connects to a free companion app, which proposes additional programming challenges for kids to solve as they get older.”

Mashable also takes a look at the Code-a-Pillar in a recent article titled “Adorable Code-a-Pillar teaches 3-year-olds the basics of coding.” Samantha Murphy Kelly of Mashable writes, “An adorable new Fisher-Price caterpillar toy aims to teach kids the basics of coding. The company is showing off at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show the Think & Learn Code-a-Pillar, a toy that teaches kids ages 3 to 8 problem solving and sequencing. By directing the caterpillar to move in a certain pattern, it reinforces skills associated with writing code. The toy comes with eight segments which feature a unique command icon on its surface. Each command programs the Code-a-Pillar to move in a certain way (forward, left, right, spin, make a noise and so on). The segments hook together via a USB port and the kids can select the order.”

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

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!