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.

Coding Education, Skills

JavaScript and Being a Star Programmer in 2016

January 15, 2016 codeREV

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.”

Coding Education, Education, Skills

The Coding Lessons That Go Beyond Computer Skills

January 13, 2016 codeREV

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.

Uncategorized

Hardware Toys and the Future of Kids Coding

January 12, 2016 codeREV

When we discuss coding for kids, we often look at website, app, and game development. What about hardware? Consider a recent article for edSurge titled “Are Hardware Toys the Future of Kids’ Coding?“

Blake Montgomery of edSurge writes, “Plenty of games and apps teach kids to code. But educators and toymakers are betting that teaching computer science isn’t about coding at all. ‘Computers have gotten so user-friendly that modern people, maybe not just kids, expect the computer to come to us,’ Gene Luen Yang, a graphic novelist and computer science teacher, told EdSurge earlier this year. ‘But if you want to get into the nitty gritty of how to create new technology, you need to understand how the computer works natively.’ The proliferation of devices has made technology a ubiquitous presence in children’s lives. But that does not mean they understand how anything works. Enter computer hardware toys, which hopefully build kids’ understanding of how electronics function. The creators of hardware toys believe that playing will endear technology to kids and inspire their academic interest. Kano, a build-it-yourself computer kit, spells out the ideal progression in its company tagline: ‘Make a computer, learn what’s inside, play with code. Spark a lifelong passion for computing and the arts.’ There’s a market for toys like these. In the most recent available data from 2013, Arduino had sold 300,000 units official units, with 700,000 more unofficial imitation units in circulation. Arduino makes a microcontroller that forms the basis of do-it-yourself digital devices. Raspberry Pi, a computer the size of a credit card, has sold three million units to date. The cost of entry is decreasing, too. The latest iteration of the Raspberry Pi, the Pi Zero, is just $5. Some tools are even free: in July, the BBC released the BBC micro:bit, a palm-sized codeable computer, which will be distributed free to every UK student in year seven, usually students age 11 to 13. The hope is to engage students with the new UK coding curriculum.”

Coding Education

The Connection Between Coding and Empathy

December 30, 2015 codeREV

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.

Coding Education

Code.org CEO Discusses Coding’s Impact on His Life

December 23, 2015 codeREV

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.

Coding Education

The Importance of Quality Mentorship in Coding Education

December 18, 2015 codeREV

One key to great coding education is flexibility and quality mentorship. Consider a recent article for the Independent titled “Ireland’s coding teachers plead for more mentors.”

According to Jane O’Faherty of the Independent, “The call was made by CoderDojo, the country’s leading volunteer-led organisation in teaching coding, which is looking to expand. The charity, which was founded in Cork four years ago, has provided free classes in coding for up to 70,000 people both in Ireland and abroad. Now, it is calling for volunteers to help address a growing demand for classes across Ireland. The classes cover programmes such as Scratch, TouchDevelop, HTML, Javascript and Project Spark. Mary Moloney, CEO of CoderDojo, said that the charitable organisation had reached an additional 40,000 children around the world this year. ‘As of this week, we are in 63 countries around the world,’ she told the Irish Independent. ‘There are 180 dojos currently in Ireland, with 5,000 kids coming in on a weekly basis,’ she added. ‘All of them need mentors to help out.’”

Slate also explores coding in the classroom in a recent article titled “Can Coding Make the Classroom Better?” Chris Berdik of Slate writes, “There are two other STEAM labs in this school for third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders, which South Fayette opened in 2013. They’re in the center of each floor, with regular classrooms on either side, a layout that reflects a philosophy transforming the entire district. In the past five years, South Fayette has leveraged grant funding, new school construction, and creative scheduling to give nearly 3,000 kids, from kindergarten through 12th grade, dedicated spaces for hands-on projects—coding, 3-D printing, computer-aided design, and robotics—as part of their regular curriculum. The STEAM labs, STEAM coordinators, and technology education teachers are part of a districtwide embrace of ‘computational thinking.’ Computational thinking is intimately related to computer coding, which every kid in South Fayette starts learning in first grade. But they are not one and the same. At its core, computational thinking means breaking complex challenges into smaller questions that can be solved with a computer’s number crunching, data compiling, and sorting capabilities. Proponents say it’s a problem-solving approach that works in any field, noting that computer modeling, big data, and simulations are used in everything from textual analysis to medical research and environmental protection.”

Coding Education

Teaching Coding to Military Members

December 16, 2015 codeREV

When veterans return from service, they often face hurdles in attaining the proper healthcare and employment opportunities. Teaching coding to them could be an answer to many veterans’ problems. The Northwest Guardian discusses this in a recent article titled “Coding class taught to service members.”

Christina Carmen Crea of the Northwest Guardian writes, “Code Fellows, a software development trade school in Seattle, conducted a 12-hour workshop for 43 attendees Nov. 13 at Camp Murray, near Joint Base Lewis-McChord, to give current service members and their families an inside look at a post-service career in coding. ‘Coding is the backbone to all businesses, whether online or offline,’ said Jeff Pecor, Tailwind Public Relations. ‘If you can learn how to write code, the job prospects and salaries are lucrative, and there will be a job out there for you.’ Stephanie Lingwood, Code Fellow main instructor, said she enjoys teaching these classes and seeing those ‘light bulb moments.’ ‘Coding is a challenging but rewarding career,’ Lingwood said. ‘To be able to teach some transitioning service members and give them transferable skills to find jobs after their service is rewarding. Service members already know what it’s like to be faced with challenges, so teaching them is easy because they’re willing to put in the work.’ Staff Sergeant Kelby Faulk, Bravo Company, Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, I Corps, said the class provided a condensed and easy-to-understand knowledge of the Web programming language known as HTML. Faulk transitions out of the military this month and will have served in the military for six years. ‘I’m not sure if I will go into any coding career right now, but getting a chance to feel it out in today’s class has been awesome,’ Faulk said. The workshop, called ‘Code 101,’ taught attendees about establishing a path software development career, how websites are built and deployed and how to code a website using industry-standard tools and professional coding practices. Sergeant Joko Riley, 864th Engineer Battalion, said the class was informative and a ‘brush up’ on skills he learned a long time ago. ‘I’m jump-starting this to see if it’s something I want to dive into after I transition out in June (serving six years in the military),’ Riley said. Antonio Garcia, Code Fellows teaching assistant, who transitioned out of the military in 2008 after serving six years, and has been a Code Fellow student since September, said it’s hard to transition out of the military into the civilian workforce.”

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.

Coding Education

Preschool Coding Classes in China

December 11, 2015 codeREV

When we discuss the importance of coding, it is often in the context of the global workforce. We discuss how the U.S. has dropped from prominence in terms of math and science testing. While we focus a lot on what the U.S. is not doing, it is good to look at what other countries are doing. Consider a recent article for Bloomberg titled “Latest Craze for Chinese Parents: Preschool Coding Classes.”

Lulu Yilun Chen of Bloomberg writes, “Wu Pei began teaching her 6-year-old son to code this year, thinking he’d enjoy learning a skill that might boost his future job prospects in an increasingly digitized world. Now, she runs classes in Nanjing, China, and is helping more than 100 parents introduce their children to coding. The 35-year-old former computer programmer with Foxconn Technology Group is tapping growing demand from parents intent on preparing their preschoolers for a world in which Oxford University researchers predict half the jobs in some countries may be eliminated by robots and computers. Similar classes are taking off across China. Reynold Ren has taught about 150 primary school-age children in Beijing to use Scratch, a project developed by the MIT Media Lab and Arduino, which enables users to create interactive objects such as robots. In Hong Kong, about 2,500 students have taken courses that Michelle Sun runs at her First Code Academy. ‘Teaching the next generation coding is something that should be elevated to a strategical national importance,’ said Wang Jiulin, the Xi’an-based creator of Kidscode.cn, a website that shares free information and courses. ‘Even today, the majority of programmers in China can only perform very basic-level tasks and there’s huge demand for top notch coders.’…Wu thought over weeks about how she could introduce the fundamentals of coding to preschoolers — who are only just starting to learn math and Chinese — in a way they could understand. She settled on showing them a 3-by-3 unit grid on a board and invited them to play a game in which the students were asked to identify locations using simple directions, such as up, down, right and left. She then switched to a number system and asked the children to pinpoint locations using coordinates. When students are familiar with the concept of an X and Y axis, she teaches them to play simple games involving airplanes on Scratch. Once they are hooked, she encourages them to learn how to create similar games themselves.”

Coding Education

A Customized Coding Education

December 9, 2015 codeREV

One of the prime reasons CodeRev Kids is so successful is because we offer customized coding education. Giving students the space to explore at their pace is essential to engaging them. When we take a factory approach to coding education, we do our children a disservice. Consider a recent article for the Tennessean titled “If you want to kill coding in schools, make it universal.”

Jackson Miller of the Tennessean writes, “As software development in schools becomes the focus of public education in Nashville, take note: standardizing coding in schools will kill the very thing that propels its success. Teaching students to code is definitely a good idea. As a longtime coder myself, I am well aware of how software development is a strong career choice and a path to developing and honing critical-thinking skills. I see firsthand how coding nurtures both analytical and creative minds. But coding is not a silver bullet. The easy way to show support for coding in schools would be to announce some sort of poorly thought out and rash Universal Coding Initiative. While that kind of initiative would get great press and would likely include 6-foot, cardboard checks from area business partners — it would be the opposite of what is working now, and it would be the opposite of what Nashville’s students, teachers, and tech companies need. The Academy model in our high schools has given school principals and leaders the autonomy to choose focus areas within their building. High schools, middle schools, and even elementary schools are using clubs and after-school programs to create new opportunities for students. The student-based budgeting model that Metro Nashville Public Schools Interim Superintendent Chris Henson and his team developed is a step toward pushing the control of more dollars to the school level — where educators have deep understanding of students’ unique needs. When schools — and the high-performing teachers and administrators that run them — are given the ability to choose the programming that their students need, we open the door to great things.”

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.

If you are trying to give your child the best possible coding education, you can’t go wrong with CodeRev Kids!

CodeREV's Blog!

Hackathon Aims to Strengthen Conservation

JavaScript and Being a Star Programmer in 2016

The Coding Lessons That Go Beyond Computer Skills

Hardware Toys and the Future of Kids Coding

The Connection Between Coding and Empathy

Code.org CEO Discusses Coding’s Impact on His Life

The Importance of Quality Mentorship in Coding Education

Teaching Coding to Military Members

Preschool Coding Classes in China

A Customized Coding Education

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