[Discussion] hourofcode.com Dec 8-14 2014

[Grant Bowman]

Greetings,

Coming back this year is the Hour of Code. It is backed by the nonprofit
code.org with videos and online lessons. This promotion is part of Computer
Science Education Week http://csedweek.org during Dec 8-14. It might be a
good starting point for Partimus to promote better use of the computers we
place. The hourofcode.com can be completed at any time, but during last
year's week long promotion 15 million students took up the challenge. They
are trying for 100 million students this year. I completed the lessons and
think this would be a great, gentle introduction to students interested in
coding.

Importantly, videos do feature female engineers Elena (an entrepreneur),
Janete (Zynga), Paola (Microsoft) and of course male tech icons Mark
Zuckerberg (Facebook), Bill Gates (Microsoft) and others. Sponsors and
partner nonprofits include Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Boys and Girls Clubs
of America and the College Board. After logging in and completing the
challenge it says that 49% of the participants were female and 51% were
male! That sounds like quite an achievement to me given similar numbers I
have seen for female participants in generally available coding challenges.
San Jose is also on top of the leader board.

The coding examples use coding blocks (https://code.google.com/p/blockly/)
representing javascript internally (visible from a button) to control
characters from Angry Birds, and Plants vs. Zombies. This is similar to the
OLPC Turtle Art activity but is run in a web browser. This is much more
engaging for anyone starting out than "hello world" from a Read Eval Print
Loop a.k.a. "REPL" or "command line" interface. The google demo app didn't
take long to complete either.
http://blockly-demo.appspot.com/static/apps/maze/index.html

I look forward to sharing ideas for how to best make use of this
international event to help our site's students and teachers.

Grant


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Hadi Partovi <hadi_partovi at code.org>
Date: Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 4:31 PM
Subject: The largest learning event in history
To: Grant Bowman <grantbow at partimus.org>


    Welcome to the 21st Century

Computer science is foundational for all students today. Yet 90% of schools
don't teach it. Last December, 15 million students tried computer science
in one week, thanks to educators like you! Since then, over 40 million
students have tried the Hour of Code
<http://postoffice.code.org/l/2Q4IbBT41uboQadSI3KyUA/PR8W352QHy763Pq7OIU9763fAw/eLk763tecZYb2kKekr70LyiA>.




<http://postoffice.code.org/l/2Q4IbBT41uboQadSI3KyUA/oqfGDjtkuKEIYQziPhwMTg/eLk763tecZYb2kKekr70LyiA>
Hour
of Code 2014 - let's reach 100 million students

Please help this grassroots, teacher-driven campaign reach 100 million
students by the end of the year. Sign up
<http://postoffice.code.org/l/2Q4IbBT41uboQadSI3KyUA/PR8W352QHy763Pq7OIU9763fAw/eLk763tecZYb2kKekr70LyiA>
to participate in Hour of Code 2014 during December 8-14, Computer Science
Education Week.
What's an Hour of Code?

It's an introduction to computer science designed to show that anyone can
learn the basics. Code.org provides hour-long tutorials featuring Mark
Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Angry Birds, and Plants vs. Zombies — for your
computer, tablet, smartphone, or with no computer at all!
No experience needed from teachers and students

We owe it to today's students to start with one hour. Let's make history.

Sign up to participate
<http://postoffice.code.org/l/2Q4IbBT41uboQadSI3KyUA/PR8W352QHy763Pq7OIU9763fAw/eLk763tecZYb2kKekr70LyiA>,
recruit a fellow teacher, or get your whole school to join the fun!

*Start now at http://hourofcode.com
<http://postoffice.code.org/l/2Q4IbBT41uboQadSI3KyUA/PR8W352QHy763Pq7OIU9763fAw/eLk763tecZYb2kKekr70LyiA>*

Hadi Partovi founder, Code.org

*P.S. Free 1-day workshops for teachers in grades K-5*
We're offering free, in-person workshops in 60 cities nationwide! Get a
head start on teaching computer science in elementary school with Code
Studio. Try out Code Studio
<http://postoffice.code.org/l/2Q4IbBT41uboQadSI3KyUA/HTRfQJ892KEULHhuUpIMAcfQ/eLk763tecZYb2kKekr70LyiA>
and Find a workshop near you
<http://postoffice.code.org/l/2Q4IbBT41uboQadSI3KyUA/Z0k7w46qJeMxvWfqxKNRlQ/eLk763tecZYb2kKekr70LyiA>
.

Code.org is a 501c3 non-profit. Our address is 1301 5th Ave, Suite 1225,
Seattle, WA, 98005.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.partimus.org/pipermail/discussion-partimus.org/attachments/20141001/48c219cc/attachment.htm>