We're going to teach 1000 Niagarans to code

[trevortwining]

Hey folks,

Some of you might have seen my posts on facebook or twitter regarding this. If not, the 50,000 foot view is that we can introduce 1000 people to coding in such a way that we help as many people as possible discover the joy of code.

My intent is to have this 100% free, with everyone in the community putting skin in the game. If this is really as important to our future as people seem to say, then making the decision should be a simple one.

Is anyone here at Software Niagara interested in helping me put it together?

[knicklabs]

+1 This is a great idea and I would be thrilled to help.

[mmottola24]

+1 also, I'll do what I can to help out.

[dideler]

Count me in. Getting a thousand people to attend is challenging, but I'll be glad if we even get half that many. On 26 Jun 2013 14:01, "Nickolas Kenyeres" notifications@github.com wrote:

+1 This is a great idea and I would be thrilled to help.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/softwareniagara/feedback/issues/22#issuecomment-20067544 .

[trevortwining]

You guys rock!

[fifteen3]

if not us, who? if not now, when?

[knicklabs]

@trevortwining is there anything I can do to help move this along? What do you need?

[trevortwining]

Hey Nick,

Sorry for taking so long to reply to this. I've been under an avalanche of work this week. First time it's happened in a while.

The big hanging issue that I think I need help from y'all is the curriculum, and get some measure of how many SW Niagara ppl are willing to lead classes. And help with the site. Okay, so three things...

Curriculum I don't know what we need, but I know we need to make sure it hits the following outcomes. I'm totally okay with using an existing service. Please feel free to add here if you think I'm missing something.

• browser-based a la codecademy (but not necessarily their service),
• can start immediately with no prior knowledge (no framework setup, etc.)
• real-time feedback.
• open source (free as in speech)
• free to use (free as in beer)

Volunteers We'll be arranging a(some?) workshop(s?) for how to deliver the material. I'm working with some teachers who want to help. They'll help us with the instruction, we'll help them with the code.

Getting facilities has been a bit of a slog, but I'm making some headway with the YMCA and a few other potential venues. It's a chicken and egg though as some of them. I don't think I need help there yet, I'm still reaching out.

Signup site I'd love to get some help getting the site setup. I was thinking of using eventbrite for the registration, but not sure how it will handle multiple venues. Each space might need its own signup, which would be a bit of a pain. Maybe we can use one of the upcoming coworking nights to talk about it?

I'm going to setup a project in here this weekend and start outlining this in more detail. If you guys can post your thoughts here in the meantime, that would be awesome.

And thanks @knicklabs for nudging this.

TT

[knicklabs]

@trevortwining here are my thoughts:

Curriculum Code Academy looks like a good service for delivering the course since all the course work can be completed in the browser.

In terms of the instructional language, I'd vote for JavaScript. You can start immediately by opening the console in your web browser, the console gives real time feedback, its open source, and its free. For anyone that wants to move beyond the instructional materials and tackle things on their own, JavaScript has low barriers to entry.

Volunteers/Venue

We should whip up a signup list or something to keep track of who's helping with what. Keep us posted on venue.

Signup Site We should definitely examine how we'll handle registration and tracking participants. For the time being though, we should put up a launching page. We can maybe have messaging like "We're teaching going to teach X people to code this year. Help us teach 1,000. Enter your email address to pledge to learn to code." The X could be the number of people that have pledge so far. This way we can judge interest and have an email list to notify people when its time to register for a workshop.

[dideler]

Maybe we can take advantage of this: Hour of Code

Code.org is organizing a massive Hour of Code campaign to coincide with national Computer Science Education Week, Dec 8-14, 2013. The concept is to recruit 10 million students (and adults) to take an Hour of Code.

What's an Hour of Code? 1) A self-guided online tutorial anybody can do, with just a web-browser or smart-phone. No experience needed. We will have content targeting students from 3rd grade and up. 2) A recruiting effort to get 100,000 teachers to host an Hour of Code during CS Ed Week. Communities that enlist the most students will win recognition and prizes. 3) A massive promotion to ensure that a significant percentage of Americans hear about Hour of Code with support from celebrities, politicians, non-profits, and corporations.

One of the ways to participate is to host an Hour of Code in your own organization.

[trevortwining]

Denis, I think this is an awesome answer to 'what's next?' or 'what if I don't have time?' as will be asked by many participants or other community stakeholders. It might be hard to get attention drawn to it the second week of december. but if it's just one of many things going on, then as long as it reaches some it will be helpful.

[knicklabs]

@dideler @trevortwining How do you feel about moving ahead with the Hour of Code. I know there are some challenges around it, but at least it will get the ball rolling on this effort to teach 1K people to code. Perhaps we could target teachers and school clubs and see if we can get some commitment to participate in the Hour of Code.

[tmadej]

I think the Hour of Code is a great idea. I met one of the co-founders of Code.org at JS.everywhere back in October and I could pass it along to him.

I’m also open to helping promote this and hosting this event. I’ll also be teaching a couple people over the next month, so it seems appropriate.

I say lets go ahead. We can make it a co-branded event through Software Niagara, FueledMinds and possibility Innovate Niagara, with references back to Code.org and any marketing material around the 1k initiative.

Thomas Madej tom@madej.ca

On Nov 21, 2013, at 4:48 PM, Nickolas Kenyeres notifications@github.com wrote:

@dideler @trevortwining How do you feel about moving ahead with the Hour of Code. I know there are some challenges around it, but at least it will get the ball rolling on this effort to teach 1K people to code. Perhaps we could target teachers and school clubs and see if we can get some commitment to participate in the Hour of Code.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[dideler]

@knicklabs I'm down with moving ahead. I can organize a list of schools/clubs w/ contact info.

[erinkatzman]

Let me know if I can help. I am a mother that is just learning to code and encouraging my daughter's to code. They go to Wheatley School - principal not that receptive, but could put a notice up for an after-school program. I have been driving my girls to Hamilton for Real Programming for Kids - Visual Basic Serpent Temple and Girls Learning Code in Toronto - HTML CSS on Mozilla thimble, Scratch etc. I would also put up on Facebook. I could help with the beginner - younger oriented code.org tutorials.

[knicklabs]

@tmadej @dideler This sounds good. Perhaps we can use the FueledMinds space for a workshop during that week.

@erinkatzman We'd love to have your help! It sounds like you've got some valuable experience with current programs / curriculum being offered in the era. Do you know others (adult or youth) with an interest in learning to code?

[tmadej]

@knicklabs I’m on board. Lets do Tuesday, Dec. 10 at FueledMinds. If that works for you, I’ll setup the event on csedweek.org. Feel free to call my cell phone this weekend to quickly some organizational and marketing stuff.

csedweek.org also has an participation kit: http://csedweek.org/community/

Side note: do we have a press release section of the Software Niagara site?

• TM

On Nov 22, 2013, at 6:35 PM, Nickolas Kenyeres notifications@github.com wrote:

@tmadej @dideler This sounds good. Perhaps we can use the FueledMinds space for a workshop during that week.

@erinkatzman We'd love to have your help! It sounds like you've got some valuable experience with current programs / curriculum being offered in the era. Do you know others (adult or youth) with an interest in learning to code?

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[dideler]

I'm going to compile a list of contact info here, it'll be a work in progress. We can move it elsewhere when complete. Privacy disclaimer: This is all public information.

Organization	Contact*	Role	Email	Telephone	Twitter	Website
Brock Computer Science Club	Blair Holden	President	brockcsc@gmail.com, csc@cosc.brocku.ca	905-688-5550 x4130	@BrockuCSC	www.cosc.brocku.ca/~csc
Brock Computer Science Department	Gord Dunkley	Student Support Co-ordinator	gdunkley@brocku.ca, coord@cosc.brocku.ca	(905) 688-5550 ext. 3157		www.cosc.brocku.ca
Governor Simcoe Secondary School Robotics Club (Simbotics)	Karthik Kanagasabapathy	Lead Mentor	GSS@dsbn.edu.on.ca	(905) 934-4006	@frc1114	www.simbotics.org/
DSBN Elementary Schools (88)			Visit link	Visit link		http://www.dsbn.edu.on.ca/schools/elementary.aspx
DSBN Secondary Schools (19)			Visit link	Visit link		http://www.dsbn.edu.on.ca/schools/secondary.aspx
NCDSB Elementary Schools (51)						http://www.niagaracatholic.ca/schools/elementary-schools/
NCDSB Elementary Schools (8)						http://www.niagaracatholic.ca/schools/secondary-schools/

*** Contact given is the most likely contact to be reached, not necessarily the contact that will be reached in cases where a shared email address is used.

[trevortwining]

Hey all,

All in favour, but the last stumbling block we had before I had to back-burner this was the curriculum. Let's get something solid in place before we plan anything else. Based on my last few interactions, we need to make sure this is simple, and has a progression that keeps them engaged. The minute they're bored, we've lost them for the day.

Not sure where the 'Hour of Code' tagline came from, but I think it could be misleading. I really do think we need at least a day to impart a meaningful set of basic concepts to the kids. 'Hour of Coding' sets the expectations in a far different direction.

I just had a group of students at Collegiate reach out as well (somewhere around 40?). Will let you know as I know more.

If we're working with the schools, we should be able to get something inside one of the schools. I think that would be far easier from an access standpoint, not to mention any liability issues.

Also, big welcome to @erinkatzman! I agree with Nick that your recent experience will be a great help for us.

On Sun, Nov 24, 2013 at 4:09 AM, Dennis Ideler notifications@github.comwrote:

I'm going to compile a list of contact info here, it'll be a work in progress. We can move it elsewhere when complete. Privacy disclaimer: This is all public information. Organization Contact* Role Email Telephone Other Brock Computer Science Club Blair Holden President brockcsc@gmail.com, csc@cosc.brocku.ca 905-688-5550 x4130 Brock Computer Science Department. Gord Dunkley Student Support Co-ordinator gdunkley@brocku.ca, coord@cosc.brocku.ca (905) 688-5550 ext. 3157 Governor Simcoe Secondary School Robotics Club (Simbotics) Karthik Kanagasabapathy Lead Mentor GSS@dsbn.edu.on.ca (905) 934-4006 @frc1114https://twitter.com/frc1114

*\ Contact given is the most likely contact to be reached, not necessarily the contact that will be reached in cases where a group email address is given.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/softwareniagara/feedback/issues/22#issuecomment-29151625 .

Trevor Twining skype:trevortwining

[erinkatzman]

Hi,

I think the hour of code movement could be a tool to get people interested and realize the importance of learning, especially with the celebrity video’s that they have. Also, they provide easy access to tutorials that are doable, as an introduction. After that, depending on age, a tool such as codecademy could be used. This goes along with:

Also, something to think about, if we can get enough interest, we could possible get a chapter of girlslearningcode.com or kidslearningcode.com in Niagara, where they already have course material for workshops set up, it just requires an instructor, a location and volunteer mentors - or borrow from their ideas anyway.

Also, I don’t know anything about it, but are you affiliated with coderdojo?

Sorry if redundant,

Erin

On Nov 25, 2013, at 10:23 AM, Trevor Twining notifications@github.com wrote:

Hey all,

All in favour, but the last stumbling block we had before I had to back-burner this was the curriculum. Let's get something solid in place before we plan anything else. Based on my last few interactions, we need to make sure this is simple, and has a progression that keeps them engaged. The minute they're bored, we've lost them for the day.

Not sure where the 'Hour of Code' tagline came from, but I think it could be misleading. I really do think we need at least a day to impart a meaningful set of basic concepts to the kids. 'Hour of Coding' sets the expectations in a far different direction.

I just had a group of students at Collegiate reach out as well (somewhere around 40?). Will let you know as I know more.

If we're working with the schools, we should be able to get something inside one of the schools. I think that would be far easier from an access standpoint, not to mention any liability issues.

Also, big welcome to @erinkatzman! I agree with Nick that your recent experience will be a great help for us.

On Sun, Nov 24, 2013 at 4:09 AM, Dennis Ideler notifications@github.comwrote:

I'm going to compile a list of contact info here, it'll be a work in progress. We can move it elsewhere when complete. Privacy disclaimer: This is all public information. Organization Contact* Role Email Telephone Other Brock Computer Science Club Blair Holden President brockcsc@gmail.com, csc@cosc.brocku.ca 905-688-5550 x4130 Brock Computer Science Department. Gord Dunkley Student Support Co-ordinator gdunkley@brocku.ca, coord@cosc.brocku.ca (905) 688-5550 ext. 3157 Governor Simcoe Secondary School Robotics Club (Simbotics) Karthik Kanagasabapathy Lead Mentor GSS@dsbn.edu.on.ca (905) 934-4006 @frc1114https://twitter.com/frc1114

*\ Contact given is the most likely contact to be reached, not necessarily the contact that will be reached in cases where a group email address is given.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/softwareniagara/feedback/issues/22#issuecomment-29151625 .

Trevor Twining skype:trevortwining — Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[dideler]

are you affiliated with coderdojo?

@erinkatzman I don't think any of us are, though we did bring up the possibility of starting a local dojo a long time ago. It may be worth revisiting.

I think you forgot to include something after "This goes along with:"?

[knicklabs]

There was an article about CoderDojo on the Software Hamilton site.

In terms of curriculum, the article mentions this neat app called light-bot.

[dideler]

Light-bot looks like a lot of fun. Something that can also be used is this game that teaches JS (though it's not as kid-friendly as light-bot): http://www.codecombat.com

[knicklabs]

I know we have been floundering about on this topic for quiet some time. I think we can agree that teaching people to code is a good thing. Even Barack Obama thinks people should learn to code.

I think it's time we just dive in and do it. It's going to be an iterative process. As we teach, we'll learn about what people want to learn and how people want to learn. We can roll that feedback back into our efforts going forward.

That said, we're going to offer an Introduction to Coding session at lunchtime (12:00PM) on Friday December 20 at FueledMinds. There will be pizza and learning (beginner friendly). It doesn't matter if only a few people turn out. At least we'll have started this ball rolling.

Would love your help on putting this together. Thanks!

[knicklabs]

There's been no successful forward movement on this issue in 7 months. Anyone opposed to closing this with a "won't fix"?