Today is the last official day of Computer Science Education Week: http://csedweek.org/ and we participated at my school by exposing students to The Hour of Code 2013. This is a series of free tutorials that walk students (and adults like me) through the basics of coding. If you make an account you can keep track of your progress, and students K-12 can also win prizes if they complete all of the modules.
I had limited availability in the library this week due to testing and Bright Futures sign up, but I packed as many teachers in as I could. The site is going to stay up for a while longer, so maybe I can coax some more teachers into letting their classes try it out.
I was so happy to see how engaged the students were in the process and how they helped each other figure the puzzles out. I know coding isn’t for everyone, and I told them that, but it’s all about exposure in my opinion. How do you know what you like until you’re exposed to it? I wish I would have known how much I enjoyed graphic design before my senior year of college, for instance. So, expose them to as much as possible as soon as possible, I say!
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