What started out as a way to keep a colleague?s kid occupied during a PD day turned into a bright idea, says the Code for Kids non-profit founder.
?I was at Shopify and our head of talent acquisition had his kid in on a PD day. He got bored pretty fast,? said Julian Nadeau, 21, who has been working for the Ottawa-based e-commerce company as a co-op student since January.
Using a Raspberry Pi computer and a credit-card sized 700?MHz device often used to teach?basic computer science in schools,?Nadeau quickly showed the boy how work with the visual programming language Scratch.
?A moment later I thought: ?Why don?t we do this for a bunch of kids,?? said Nadeau, who runs the course from Shopify?s event space.
The next session, which is the third of the series, will teach kids aged seven to 12 about designing user interfaces. Based on past workshops, the sessions seem to be growing.
?In May?we had an event where we brought the kids in and taught them Scratch,? said Nadeau, pointing out that 35 to 40 per cent of the kids who showed up were girls. The first three hour event brought in 20 kids, the second in July roughly 60 for the morning and afternoon course where they learned how to create a webpage using HTML.
By teaching kids to code, even if it?s at a basic level, it will help them to adapt and understand how to harness the true potential and power of technology, he said.
?Even if you?ve gone through school as an English major, in your job you end up using computers all the time,? said Nadeau of his reason for founding the program. ?We have this world where everything is controlled by technology.?You probably use a computer in ways that aren?t using them to their full potential.?
Though he?s only running workshops in Ottawa, Nadeau said he to hopes bring the program to other Canadian cities.
?The kids come out and?they?re ecstatic because they now have a website to show their friends.?
The next session runs on September 14th at Shopify?at a cost of?$55.
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Source: http://metronews.ca/news/ottawa/756514/code-for-kids-teaches-value-of-computer-programming/
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