It’s probably no secret at this point that I would like to see more students learning how to code. There are numerous posts on this blog about the topic, including yesterday’s entry. In addition, I have a burgeoning Pinterest board on the topic.
Code.org is gearing up for a campaign aimed towards students in K-12 . It begins during Computer Science Week, December 9-15, 2013. This annual celebration starts by marking the birthday of Admiral Grace Hopper, a computer science pioneer.
The purpose of “Hour of Code” is to introduce as many students as possible to the wonderful world of programming. The hope is that educators, community leaders, and employers will join the campaign, promising to devote an hour of time to allowing those in their charge to explore coding using the tutorials provided by Code.org.
Teachers can access supporting materials here. If you are one of the first 100,000 organizers to sign up to participate here, you will receive 10GB of Dropbox storage free. And, if you are able to get an entire school to participate, there are many more potential prizes – like a class-set of laptops, or a web chat with one of the titans of technology: Bill Gates, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Susan Wojcicki of Google, and Gabe Newell of Valve, and others.
Check out the sample tutorial here. If I can figure it out, anyone can!