CoderDojo

Your Name and Title: Erica Payne, Media Specialist

School, Library, or Organization Name: Albemarle County Public Schools

Co-Presenter Name(s): Jon Barber, Stephen Howell, Vince Scheivert, Jane Z. (a 5th grade student)

Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Charlottesville, VA, United States and Louth, Republic of Ireland

Language in Which You Will Present: English

Target Audience(s): Students, K-12 school community, including parents and administrators, especially those interested in Technology or STEM

Short Session Description (one line): We will be sharing a variety of perspectives on CoderDojo.

Full Session Description (as long as you would like):
According to their website, “CoderDojo is a movement orientated around running free not-for-profit coding clubs and regular sessions for young people. At a CoderDojo, young people learn how to code, develop websites, apps, programs, games and more. Dojos are set up, run by and taught at by volunteers. Dojos organise tours of technology companies, bring in guest speakers to talk about their career and what they do, and organise events. In addition to learning to code, members meet like minded people, show off what they’ve been working on and so on. CoderDojo makes development and learning to code a fun, sociable, kick ass experience. CoderDojo also puts a strong emphasis on open source and free software, and has a strong network of members and volunteers globally. CoderDojo has just one rule: “Above All: Be Cool“, bullying, lying, wasting people’s time and so on is uncool.”

We will be presenting about CoderDojo from a variety of perspectives: an administrator who organized a CoderDojo, two teachers who taught coding, a student who participated, and a software designer who also coordinated as a parent.

Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session: