Hour of Code
More than 44 million people of all ages have learned an Hour of Code, a one-hour introductory course designed to demystify computer science and show that anybody can learn the basics. Participate this December 8-14 during Computer Science Education Week and help reach 100 million students by the end of 2014.
The Hour of Code is happening in December. This is a great opportunity to introduce students to thinking through the process of coding in age-appropriate, interesting ways. The number of jobs in this field is growing, and the number of people ready to take those jobs isn't keeping up. What a great way to create interest in technology, learning, and thinking through your library!
The site provides all the information, videos you can share with your teachers and students--or over a student broadcast--posters, and step-by-step instructions. You don't have to know how to code to run a coding session. It's fun and engaging--and a perfect thing to support as the LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY TEACHER!
And, just a little intra-district competition: the SLCSD library with the most student participating during that week will win a Cordless Book Scanner with a USB Cradle!
Have you hosted an Hour of Code before? Tell us what went well. Interested in doing one? What questions do you have? Let's help each other put this together for our students!
the 7th grade science teacher and I are planning to participate with her students. we're scared, mostly because we were born in the 1950s when television was still relatively new.
ReplyDeleteOur lab person did it last year. It was so popular that she is doing the year of code this year. One week a month she does stuff with all grades K-6. There is a great curriculum for it and the students seem to love it.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that it sounds a bit intimidating. I would be interested, but feel like I would need someone to hold my hand to get me through it. I am going to look into doing this with my students.
ReplyDeleteSo happy to see that the LTTs are going to promote the hour of code. Thank you. DawnAnn, if you look at code.org you may feel less intimidated. All of the curriculum, games, activities (both plugged and unplugged) are already created and easy to access. Those students have been playing video games for years. They are ready to do this!
ReplyDeleteI would welcome this.
ReplyDeleteI thought this website was really confusing. A ton of talk on why its so important, but I already bought into that. I didn't find it very user friendly for teachers to get to the meat of signing up and using it quickly and easily. I am determined to do this though, its just taking up more of my time than I would like.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if I have enough computers available to dabble with this during library visits next week, maybe with just a couple grade levels.
ReplyDeleteAren't those of us who are a bit older more familiar with coding? Wasn't that something we did on those monstrous old computers in the 80s?
I have to say that I am a bit overwhelmed with this one. I don't feel adept enough to run something like this in my classes. I certainly will let my computer lab teacher know about the project. I am going to look at the one hour learning session, so that I can learn. I feel like I can't keep up with what I need to be teaching in my library sessions.I worries me to read Stephanie's and find that she found it confusing.
ReplyDeleteDawnAnn,
DeleteI finally sorted everything out. I can give you exactly what I did, and the link, if you want them.
I am just wondering about the "hour" part of the hour of code. I don't have an hour, and can't find anything on their site about if it would work if you just have 30 or 40 minutes.
ReplyDeleteOK. I'm going to try this next week. I played with some of the options, and discovered that you can do as much as you wish, take a little or more time, depending on your circumstance. Wish me luck! How do I get the number of students participating to the contest organizers?
ReplyDeletePamela, thanks for playing around with it and letting us know that you can do it as much (or as little) as you can to make it workable in your context. I am old enough to remember taking a summer school class on BASIC programming. My project was a countdown clock that exploded the screen into four colors. Wow. Somehow, its majesty pales in comparison to the Frozen characters throwing glitter...
ReplyDeleteThis is my first year of trying out the Hour of Code. I admit that I didn't take enough time to look at the teaching materials on the site, so I just made my own brief lesson. I used the poster they sent about numbers of jobs and numbers of college students pursuing those jobs as a beginning. I also introduced them to the terms "algorithms" and "pixels." I showed some images of codes used in algorithms for programming a computer and showed them computer screen pixels. I let them know that they are going to practice thinking like a programmer using some simple programming games.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have them log into their own account. I just didn't have the time this time for that extra step. I'm wondering how many students actually created accounts nationwide...or how that massive number of users number on the log on page is determined. What is wonderful is that students have a concept that such a career exists and that coding is do-able.
I did this lesson with first through sixth grade. I didn't do kindergarten mostly because I didn't want to wrestle with logging them in. I paired up first graders; that worked most efficiently.
I was so very excited to have our whole school working on Hour of Code. We started off the week with mayhem and not much luck getting students able to do any coding. Tuesday was much better and today was great until I tried to see stats and it showed that students had not done any work even after I had printed their certificates - ARGH ! Our 496 students will have all participated in the hour of code.
ReplyDeleteMy library classes are participating, grades 1-6th. So far this week, we're having a blast. The most popular sites on Hour of Code at my school are:
ReplyDeleteFrozen (Anna and Elsa)
Angry Birds
Flappy Birds
Tykner: the candy game (students build their own monster and create code to move him towards goals like a gum drop, etc)
I think more than focusing on having students code for 1 complete hour, the idea is to get students excited in computer programming via a fun game format. We have had a terrific time!