Code.org: 'Our Team Will Teach Your Children At Home While School Is Closed' 20
theodp writes: In a Medium post, tech-backed Code.org explains how it will be supporting our community during school closures, which includes "a major investment in online education without an in-person instructor" and other offerings. From the signup form for Code Break: "With schools closed and tens of millions of students at home, Code.org is launching Code Break -- a live weekly webcast where our team will teach your children [K-12 computer science] at home while school is closed, and a weekly challenge to engage students of all abilities, even those without computers. [...] Computer science is foundational to all fields of study, but since many schools don't offer it yet, this could be a unique chance to support your child in a fun new learning opportunity."
Interestingly, Code.org will be competing with its own corporate donors for homebound kids' attention. Microsoft is offering limited-time free Minecraft: Education Edition licenses as its way "to help teachers and students stay connected to the classroom" during school closures. And Google has come up with a curated list of distance learning resources for schools affected by COVID-19 (think Google Hangouts and Chromebooks), as has Facebook for Education ("If school is closed, Messenger Kids is a way to continue the social interactions the students might have at school"). Amazon is also pitching CS study for homebound kids: "As classrooms across the U.S. experience educational disruption during the pandemic, Amazon Future Engineer will initially provide free access to our sponsored computer science courses in the United States [thru Aug. 31]. These courses are for independent learners from 6th to 12th grade, or teachers who are teaching remotely to this age group."
Interestingly, Code.org will be competing with its own corporate donors for homebound kids' attention. Microsoft is offering limited-time free Minecraft: Education Edition licenses as its way "to help teachers and students stay connected to the classroom" during school closures. And Google has come up with a curated list of distance learning resources for schools affected by COVID-19 (think Google Hangouts and Chromebooks), as has Facebook for Education ("If school is closed, Messenger Kids is a way to continue the social interactions the students might have at school"). Amazon is also pitching CS study for homebound kids: "As classrooms across the U.S. experience educational disruption during the pandemic, Amazon Future Engineer will initially provide free access to our sponsored computer science courses in the United States [thru Aug. 31]. These courses are for independent learners from 6th to 12th grade, or teachers who are teaching remotely to this age group."
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Exactly. This is what theodp rants about. Check his story submissions, they are all anti-education and anti-code.org. Seriously, if you think KIDS are gonna take your "jerb" then you aren't very useful. Get a life theodp.
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As a Gen Xer I agree.
When I was a kid I learned how to program a computer. Because this was a skill that most adults at the time didn't have, I was patted on the back and told how smart and special I am. Because at the time I was doing something that was normally reserved for Adults with College degrees.
As I grew up and with access to the internet I have found that my experience wasn't unique, and that there a lot of people with the same experience, many even in my own neighborhood, but they were just in a
Is this necessary? (Score:3)
If only there was a way for kids to learn something at home without bringing in third party teachers.
Re:Is this necessary? (Score:4, Insightful)
Naturally there is, I could teach her myself, after teaching myself to teach. I could also repair my own car after teaching myself to be a mechanic, cut her hair after teaching myself to do that, etc. Or I could do what I do for the almost endless list of things I don't know how to do and pay for someone else to do them while I do the thing I've been learning for 25 years to do well. Not to mention I'd be pretty shit as a teacher, and am honest enough with myself to admit that. My daughter has had some awesome teachers over the years and I'm not egotistical enough to believe I could emulate their successes.
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Can you not think of a single thing that adults need to do in daily life that isn't taught in schools?
And do you really know how to do nothing practical/useful that they don't?
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Well, oddly enough I've been teaching that for the last 11 years, and it doesn't exactly fill her whole day. She helps me make dinner, etc already. You sound as if you thought I wasn't already doing those things. The kid can also solder, program an audreno, pick locks and has a better idea of how to secure herself on the internet the most adults. She also has learned to trust experts to teach her things, and not her eccentric old man.
There are things I'm expert on, but those are not all the things she n
Re:Is this necessary? (Score:4, Insightful)
You're missing the point. To teach something, you not only have to know that something, you also have to know how to teach. It's not a trivial skill.
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The problem with code.org is not what it teaches, it does that pretty well to the current generation through gamification. As we are not teaching most kid to be hard core developers and designers, or even soft core codes using frameworks, their ability to think through a problem and sketch out a solution is paramount.
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If only there was a way for kids to learn something at home without bringing in third party teachers.
Like my wife who spent this morning teaching math to her class as usual... except via Google Hangouts.
Hurry up - it may be over soon (Score:2)
Not to burst you disease bubble but: https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-S... [jpost.com]
Viral spread is like a Ponzi Scheme - pretty soon, you run out of new people to infect.
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What the heck does that guy know? He only won the Nobel Prize for biophysics. I would rather hear the rantings of some web developer who lives in his Moms basement about how the world is going to end.
Or you could go old school (Score:2)
https://worksheetplace.com/ [worksheetplace.com]
"Free worksheets and printables for the 1st grade to 10th grades.
Worksheets and teaching ideas and lessons for math, language, science, social skills, behavioral, social emotional learning, media literacy and setting goals. Thousands of worksheets, activities and printables. Worksheets for teachers, educators, parents and homeschoolers. Our sponsors help to keep the worksheets free!"
Retired/active teachers right now are in demand (Score:2)
Friend of mine just retired from teaching a couple years ago. And she was already tutoring some of the neighborhood kid's who needed help. More families are coming to her to help keep their children on course with their studies. Now, it says something about her being respected as a teacher for this to occur. But I see this
I love code.org (Score:3)
I've been doing code.org with my 6yo daughter. We'll, sitting next to her and being supportive while she solved the problems in her own.
It's GREAT!
I have a high paying tech job as a compiler author. I used too be a teacher, teaching computing to 10-11th graders, inventing my own curriculum based on LOGO. I taught myself to code at age 8 by renting books with game source code at the library and typing then out. I built a simple CPU out of logic gates at age 16. I'm as hard core computing as you get.
Code.org is great. The lessons are perfectly age appropriate. My daughter is picking up the right principles at the right place. At a time when math is (rightly) moving away from route application of algorithms towards agility with the underlying principles, code.org is providing fluency in algorithms that kids need.
I don't see signs that my daughter will be a professional coder. Nevertheless I see that code.org is teaching her valuable life skills and opening up important areas of her developing brain.
(I also played real life LOGO with my kids as toddlers... "Close your eyes. Walk two paces forwards. Turn right. Repeat twice.")
Teach them to code? (Score:2)
Defining âoeto codeâ as meaning code proficiently at a useful pace producing code that does what is supposed to do...
Considering one of my minions... Screw it, they might be able to do it!
Seriously, code.org should just shut up