CoderDojo Minho, of which I'm a proud founder, is back this week, in parallel with CodeWeek, an EU initiative to promote coding for everyone.
Most people think of coding as a skill that's only available for a narrow group of individuals, but the truth is that each day more and more people decide to learn how to code due to the impact it already has in our daily lives. In the near future, coding might be as important and natural as speaking English nowadays.
In a recent TED talk, Mitch Resnick (creator of Scratch, a program that lets you create your own interactive stories, games, and animations) talked about the urgency of teaching kids to code. In this talk, he presents the benefits of learning to code in an early age, where our brain can gather more information. Coding is a highly useful skill for kids to learn. It teaches vital problem solving, creativity and communication skills. It also can be downright fun.
This kind of initiatives are arising everywhere. Varying from governmental, voluntary and private sectors, a lot of people are trying to get their fingerprints in this historic turn of page.
The easiest way to introduce a kid to coding, especially if you don't know how to do it yourself, is to sign him up to one of the many encounters that exist today. CoderDojo being the most popular, with more than 200 dojos around the world. In Portugal, there are two dojos currently available. CoderDojo Lx in Lisbon, already a few years old, and CoderDojo Minho recently created by Luís Miranda and me.
For the grown ups or more experienced, you can try Codecademy and/or KidsRuby. The biggest initiative to the moment is Code.org. Visit it to know more about this and other tools. See the video bellow to get inspired:
Are you teaching kids to code or want some tips to get started?
Just send me an email or leave a comment bellow, I'll get in touch with you as soon as possible.