Hour of Code

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Teacher Tips. This week is all about Computer Science Education Week. Computer Science Education Week which is December 9th to the 15th this year is an opportunity for educators to expose their students to the world of computer science. This topic is usually left for an elective or resource class. And often students don't have an opportunity to explore computer science prior to college. Computer Science Education Week is designed to give students of all grade levels a chance to pique their interest in programming, building websites, designing software, and even making iPhone apps.

The next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs might be sitting in your classroom, and this week, you just might introduce some students to their future career. The website, csedweek.org is designed to help educators and parents learn about computer science. And how to integrate these skills into their teaching. The goal for this Computer Science Education Week is to have ten million students each participate in one hour of coding or programming at some point during the week. And even if you don't know how to program, that's okay. There's a variety of ways to accomplish this goal by learning alongside your students.

One of which is KODU. KODU is an interactive drag and drop program application where students can build their own games. KODU is free, and in the next videos of this chapter, I'll show you how to install the application into your students' program in a matter of minutes. Regardless of our content area, teaching programming is tremendously beneficial for our students. The logic students learning when programming helps push higher order thinking and increases student creativity. Steve Jobs is quoted in the last interview as saying, everyone in this country should learn to program a computer because it teaches you how to think.

Learning programming is a way to invest students in a future career. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, computers programmers make, on average, $71,000 a year with only a bachelor's degree, and many companies report difficulties in finding well-qualified applicants for computer science positions. I encourage all educators to take the time to expose students to a new skill this week. Check out csedweek.org for more information about Computer Science Education Week, and code.org, for resources on teaching students programming. Also, check out the new Lynda.com course, Teach Kids Programming with PHP by Mark Niemann-Ross.

This course designed with students in mind, using an exploratory learning format, and student friendly language and examples. I hope this Computer Science Education Week, both you and your students learn something new.