I’ll keep this brief. Everywhere you turn, there’s a new coding program popping up and the impact stories behind these things are nuts! I want to share with you all three programs I learned about this summer. I hope you all can appreciate learning about new things as much as I do. Enjoy!
From Prisoners to Programmers
I wrote about this program for Blavity last week. When I first read it, i thought, oh that’s cool. But when you really think about it, the Code.7370 Program at San Quentin State Prison is effectively changing these men’s lives with 300 hours of computer training. Not only have these inmates been deprived of computer contact during their sentences, they are often deprived of a chance for gainful employment upon release. Although there is much work to be done on the “Ban the Box” front, this is a small step in the right direction.
Andela | Software Development and Consultancy
I learned about Andela through Twitter (via @tee_seg) after sharing the Prisoners to Programmers article. What makes this program unique is the specialization of their developer talent. They boast on their website that less than 1% of applicants actually become Andela developers. They select the cream of the crop from African countries thereby giving African children a chance to build skills and provide the developer community with the cream of the crop, so to speak. They are currently offering a Fellowship open to anyone who thinks they have what it takes to become a world-class developer.
Learning to Code Becomes Learning to Learn
This last program came to me just this morning in my email from Scoop it, a content curation site I use to find interesting takes on digital literacy. Gerard Dawson, High School English and Journalism teacher, tells the story of re-becoming a learner in order to understand his student’s needs. He renewed his sense of beginner-ship by learning how to code. Learning how to code is often compared to learning a new language. He reflects on three lessons in his Edutopia article including the importance of asking for help, embracing failure and keeping it fun. He ultimately experienced growth and empathy as a new learner. The programs he used were One Month Rails to learn the Ruby on Rails developer language framework and Code Academy, a very popular portal for online courses.
As promised, I kept it (relatively short) Enough from me. I want to know what you all think about becoming new learners and taking on coding, in the comments below.
OR find me on Twitter @yea_me2 and use the hashtag #code to discuss
Christine Edwards
