Early education is so important! That’s why I blogged recently about teaching binary code to toddlers (see my video blog post at http://socialbusinesssandy.com/2014/12/08/video-blog-teaching-binary-to-toddlers-is-it-important-for-all-to-code/). And I believe we should be encouraging kids of all ages to learn how to code and create software that serves a purpose.
What we learned recently is that if you combine pizza with Bluemix, what you get is a room full of students who are ready to create and deploy mobile apps!
At the IBM Innovation Center in Austin, we had 24 middle school and high school students, plus their parents, attend a Kids Code! event. The room was filled with eager students excited about creating their own web-based mobile apps! As they worked on their projects, hands would eagerly go up whenever the students had a question. Everyone was working patiently and diligently! And their parents were engaged, too, as they assisted and worked closely with their students to finish the coding task.
Every now and then, you could hear sounds of delight as students one by one were deploying their first mobile app! It was such a great learning atmosphere!
One of the more fascinating things was the tools each student would use to code with Bluemix. Some were using laptops, some using tablets, while others were using smartphones! I think that is so wonderful because these are the tools of today!
IBM will host more events like this around the globe. However, if you are interested in getting your student involved in coding now, there are great resources online to help you get started. Coderdojo, Code.org and Hour of Code are all great resources you can use to expose your student to the fun and creativity of coding! It might start a lifetime of software creation!
Helpful links:
Coderdojo -> https://coderdojo.com/
Code.org -> http://code.org/
Hour of Code -> http://hourofcode.com/us