Hop into coding

Great opportunities for students in the Hour of Code

INTERNATIONAL Computer Science Week, along with a number of other computer education events, is once again celebrating The Hour of Code.

The Hour of Code started yesterday and finishes this Friday, December 8. It is the largest worldwide computing program for students.

This initiative offers opportunities for students to engage in an hour-long activity that introduces them in age-appropriate activities to computer programming, using a large collection of resources provided by organisations including Google, Microsoft, Disney Studios, Minecraft/Mojang, Code.org, Grok Learning, Hello Ruby, Hopscotch, MIT, Tufts University, Ozobot and the STEMCoding Project.

The Hour of Code is designed to demystify “code”, to show that all students are able to learn to code. In November more than 100 new activities were released in preparation for the Hour of Code event.

There have been more than 400 events registered in Australia since early November.

Hour of Code activities are self-guided and can be accessed at https://code.org/ learn, where individual tutorials and age-appropriate activities from Years 4 to 12 are available.

No signup or login is required for students to try the Hour of Code. Teachers are able to access and freely use Hour of Code resources without registering for an event but when teachers do register, their event is added to the world total.

The Digital Technologies Hub contains lesson plans and links to resources, and webinars that support all aspects of the curriculum as well as Scootle, with links that also support the introduction of coding within the Australian Curriculum.

The exemplary work that has gone into the building of these national repositories for teachers, supported by federal funding for professional learning, further reflects the importance of the Australian Curriculum - Digital Technologies.

Support for educators to engage their students is also offered through international programs such as the twiceyearly Bebras Challenge that introduces students to a range of computational thinking challenges.

Additionally, the federallyfunded online professional learning CSER MOOC program developed by the University of Adelaide provides further support for teachers introducing coding to their students.

At this time of the year schools are often undertaking a number of exciting end-of -ear events. The Hour of Code is an excellent opportunity to engage students in an area of the curriculum where digital literacy is becoming increasingly important.