Around 900 school libraries to receive devices, books

LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas Department of Education Office of Computer Science announced during Computer Science Education Week a cross initiative promotion to provide around 900 public school libraries with coding devices and coding-related books.

The promotion combines the efforts of the Arkansas Computer Science Initiative with Reading Initiative for Student Excellence Arkansas’ mission of building a culture of reading in Arkansas.

“Once again, the educators in our state are expanding the boundaries in order to ensure that our students have the opportunity to achieve everything they can in life,” Hutchinson said. “This is a great investment in our young people that complements all the other computer science initiatives we are undertaking to keep Arkansas ahead of the technology curve.”

Public school libraries that serve students in any combination of grades K-8 are eligible to receive a Micro:Bit, which are small programmable computers, and a copy of “Code Your Own Games!: 20 Games to Create with Scratch,” by Max Wainewright. Public school libraries that serve students in any combination of grades K-5 also will be eligible to receive a copy of “Sasha Savvy Loves to Code,” by Sasha A. Alston.

“I am honored that my book, ‘Sasha Savvy Loves to Code,’ was chosen to be a part of the computer science and reading initiatives,” Alston said. “Just like reading and math, coding is a literacy we must have to thrive in the workforce

and to address many of the global challenges we are facing.

“This is why it was important for me to write this book, especially for girls, because we don’t want anyone to be left out. We want everyone to gain the necessary skills and to dream big.”

To be eligible to receive the books and devices, public school library media specialists must attend a free ADE Office of Computer Science-approved training on the Micro:Bit that will be provided at every education service cooperative in Arkansas. A list of approved sessions provided by Arkansas computer science specialists with registration links will be posted as they are scheduled.

For library media specialists who cannot attend one of the co-op trainings, the ADE is working with Arkansas Educational Television Network to create an online training through the ArkansasIDEAS Learning Management System that should be launched by May.

“For centuries libraries have been the hub for intellectual curiosity and discovery, and now Arkansas school libraries lead the transformation into the digital age as a hub for learning computer science with the Micro:Bit pocket-size computer,” said Hal Speed, head of North America for the Micro:Bit Educational Foundation.

“The Micro:Bit device and online programming editors provide creative, easy-to-use learning tools for students, teachers and librarians to support Arkansas’s K-8 Computer Science Standards implementation.”