The Hour of Code is back for 2018, December 3rd – 9th… Now entering its 6th year, the Hour of Code movement continues to grow and so far has reached over 100 million students in more than 180 countries across 48 languages and code.org, who organise the global event claim that over 600 million hours have been hosted online since 2012.
Questions anyone? Read on…
What exactly is the Hour of Code?
The Hour of Code is about exposing students of all ages (4yrs and up) to computer programming, demystifying the pursuit and demonstrating that anybody can learn the basics. The Hour of Code provides a myriad of bite-sized child-centric activities for students to experiment with programming and game creation, ranging from structured lessons to more creative, exploratory activities, making coding accessible to all types of learners. The goal of the Hour of Code is not to teach anybody to become an expert computer scientist in one hour. The hour is only a taster to show that computer science is fun and creative. Its all about the number that participate and lighting the spark of curiosity that students can take on. Millions of the participating teachers and students have decided to go beyond one hour – using code.org’s own suite of introduction courses, or indeed going further a field exploring, Scratch, Raspberry Pi Education, Code Club, Khan Academy, MakeCode, CS First, Hopscotch, Codesters (To mention a few of numerous options out there) and more…
But…I don’t know anything about coding?
Crucially, all Hour of Code activities are self-guided and code.org have options for every age and experience-level, from infants and up. Try out some of their current tutorials and choose what suits and start planning your hour with this handy how to guide. Other simple steps to ensure your class is at the centre of the learning are; ensuring they work in pairs and mixing ability levels appropriately, encouraging discussion, promoting shared problem solving and cross-class sharing.
What’s in it for them?
Well apart from getting an opportunity to try computer coding and have opportunities that develop the necessary problem solving skills, all in a fun environment, every student that takes part gets a certificate of participation. Just go to the certificates page where you can print certificates for your entire class. You can also print out special certificates for students doing the Minecraft tutorial.
I’m in…what do I need to do?
All you need to do is complete the Host an Hour registration form (Before December 3rd) and then follow the 7 steps at hourofcode.com/ac/how-to. That’s all there’s to it…Happy Coding!