iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

"To get into the coding and holiday spirit, TLDSB will be doing the #12blocksofcodemas this year! Each day, starting on December 7th, a new block of code for Scratch and ScratchJr will be announced on Twitter, Google+ and in the Staff Lounge in FirstClass. Students that participate can submit their projects to entered in a draw to win a prize for their school!"

Girls Learning Code is excited to combine the power of storytelling with basic design and programming skills for our popular storytelling and animation workshop!

On May 13, 2017, Ladies Learning Code is hosting its fourth annual Girls Learning Code Day in celebration of International Scratch Day!

This year, we'll build on our mission of teaching girls 21st century digital skills and encourage them to tell their story through digital media.

Using Scratch, a beginner level programming environment that encourages mathematical and computational skills, imagination will come to life throughout the day in a new and digitally engaging form. Girls will also be introduced to Scratch's amazing online community sloganed: "Imagine, Program, Share." where they will have the opportunity to upload their project for anyone on the web to enjoy!

At the end of the workshop, each girl will also get a chance to practice their presentation skills and showcase their creation for everyone attending the workshop to experience and enjoy!

"Last year, I went to Nigeria with Mark Zuckerberg. One of the first stops on the trip was a program that taught kids how to code. When Zuckerberg entered the room, many of the young students had a hard time pulling themselves away from their projects, even to gawk at one of the world’s richest men. Facebook’s founder instead came to them. “What are you making?” he’d ask. And they would proudly say, “A game!” or whatever it was, and begin showing him how it works. Zuckerberg would stop them. “Show me the code!” he’d say, because, well, he’s Zuckerberg, and any occasion is ripe for an ad hoc programming review. And that’s when the kid would click on a menu that toggled from the game to the LEGO-like building blocks of a Scratch program.

This happened several times, with kids ranging from ages 8 to 15. In every instance, the maker of a cool project could clearly show this famous visitor how he or she had methodically implemented a plan. Zuckerberg was clearly impressed. As we headed up the stairs to leave the building, Zuckerberg called out to me, “Scratch! Have you heard of this?”

Oh, yes I had. Though it was not yet released to the world when Zuckerberg left Harvard to launch his quirky little startup, Scratch (developed just a couple of T stops away) is quickly becoming the world’s most popular computer language for kids taking their first bite of programming. Last year, over 120 million people came to its site, and many of them built and shared projects, at a rate of a million a month. “It’s the gateway drug for Silicon Valley engineering,” says Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, a Scratch supporter."