Two Years of CoderDojo Scotland 29th July, 2014 This month marks the two year Anniversary of the first CoderDojo in Scotland. Glasgow Science Centre was the host of the first Dojo in July 2012 and still remains our most popular location. Over the past twelve months, supported by the Digital Makers Fund, we have been able to grow the movement across the country. We’ve seen the launch of successful clubs in Edinburgh, Stirling, Livingston, Inverclyde, Moray, Inverness, and across the Highlands. Using the Glasgow CoderDojo as a model, a local group of volunteer mentors run each new CoderDojo club. But it’s not a strict franchise model. Each location has adapted the club to suit their location, their team of mentors, and the interests of their young people. Since March 2014 we’ve run 66 successful CoderDojos engaging with over 770 young people. Over this intense period we’ve learned about the benefits of CoderDojo. Engagement CoderDojo Scotland works well when young people get a sustained and deeper learning experience. Across the country engaged young people are returning to our clubs month after month. This leads to an increase in their digital skills and confidence in digital making. In some instances young people have attended 17 or 18 sessions. This trend also applies to newer Dojos. CoderDojo Livingston, launched at the end of 2013, now has a small core group that return each month (a retention rate of over 80%). Links to Formal Education CoderDojo Scotland is an informal learning environment that can complement existing formal education pathways. We have had interest from Primary and Secondary teachers and educators. They want to learn about the methods and approach we have to teaching digital making skills. We make our materials available through our website and on our GitHub. Also, we encourage teachers to adapt these materials to use in their classroom. Working with Nesta Scotland we delivered One Day Digital continuing professional development workshops for educators. These sessions received fantastic feedback including one teacher commenting: “One of the most useful and interesting, well presented CPD’s ever – Thanks!” This year CoderDojo has also presented workshops as part of the Computing At Schools Scotland Conference in Glasgow, OPPI Learning Festival in Helsinki, and at Learning Through Technology Conference in Edinburgh Open-Ended Curriculum CoderDojo Scotland works best as an open-ended experience that adapts activities to the learner’s interests. Our workshops alternate between “open project” sessions and more structured experiences. At the open sessions young people are free to work on their personal projects, supported by our mentors. The other structured experiences take the form of specialist workshops led by our mentors. For example, Stirling CoderDojo had a successful Storytelling workshop that combined storytelling with animations in Scratch. At the BAFTA Games CoderDojo young people got the chance to learn about game development with insight from industry experts. Social Experience CoderDojo Scotland is just as much a social experience as it is an educational one. We’ve found that the physical and social experience of CoderDojo is a benefit over online learning resources. Participants have told us that they enjoy the sessions, not only because they learn coding and digital making but also because of the ambience, the camaraderie of learning together. When asked “What was the most enjoyable part?”, participants said “I liked it all,“, “the chance to do something I don’t do at home“, as well as “I liked working on my project with other people“. Addressing the Digital Skills Gap Earlier this year the Scottish Government committed £6.6m of funding to support digital skills in Scotland. Digital skills will give young people a head start in their future career. Research by Make Things Do Stuff highlights that digital technology is essential to the future of the UK economy: 69% of business leaders pick it as the top skill for future success. The skills that young people are learning at CoderDojos are helping develop the pipeline of digital talent in Scotland. But we will also seize the opportunity to engage with young people who would not normally engage with after school computer coding clubs. Our Glasgow Digital Makers project with Skills Development Scotland will aim to promote digital inclusion and reduce inequality in the region by empowering and engaging disadvantaged, harder to reach young people. Our goals for 2014/2015 Our work in 2014/2015 will be supported by the Scottish Government’s “Scotland’s Digital Future” programme. A stronger, sustainable CoderDojo Scotland network Over the next year a key goal is to strengthen and sustain CoderDojo Scotland network. While each individual Dojo can be self-sustaining (run by volunteers, in a donated space) it’s important to support them in this process. We have created a fantastic network across Scotland, linking together enthusiastic professionals with interested learners. We must now make the most of this resource. Inclusion We must find ways to approach different demographics of young people. We need to make sure that we can attract and support young people who would not normally attend these types of clubs. We can equip these young people with new skills, boosting their employability. During the next year we will aim to tackle the gender imbalance in our Dojos. Currently only 1 in 5 of participants are female. We are looking at a number of strategies that could be employed to improve this after having some preliminary discussions with female mentors and coders at our Dojo in Glasgow.