Christmas is near and everyone is wearing their Christmas jumpers. Here at CoderDojo Scotland we decided to use our technical skills to improve our Christmas Jumpers to impress all our friends and families. We programmed an Arduino LilyPad ProtoSnap to play Christmas tunes accompanied with dancing LED lights. We then sewed the LilyPad along with its components into our jumper. Find out how to do it yourself .

 
Merry Christmas from CoderDojo Scotland

Castlemilk Dojo got off to a flying start today with an introduction to programming for a very enthusiastic group of local 8-11 year olds. The children used Google’s Blockly Maze to learn problem-solving strategies and how to use repeat loops and if statements. Useful stuff! They then went on to learn the fundamentals of  scratch to help them animate their characters, adding sound, colour and dialogue as they went along. The group were very pleasantly surprised at how quickly they picked up programming, and we were delighted when we asked ‘Would you come back to CoderDojo?’ to receive a resounding ‘Yes!’

Last month the Glasgow Science Centre hosted a special workshop with Zapcoder, makers of Zap. Roger from Zapcoder reports below

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Last month, Team Zapcoder had the privilege of showcasing demonstrating Zap at CoderDojo Scotland, in the Glasgow Science Centre. Despite the terrible Scottish autumn weather, there was a fantastic turn out of young coders to see Zap on show, and all had the chance to get hands on with the app to edit their own personalized games.

After a short walkthrough of http://zap.pm, everyone was soon editing games themselves, changing graphics and sounds and adjusting settings to create their own unique versions of Space Invaders and Brick Break – including a great Star Wars and Mass Effect crossover themed version of Space Invaders.

The CoderDojo workshop was a great chance for us to see the product in real users hands, and we took away some great ideas for improvements. It was a great experience to see and hear the next generation of coders giving their input on Zap, create a batch of new game and ideas, and be very positive about Zap and its future.

A big special thanks to Craig for inviting Zap to take part at the CoderDojo workshop – we all had a great time and can’t wait to see what you all make with Zap soon!

Roger Dubar

Zapcoder

Future Makers

Following on from the success of our Future Makers summer camps and workshops with OPEN Glasgow we will be running 3 more in September at the Riverside Museum.

These day long workshops will offer children aged 8-17 an introduction to programming, HTML game design and game design on an Arduino. These workshops have been written in collaboration with CoderDojo Scotland, Drum Roll and Technology Will Save Us.

These events are sure to be popular, so book a space now.

Future Makers is collaboration between OPEN Glasgow, CoderDojo Scotland, and Glasgow Science Centre. Read more about OPEN Glasgow, and the £24 million Future City project.

Introduction to Programming
8-11 year olds

At this workshops the young people will get an introduction to programming using various different languages.

Thursday 18th September @ Riverside Museum 10:30-15:30

Game Design (Erase All Kittens)

12-17 year olds

At the “Erase All Kittens” workshop an evil rebellion tries to destroy all kittens. Create and change the web to save the kittens, and the world! As young people play this game they will learn the fundamentals of building for the web and introduce them to HTML game design.

Friday 26th September @ Riverside Museum 10:30-15:30

DIY Gamer with Technology Will Save Us

8 – 11 year olds

At this workshop young people will program a handheld games console. They’ll go through creating animations and testing them on the DIY Gamer console. This is a great and easy way to learn basic programming!

Monday 29th September @ Riverside Museum 10:30-15:30

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.

Glasgow Future Makers

This summer we’re excited to be running an innovative new project with OPEN Glasgow that will give hundreds of children throughout the city a taste of programming.

The Future Makers events will see children and young people from 5 to 17 get involved in a range of activities during drop-in sessions, workshops and summer camps.

We are kicking off this June with a series of engagement events across the city. We’ll be partnering up with two exciting young digital making companies: Drum Roll and Technology Will Save Us.

These events are sure to be popular, so book a space now.

We will also be running events in July, sign up to the Future Makers mailing list to keep updated.

Future Makers is collaboration between OPEN Glasgow, CoderDojo Scotland, and Glasgow Science Centre. Read more about OPEN Glasgow, and the £24 million Future City project.

Erase All Kittens with Drum Roll
8-11 year olds

At the “Erase All Kittens” workshop an evil rebellion tries to destroy all kittens. Create and change the web to save the kittens, and the world! As young people play this game they will learn the fundamentals of building for the web.

On these dates we will also be hosting a drop-in session for 5 to 7 year olds and their families. No need to book for the drop in, come along between 11am and 4pm.

DIY Gamer with Technology Will Save Us
12 – 17 year olds

At this workshop young people will program a handheld games console. They’ll go through creating animations and testing them on the DIY Gamer console. This is a great and easy way to learn basic programming!

On this date we will also be hosting a “Raspberry Pi” drop-in surgery session for 11 to 17 year olds. No need to book for the drop in, come along between 11am and 4pm.

Computing at School Coding Fun Factory

On Saturday 22^nd March 2014 over a hundred young people attended a Computing at School Coding Fun Factory.

The all-day event took place as part of the Moray College Science Festival Families Day. The children had the opportunity to learn to code using the free MIT program “Scratch”. The young people were soon adapting the code creating their own animations and other ideas. They were introduced to the resources on the Scratch website including tutorials, help forums, games and animations.

One of the event’s young volunteer helpers, Kieran McCulley set up and ably demonstrated the innovative mini- computer, the Raspberry Pi while his brother, Calum shared his own Scratch coding expertise.

BSc Computing student and STEM Ambassador Jill McGhee also came along to lend her welcome support to the day.  The event was conceived and run by CAS hub leader and STEM Ambassador, Claire Griffiths. There was enthusiastic interest in a new code club for 9-11 years, which will start in the next couple of months to join the existing Coderdojo Moray for 12-17 year olds.

 

Claire Griffiths

Moray CoderDojo Mentor

Our mentors are the key to running successful Dojos. At a CoderDojo the learning is led by the young people – there is no set curriculum. We also encourage our mentors to share their knowledge in areas they are passionate about. 

Stirling CoderDojo mentor John talks about his experience of mentoring:

A few months back, I stumbled upon the CoderDojo website. ‘Coder what?’ I thought. 

Having fairly recently started an after-school coding club at the school at which I teach, I was searching the internet for what else was going on to teach young people to develop software. (For a short time I thought I was the only one doing it. There. I’ve admitted it.) ‘Learn everything you need to become a great programmer in a fun and sociable environment’ I read. Being a fun and sociable person I liked the sound of this, so read on avidly!

I got in touch with the relatively newly-formed CoderDojo Stirling to offer my help, made arrangements to attend a session, and before I knew it the day had come for my first session as a mentor. This was today. Am I glad I got in touch? You betcha. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect and was slightly worried that my technical abilities would be below par (I was a programmer in a previous life, many moons ago, when computers were the size of houses and you sent off your programme on ticker-tape via the newly-founded Royal Mail) but I needn’t have been. Dan and the other mentors were very friendly and welcoming, my technical rustiness wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be, and the atmosphere was very chilled-out and encouraging. It was a full-house today, and building apps for Android phones using MIT’s App Inventor was on the menu.

Some of you reading this may be considering mentoring but slightly unsure if it’s for you. As a newbie, here’s my take on it.

Do mentors need to:

• be a technical expert? Nope. (I’m no expert, but that doesn’t stop me helping.)
  
• be excited about the creative power of technology? Yep.
• enjoy being with like-minded people in a ‘fun and sociable environment’? Yep.
• enjoy watching the look on young people’s faces when they create something cool (and you helped them to)? Definitely!

As Arnie sort-of said, ‘I’ll be back (at CoderDojo Stirling next month)’.

John Bell
CoderDojo Mentor

If you would like to mentor at a CoderDojo please email team@coderdojoscotland.com

Last month, CoderDojo members Tom, Hannah, Rory, and Andrew took part in the first ‘CoderDojo LiveCode’ workshop at RunRev offices in Edinburgh.

Tom reports on their experience:

‘LiveCode’ is a language that is often used for beginners as the phrases used to program things are very similar to English. It can be very easy to progress once you have managed to start it as it is very visual and logic.

What is very different about Live Code is that it is very easy to create a professional result in a limited amount of time as programming is almost like talking English. And as the language is very similar to English, experienced and amateur alike can create the remarkable and quality result each time.

Hannah commented that ‘Live Code is something where if you are a beginner to programming and you want to make something like a game, it is easy to start with. It is a good way to get people into programming and technology.’

I think Live Code is a great way to program as you can focus on your creative side rather than worrying too much about how to technically develop a game.

During Live Code in Edinburgh, we were walked-through how to create the beginning of a ‘Balloon Adventure’ game where you would fly through the air collecting points and avoiding obstacles. After we were showed how to do this, we were free to develop the game in our own way, for example, by adding flying birds, other balloons, but also just changing some simple things like the font, colour and size of the start button.

Tom
Young Digital Maker at Edinburgh CoderDojo