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Photo by Sylvia Aguinaga

Why code

I’m Mexican-American and grew up with very traditional, hard-working parents who constantly reminded me of the importance of creating a stable future for my family and myself. As an ALSC Special Populations Committee member, my job is to make sure programming remains inclusive—reaching all children and informing all parents, including the Spanish-speaking.

In order for Spanish-speaking parents to support and encourage their child to learn to code, they must first understand the importance of code in today’s world. That is why it is critical to provide approachable Spanish-language resources and craft a clear message.

In the advertising world, they say a good ad communicates one benefit of the product. As copywriter Luke Sullivan puts it, Jeep = rugged, Porsche = fast, “and Volvos, they’re…what? If you said ‘safe,’ you’ve given the same answer I’ve received from literally every other person I’ve ever asked. Ever.”

What can we say about code?

It’s an intimidating question: code is so many things; in our daily lives, code is seemingly behind everything. That’s why it’s so important to teach kids – and it’s also why it’s so difficult to explain to their parents.

There’s one benefit of learning code that can stand out to our audience, parents who care deeply about their children’s future.

Code is money.

More than 1.7 million programmer-specific job opportunities will be available in 2022, with average salaries over $83,000. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) jobs are the fastest growing in the U.S. with 71% of these jobs involving computers.

Promising children an opportunity to learn code could be the most effective way to promise them a future. Once we communicate this clearly to parents, they will be interested. They’ve always wanted a future for their children.

As children’s librarians, this has been our goal all along too. Literacy = opportunity.

What you can do

If you slam a kid in a chair and make them stare at a wall of code – a black screen filled with ///{“symbols”;} and cryptic jargon – they’ll likely react like any of us: “what?”

Fortunately, there are tons of great resources for bringing digital literacy to children.

My favorite is Scratch. Scratch is a free programming language for kids (ages 8 and up) that lets you create games, music, and animations. It is visual-based. Kids drag and drop different elements, and link them together like Legos.

Essentially, introductory languages like Scratch get children thinking in a code mindset. Not only working logically, but playfully – learning to tinker, examine, explore.

The past few months I’ve partnered with Joanna Fabicon, a Children’s Librarian at Los Angeles Public Library, to help develop Coder Time (see resources linked below!). Coder Time is a weekly coding club launching this month at the Central Library and in after-school programs at elementary schools across L.A. Our goal is to inspire kids to do meaningful things with computers.

Each “chapter” of the Coder Time curriculum is paired with books that will encourage kids to explore their library and discover content that will in turn inspire them to make something they will love.

Another big goal of Coder Time is to empower librarians to facilitate their own coding workshops by using librarian-gathered and curated content. Coder Time materials are licensed under a Creative Commons license that lets you tweak and adapt content to your own community.

To truly bring digital literacy to children, we need library-created content and programs. Often, librarians outsource coding workshops to experts. Though well-intentioned and certainly helpful, these workshops don’t do enough to serve our public. Like reading, coding is a practice, a way of being in the world. Coding programs need to be a regular, fully integrated part of the library – not something tacked on just to cover the bases.

For this to happen, librarians need to be comfortable with and familiar with code. But as programs like Scratch show, this is no obstacle. You don’t have to be an expert. You just have to—as you ask of your young patrons—be willing to learn.

Beyond $

Like reading, the benefits of coding are deeper than money. Coding gives children a creative way of looking at the world. It empowers them to make, rather than passively consume. It encourages them to work together.

With a clear message, our voice can be heard by parents. In turn, all children can make their voices heard with technology.

Resources

Code for Parents (Spanish)

Code for Parents (English)

Coder Time Zine (English)

Sylvia Aguiñaga, LSSPCC Committee Member

The post Code for Parents appeared first on ALSC Blog.

In early December, YALSA blogger Jami Schwarzwalder wrote a great post (with many great resources) on how to participate in Hour of Code week. I want to expand on her work and talk a little more about some of my experience with code and how that may translate into teens and code.

It seems that in today’s day and age, knowing how to code can be a crucial job skill. It gives you an edge and from a personal standpoint, knowing how to code can be incredibly empowering. It’s especially important to help get females (at any age) interested in coding because as we see time and time again, the difference between males and females involved in the technology field is astonishing (just search “girls in technology infographic” and see the fascinating percentages).

I think there are many ways to go at coding for teens. If you want to encourage girls, the video from Intel, who sponsors Girls Who Code, is pretty inspiring. The website itself, provides nice photos, information on past programs, and even the ability to download their most current curriculum for you to adapt to fit your teens.

Another similar website to Girls Who Code is Made With Code (through Google). They offer many projects for all levels of coding experience. These projects are fun and also include the ability to share with the world through their favorite social media outlet.

If you have teens that don’t have as much experience with coding, I would suggest doing the hour of code at code.org. Usually the theme of these puzzles is Angry Birds, but it looks like for the holiday season, the developers have moved over to Elsa and Anna from Frozen. It’s a great way to see “the blocks of coding” which will be helpful in future coding exercises. The videos that are every five or so levels are also helpful in letting you know what the blocks do and how they all work together.

With some coding under their belt, I think MIT’s Scratch is a good place to start. While there is a version that can be download onto your computers, their web version also works quite well. If you’re unfamiliar with Scratch, I would suggest watching some of their tutorials or even checking out Super Scratch Programming Adventure by the LEAD Project. This book would be great for teens to use (lots of cool drawings and learning is done through a comic form) and just to familiar yourself with the program (if you’re interested).

What is great about Scratch is that they can make their own projects (pretty much anything they can think of) or do what’s called “remixing.” Essentially they can look at completed projects and “look under the hood.” The teens can see how people created various projects and then “remix” and revise it for themselves. It’s a great way to learn all the capabilities of Scratch and give the teens some ideas of projects of their own.

Finally, if your teens want even more, I would direct them over to CodeCademy.  Here, they can sign up for an account and tackle many different programming languages: Python, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, or Ruby. You go through a series of lessons, all that can be self-directed by the teens themselves. CodeCademy also has some projects to help see coding in action. I’ve personally used CodeCademy to learn Python and HTML/CSS and like the website, as well as the public forums for when I get stuck on a lesson.

Best of luck and I hope some of these resources will be useful to your teens!

So I wrote this massive Pascal program back in college for my Artificial Intelligence class, but things happen over time. Floppy disks go bad. Computers don't have floppy disk drives anymore. And what about DOS? No one can type

A:\>CASTLE

No one even knows what an A prompt is!

I always loved the CASTLE OF DOOM! game. I had visions of buying an external floppy drive and finding a way to make it work, but then it occurred to me.

A new survey from the Games and Learning Publishing Council sheds light on just how commonplace games have become in today’s classrooms. Among the findings:

• Among K-8 teachers surveyed who use digital games in teaching, 55% have students play games at least weekly
• 72% typically use a desktop or laptop computer for gaming
• Nearly half believe that low-performing students benefit the most from digital games
• Word of mouth is the biggest influence when selecting games

So what can librarians take away from this data?

First, it’s important to think about what’s not in the report. The survey only included K-8 teachers, but gaming is a huge part of many teens’ lives. As the YALSABlog reported in 2008, a Pew Research Internet Project report found that fully 97% of teens ages 12-17 play digital games. Those teens were using computers, but nearly half were also using a mobile device.

As schools relax restrictions on mobile devices in classrooms and laptops and tablets become as common as calculators and pencils, how can librarians support the gaming needs of teachers and students? Whether we’re in school libraries or programming for teens at public libraries, where does gaming fit into library services?

The Games and Learning report reveals that many teachers let their own gaming experiences and preferences guide them when it comes to using digital games with students. I can certainly attest to that; when I first introduced gaming nights at my high school, I brought my own consoles and games, then joined forces with another teacher to expand our selections. If you’re new to gaming with teens, you may be more comfortable starting with a familiar game or selection of games.

Erin Daly, Youth Services Coordinator at Chicopee Public Library, puts it this way: “We probably need to spend some time playing games ourselves and thinking about how to incorporate games into our classrooms and libraries. We really don’t know what works until we play.”

“Gaming, like everything, requires curation: we need to pick the best, most interesting things to share. Good thing that’s pretty much what librarians do best. (Gamers’ advisory, if you will). In a classroom, ‘the best’ includes the way in which the game is relevant to the curriculum standards. In the public library ‘the best’ is the game that engages the player’s interest and makes them think.”

Today we bring you our weekly sampler of cool youth media and marketing gigs. If your company has an open position in the youth media or marketing space, we encourage you to join the Ypulse LinkedIn group, if you haven’t yet, and post there for... Read the rest of this post

Over the past three years I’ve been in on the work of Hennepin County Library’s Media Mashup project (an IMLS funded project) which focused on bringing technology to teens in public libraries around the United States. The project used the Scratch software program (Scratch project example below) as the entree point for librarians to integrate tech into their services. And, it looked at the ways in which Scratch was integrated in order to better understand challenges and successes when innovating in libraries.
Learn more about this Scratch project

If you aren’t familiar with Scratch it’s definitely worth checking out. The software enables teens, or anyone, to create almost anything – games, music videos, digital stories, and more. At the moment Scratch is a software that needs to be downloaded onto a computer. That actually is one of the barriers that libraries sometimes face when using new technologies and in integrating technology into teen programs and services. The libraries around the country that participated in the Media Mashup project did find that in some cases downloading was a barrier to being able to move forward. Sometimes librarians had to be innovative and creative in bringing Scratch to computers. Perhaps one of the best solutions was getting laptops for the library. Scratch was then more easily integrated into teen programs using the laptops instead of the traditional library computers.

An important component of the Media Mashup project was looking at how use of Scratch by young people helped in 21st century skill acquisition. Scratch is a good software to use when focusing on 21st century skills because so many skill areas can be integrated into formal and informal Scratch programs.

Use of Scratch definitely supports media literacy as teens create content that can include still and animated images, music, text, and audio. As teens create Scratch projects they acquire information literacy skills when they consider how to incorporate visuals and music that might be copyright protected. And, as teens work with Scratch they learn leadership and cooperation skills as they teach each other how the program works.

The possibilities for 21st century skill acquisition with Scratch are pretty high. For librarians to take advantage of the possibilities they need to begin to think about how it can be brought to their libraries. The Media Mashup Ning is a good place to go to get some ideas. The site includes step-by-step plans on how to create with Scratch. It also includes resources that are guides to adding animation and music to Scratch projects as well as covering topics such as copyright and how to integrate discussions of copyright into Scratch library sessions.

A library might try having a Scratch open house and give teens a chance try out the program, teach librarians more about how it works, and come up with ideas for how the library might integrate the software into the work the

Last week I had the chance to attend meetings of the Hennepin County Library Media Mashup project. Media Mashup is an IMLS funded project that looks at how innovation and change happens in libraries. The way that’s being investigated is through the use of Scratch software with teens in libraries in Hennepin County and around the country. Last week’s meetings were inspiring and I left with several words bouncing around my head:

• Innovation – The Media Mashup project is very much focused on how innovation happens in libraries. It’s very clear from the project that there are barriers to innovation in libraries. However, that doesn’t mean innovation can’t happen and that’s demonstrated by the work of librarians around the country working with Scratch in order to help teens learn about technology and gain media and information literacy skills. When put to the challenge, librarians in the project are finding innovative ways to make the technology work – for example buying laptops so that there are computers in the library that can have Scratch on them. Librarians working with teens need to be innovative in order to breakdown barriers to successful service. Innovating may mean speaking up for what teens need. Which can be difficult. But, if it doesn’t happen are teens being well served?
• Risk – Librarians serving all different populations often find technology a risky proposition. As a part of the Media Mashup project teen librarians need to take the risk of learning a new software program – Scratch. They then need to take the risk of teaching teens how to use the software. And they need to be willing to teach the software without perhaps knowing everything there is to know about the program. But, taking this risk gives the librarians a great opportunity to mentor and support teens in their own development. A librarian who can take the risk of saying, “I’m not sure how that works but I can help you figure it out” is a librarian that will be successful with teens.
• Collaboration – The Media Mashup project centers on a strong collaboration between the Hennepin County Library and the Science Museum of Minnesota. These two agencies have worked together for a few years and it is clear that the relationship works. The Hennepin County Library and the Science Museum of Minnesota each get something out of the relationship. For one thing they get access to the skills and talents of each other. They get the ability to connect with teens in a variety of settings. And, they get the chance to be a part of a larger community. For teen librarians these types of collaborations can be key in guaranteeing success and making sure that teen services are respected both within the library and within the community at large. Sometimes these collaborations can seem like more work than they are worth, but if the time is invested the worth ends up being much more than the work.
• Change – Change in libraries is hard and as I listened to the discussions at last week’s Media Mashup sessions, it was clear that some libraries are better at change than others and that some librarians are better at change than others. Listening to the discussions I was reminded of a recent experience I had in my role as YALSA President. As YALSA Pres
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Ah, the wonders of summer: beautiful weather, outside BBQ, and nice cold beers by the pool. Can it get any better than this? On the contrary, it can actually get worse. How, you may ask? How about being viciously attacked by tiny mosquito’s all night long. Who can relax when you are on a mission to kill these little blood sucking flies.

Don’t even bother covering up or spray those commercial promising mosquito repellents. No matter what you do, they will get you.

So, if you are the sweet kind, excuse yourself and gracefully head on home. At least there you know you won’t be on the edge of your seat, waiting for your next attack. 

Ah, the wonders of summer: beautiful weather, outside BBQ, and nice cold beers by the pool. Can it get any better than this? On the contrary, it can actually get worse. How, you may ask? How about being viciously attacked by tiny mosquito’s all night long. Who can relax when you are on a mission to kill these little blood sucking flies.

Don’t even bother covering up or spray those commercial promising mosquito repellents. No matter what you do, they will get you.

So, if you are the sweet kind, excuse yourself and gracefully head on home. At least there you know you won’t be on the edge of your seat, waiting for your next attack. 

MadeMan.com (a lifestyle guide for young guys is the latest in a string of irreverent, video-centric properties from Break Media. Plus a motivational blog for young adults) (MediaPost, reg. required) (The Coloraoan) - L.A's indie teen scene (private... Read the rest of this post