White-label Case Study: Social Impact through a Coding Platform for Teens

CodeJIKA White-label Case Study

How focusing on where CodeJIKA.org had in-house excellence and partnering for the platform development, the organization was able to keep expanding and simultaneously build an impressive and versatile on-brand learning platform.

How we got here

CodeJIKA’s mission is to empower teens in Africa with digital entrepreneurship and coding skills. After building a club model and designing an offline web-development curriculum that can be used anywhere, completely for free, the  organization turned to the next big challeng – Finding a way to teach the millions of learners who would have access to mobile phones but no other devices.
 
Building in-house

After creating and running successful prototypes that attracted users and confirmed the need for the model, the team set about to build a sustainable platform. After a number of challenges and set backs it became apparent that:

A. Building software was not an expertise that the organization had in-house.

B. Was seriously distracting from the many other very impactful activities the team was good at, such as, awareness, policy, events, teacher training and community-building.

Partnership & progress

To solve this problem a partnership was established with CodeTribe to help customize and build the platform for the needs of African youth. As a founding partner, the entire platform was built around this mandate.

In 2022, this enabled the CodeJIKA team to re-double their efforts on core program expansion and built new teams, impact and communities in 8 countries throughout Africa. Impacting hundreds of schools and training tens of thousands of learners both on- and offline.

Next steps

The next technical goal in the partnership is to add multi-lingual capabilities to both the GUI (interface) and the lesson content. This will able expanded access to both Arabic and French speaking countries on the continent.

Off-platform, the organization is pushing to build a new form of CS Teacher eco-system to accelerate the nascent skills in teachers and to support this with fun and localized teacher training programs. 

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Interested in learning more, visit CodeJIKA.org or discover more with the CodeTribe team at: CodeTribe.com/whitelabel 

What’s the Purpose of Life?

Student Group Socializing In Communal Area Of Busy College

You’ll be shocked to know King Solomon’s conclusion, in 990 BC, after searching for the purpose of life in every pleasure, every extreme, every wealth, every work and even in wisdom:

“So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God.”

( Ecl. 2:24 https://www.bible.com/bible/116/ECC.2.NLT )

Purpose of Life: "So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God."

Another wonderful way to enjoy life and purpose is through understanding who you are.

So who am I?

You are love. (Whaat!?! ) Yep. It makes sense if you realize that God loves you, He created you and you are made for love. ( That only makes half sense, right? )

“Helllooooo!?! How is this the purpose of life?”

Well, when you know you are loved, you respect yourself, you allow yourself to love yourself.

You see value in your own ideas. You love others with the same love you have been shown.

What if no one loves me?

Yo, that’s hard,… rough.

There’s a saying I read when young, it said: “The way to be happy is to make someone happy.”

Our mind tells us that in order to be happy we have to “GET” love, money or whatever it is we think we need. But the truth is, it’s only in “GIVING” that we make ourselves free.

But that was just a tangent, here’s the summary.

Summary: The purpose of life according to Solomon,…

To love God, to work, to take pleasure in your labor & enjoy to the world around you.

To love God is to love yourself and the world, because you are made in His image. 🙂

See more: Bible.com

This article is written by Jonathan Novotny, a Social Entrepreneur and Founder of Code for Change South Africa, CodeJIKA.com & CodeTribe.com.

Top 10 tips for your first year teaching computer science

First Year Teaching Computer Science

So you’re about to enter the magical world of teaching computer science, combining the creativity of lesson planning with the satisfying problem-solving of coding. From curriculum to classroom culture, there’s a lot to think about as you dive into teaching a subject for the first time.

1. Don’t start from scratch.

If you have more than two new preps, activities in the pre-made classes can also be a fallback when life gets crazy (as it inevitably will for first-year teachers).

Some great free resources to start looking at include the Scratch Curriculum Guide (K-8), Code.org (K–12), and CodeHS (6–12).

For AP classes, using a standard curriculum can also help ensure that you cover all the material at the appropriate speed. Although options for AP Computer Science A are more limited and expensive, there are many free options for AP Computer Science Principles, such as the Beauty & Joy of Computing and Mobile CSP for less experienced students and Harvard’s CS50 for more experienced students.

Over time, you might design entire classes from scratch. But when you’re just starting out, it’s more efficient to stand on the shoulders of giants and build on what’s been done before. And you can still personalize the curriculum and make it your own!

2. Stay at least a step ahead of your students.

You may also have to learn new languages or computer programs. Even if you have a degree in Computer Science, it may not have covered Scratch, App Inventor, or p5.js! It’s best to familiarize yourself with new technology as much as possible so that you are better able to answer student questions.

3. Create a classroom culture of inquiry and mistake-making.

Encourage students to follow a personal empowerment protocol to figure things out when they have a question. Similar to “ask three, then me,” this protocol encourages students to…

  • Ask a peer
  • Google it
  • Ask the teacher

This protocol both helps students become independent problem-solvers, and also helps ensure the teacher isn’t bombarded with questions.

Finally, normalize errors and mistake-making. Assure students that errors are part of a programmer’s daily life, and model dealing with errors yourself during code-alongs. Consider starting an “Error Tally” in your classroom where you tally all the errors that occur and celebrate them as a representation of all the things the class has learned today.

4. Establish clear expectations for computer use.

Depending on the age group of the students, consider establishing routines for computer use as well. Will students be allowed to open their computers before class students, or will they need to wait for permission from you?

Students also generally will have difficulty listening to you if their computers are open, absorbing their attention. Have them put their computers at 45 degrees (halfway closed) or even fully closed whenever you need their attention. Model what this behavior looks like: should they be slouched in their chair to still see their tilted screen, fingers still moving on the keyboard? (No.) Tell them they can close their computers fully if they anticipate that the computer will still be a distraction at 45 degrees.

These are all expectations and routines that you can establish and practice in the first week of school!

5. Establish clear expectations for academic honesty.

Harvard’s CS50 course has a great set of academic honesty guidelines that can be adapted to a high school setting. Consider putting some version of these guidelines in your syllabus:

Academic Honesty Guidelines

  • You may discuss the problems with peers.
  • When asking for help, you may show a peer your code, use and cite online resources, and ask the teacher for help.
  • When giving help, you may not show a peer your code. You may critique a peer’s code and ask guiding questions to help a peer see the solution.

Discuss the guidelines on day one, and even give the students a few hypothetical situations that they can judge as violations of academic honesty or not!

6. Use pair programming.

Computers can isolate students, but they don’t have to if you use pair programming and have students complete certain labs and problems in pairs!

By working together, students help solidify each other’s programming knowledge and keep each other on task. They enjoy the class more and become less intimidated by computer science.

Pair programming is a great intermediate step between learning a new concept and solving a problem individually. Make it a routine in your class, and then give students a chance to demonstrate mastery on their own.

If you’re interested in some pair programming techniques, check out our last blog post on promoting collaboration in a computer science classroom.

7. Have a lot of back-up activities.

Extra challenges in the daily assignments can help differentiate your class and give students an opportunity to build their coding skills. Resources for extra practice, like CodingBat for Java and Python, are another great option for early finishers.

It also helps to have ongoing projects or problem sets that students can work on whenever they finish their daily assignments.

Beyond the curriculum, you can invite students to pursue any track on Codecademy or SoloLearn that interests them, and even reward them with a prize (e.g. programming-related stickers or keychains) if they finish a whole track.

You can also allow them to free create in whatever programming language you are currently using. While some students thrive on this option, others need more structure, so an array of options is helpful.

8. Connect with other computer science teachers.

It’s great to meet people in person, so attend professional development events in your local area. Make a Twitter account if you don’t have one, and stay in touch with educators you meet on there (Twitter is pretty popular among teachers).

Once you’re on Twitter, search out other K-12 CS teachers. Participate in Twitter chats like #ethicalCS and #csk8 to meet other teachers and share knowledge.

If you’re on Facebook, join the Computer Science Educators group and, if you teach APs, the AP Computer Science A Teachers and AP Computer Science Principles Teachers groups.

Here’s the crucial part: ask for advice! Research shows that asking for advice makes you look more competent, so there’s nothing to be afraid of. The computer science teacher community is generous, and you will likely receive an outpouring of responses.

9. Have a growth mindset.

Sometimes your intricately-planned lessons will flop. Whenever this happens, note it and write down the changes you’ll make next time you teach it. If you have time, you can even revamp your lesson plan and materials right then and there! See, already you’re becoming a better teacher.

10. Have a non-computing hobby.

Establish some ground rules to maintain some kind of work/life balance. A few good starter ones are not working after 8pm on school nights and picking one weekend day when you won’t do any school work (or when you’ll just work in the morning).

To help yourself stay away from work, have activities and people in your life totally unrelated to teaching or computers. Sign up for a workout class, learn Spanish, get really into cooking, go to a beach volleyball meetup… anything you enjoy that will help you recharge after teaching!

Conclusion

 

This article is written by Kelly Lougheed, who is a Software developer & educator and can be followed on Medium or here: https://blog.upperlinecode.com/@kellylougheed

Coding is Creating the Entrepreneurs and Artists of the Future

Coding Platform Partners & Resellers

Coding teaches you how to think, but that’s not all.

If practiced within a real-world environment and with targeted outcomes, the learner can go beyond concepts and into creative and technical understanding.

CodeTribe’s value proposition lies squarely in providing real-world skills that provide a coding foundation for any entrepreneur or employee. These can be used in building, modifying or simply working with online tools or services.

How?

Digital business skills often start with communications (Email), research and marketing ( WordPress content, online ads and rating services) but quickly move towards custom forms intuitive content and analyzing data.

With CodeTribe’s Core Course offering, “Tribers” quickly understand the basics of both programming languages and frontend web development. This provides a basis from which to expand into further self-learning and discovery. Through this process they become adept in any digital business environment.

The goal of CodeTribe is not progression into university, but assimilation into real-world practice and values.