Aspiring coders hone their skills at CoderDojo
A new generation of coders could help Brisbane turn into the next Silicon Valley.
In a bid to tap into the city's "start-up spirit", Brisbane City Council has launched a new program where kids can learn basic software development skills from volunteer mentors.
It's called CoderDojo, and it's a worldwide movement with clubs in more than 200 cities. Brisbane is the first in Australia to get on board.
One of the mentors is John. He works as an IT professional during the week, but is spending four Saturdays as a CoderDojo mentor at the Sunnybank Hills library.
He says the participants - aged between seven and 17 - helped decide which programs they would learn.
"We had some ideas, but very soon the children themselves and their parents brought things which they had found on their own," he said.
"They'd found this amazing game development platform from MIT called Scratch, and that helps kids develop the skills to make computer games but also is fun.
"We knew of another one from Carnegie Mellon University called Alice which is equally engaging, with three-dimensional graphics.
"The kids devour it, they love it, as well as learning a lot of basic software development skills."
From simple to more advanced
John says one seven-year-old girl was able to develop a simple computer game using Scratch in a minute.
"It looked like a pretty fun game," he says. "The platform was so compelling for her, and she grasped the concept behind it so quickly, that she was able to develop this simple game in 60 seconds."
He says some of the more advanced participants will also get exposure to the Python environment.
"That's interesting because it's used for games, but it's also used for scientific computing," he says. "Companies like Google build most of their infrastructure using this platform.
"So the kids are learning skills that they enjoy, that help them make games, but at the same time they are learning skills that will be very helpful to them should they want to become computer programmers or computer scientists."
A pilot program started at Brisbane Square library in July and has already expanded to the libraries at Sunnybank Hills and Kenmore.
There are plans to roll the program out to Chermside, Indooroopilly and Carindale next year.
A collaborative learning approach
Wendy has a software development background and mentors at CoderDojo while two of her sons take part.
She says children don't learn enough about programming in the classroom.
"I don't think that teaching kids programming is being dealt with well enough in schools, early enough," she said.
"It's like learning any language. When you first start the language, whether you're learning Spanish or you're learning programming, it seems difficult in the beginning but if they start early enough, they get excited about what they're doing and start to love it, then it gets easier and easier.
"There's such a huge demand for it when the kids are getting older and everything is technology-based.
"With my boys especially, all they want to do is sit in front of a screen - and as long as that's constructive, I'm trying to go with that and encourage that as much as I can."
Wendy says one of the benefits of CoderDojo is its group environment, which motivates the kids to learn.
"I try not to give them all of the answers, I try to encourage the other kids - 'hey, what would you do in this situation' - and get them to collaborate a little bit more," she says.
"It's a much better learning environment when they're figuring it out for themselves. And they're quite competitive - which is good!"
Tapping into Brisbane's start-up spirit
Councillor Julian Simmonds, the chair of Council's Finance, Economic Development and Administration Committee, says Coderdojo is all about helping Brisbane kids get the best start in a world that's becoming more focused on technology.
"This is an opportunity not only to teach them coding in a very friendly and relaxed environment, but also to join them with mentors who can help encourage their entrepreneurial spirit," he said.
"If we can really foster that entrepreneurial and start-up spirit here in Brisbane we're going to set our economy on the right track for many years to come.
"The digital economy is a $20 trillion economy around the globe and we're really keen to make sure that Brisbane gets its share of that pie."
The program is free, but to get involved, kids need to bring their own laptops. More information is available at coderdojobrisbane.com.au.
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