Getting More Girls (& Boys) to Love Coding

I have six grandchildren and as they grow older their interests become clearer. All love learning, but not all have the same learning interests. Even when they were very young, some would love to dig in the compost heap with me, and others, not so much. Some would bring every insect inside to examine it, others were less keen. One still heads for my study (where all the books are), and we have to crow bar her out for meals. Her brother was always more likely to head to the back yard (garden) to dig around, look to the sky for birds and so on.

All my grandchildren love books in their own way, but one seems to have her head in a book most of the time. Interestingly, she is also interested in coding, and is very good at mathematics. Another grandson already shows signs of talent in coding and computing and has more recently discovered books. All children are different, but I suspect all could code if taught well. What will the girls and boys in our lives become? Hopefully, both will become wonderful people who will have many interests in life. But vocationally, what might they become? Research evidence suggests that statistically, my grandson has more likelihood of ending up in a career where he will use his strengths in STEM, particularly coding, than my granddaughter. This is a problem. 

Gwendolin Tilghman who is a private equity associate at KKR, works with technology companies as part of the firm’s technology, media and communications, is interested in this area too. She has just written an interesting post that I shared on LinkedIn, which argues for proactive efforts to get more girls into Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). She writes:

"I have always been interested in topics relating to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). So, when I started college and was able to learn any subject of my choosing, it was no surprise that I decided to pursue an engineering degree. However, what was surprising was that I seemed to be the only girl to do so, or at least that’s how it felt sitting in a room full of boys throughout many of my classes. Perhaps it should not have been because even though women now represent 47% of the workforce, only 12% engineers are females." 

Clearly action is necessary to encourage girls and young women to consider careers that build on their knowledge and interest in STEM. One the most critical needs will be to encourage girls with an early interest in science and maths to explore coding.

Gwendoline is part of the 'Girls Who Code' initiative in the USA that is seeking to close the gender gap in technology. She comments:

Get Coding (Walker Books)

Where can we start to inspire young girls (and boys as well) to explore coding?  There are some great resources appearing on the market that will help. I was recently sent a great little book designed for primary or elementary school children - Get Coding (Walker Books) that has been produced by Young Rewired State (see below). This is a wonderful little book, it made me want to get to a computer, and to start doing some coding.

It is well designed and very inviting. Each page combines text, step by step instructions and projects to undertake. The first 15 pages are text-based with some headings, pictures and diagrams to make sense of the limited amount of the word descriptions. The reading level is about 8-10 years. Once the reader is through this introduction they can begin a series of missions with Professor Harry Bairstone, 'a famous explorer' who is '... in desperate need of [our] help'. Once we are introduced to the mystery of the lost 'Monk Diamond', we are ready to code our way towards completing our mission. Yes, we will need to know what HTML tags are. And we will learn how to use them as we learn to write HTML code, on our way towards completing the mission. Very soon, we are writing the code for a simple web page, with text and images. Eventually we build our own 'Monk Diamond Discovery Web Page'.

By Mission 5 our young coders will be making their own game 'The House of Volkov's Security Team' that is responsible for protecting some valuable jewels on display in the The House of Volkov'.

This is wonderful stuff, and should be part of every child's primary school education. 

Information of Young Rewired State

Young Rewired State was created in 2009 and is a network of 3000 data specialists with a female founder - Emma Mulqueeny. It has 30% female developers with 60% aged 18-25. It has an interesting methodology based on the principle of rapid prototyping, using the MVP concept of working towards a minimum viable product (MVP). It runs events and programs for technically gifted young people aged 18 and under. It draws together young developers, designers, and those with other technical skills to build projects (mainly phone and web applications) that attempt to solve real world problems. Most of the developers participating in Young Rewired State events have taught themselves or learned coding skills outside the traditional school curriculum.

Information about Girls Who Code

Girls Who Code is a national non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in technology. Its programs inspire, educate, and equip girls with the computing skills to pursue 21st century opportunities. They have been especially effective in impacting skills development for girls in their formative years. At the completion of this academic year, Girls Who Code will have reached 40,000 girls in total, covering all 50 US states during its five-year history. In fact, an impressive 93 percent of their summer program participants said that they now want to major in, or are interested in, computer science because of their participation in the program — this might well mean no longer being the only woman in the classroom!

Children as bloggers

As a keen blogger I know the various benefits of blogging as I'm sure do the readers of this blog. But how might we make better use of blogging with children? Many teachers have already experimented with blogging for children as have some parents. Most children don't need to be convinced of the wonder and worth of the Internet, but could we make better use of the Blogosphere? It has been estimated that as many as 12 million American teenagers maintain their own blogs. In this post I thought I'd outline a few basic ways in which children could become bloggers, and why.

Why might blogging be good for children?

There seem some obvious reasons for using blogs in the classroom or at home:

1. The Internet is an important form of technology that this generation needs to understand and learn to use for varied purposes. Just as we seek to introduce children to varied purposes for literacy and different texts and genres, we need to encourage them to explore the many applications of the Internet for communication and learning.

2. Each application that we experience on the Internet requires a range of web-based generic skills as well as some that are unique to the application.

3. Children need to experience web applications like blogs as creators. Just as we want children to use written narrative forms like literature as readers and writers, so too we want them to explore some web applications as creators not just users or consumers.

4. The act of writing a blog post can lead to significant research and related learning. For example, it is an excellent way to develop web comprehension and research skills.

5. Blogs offer authentic readers and audiences for children. So much classroom writing is simply for the teacher 'as examiner', but blogs offer 'real' readers who will respond as learners and fellow writers. This is powerful.

6. Blogs can offer a means for children of many nationalities to communicate and share their ideas across the globe.

7. Blogging can offer a wonderful means for children to practice a second language.

8. Using blogs as creators as well as consumers highlights the need for children to consider issues such as truth and fiction, privacy, copyright and so on.

How can teachers and parents use blogging to promote learning?

a) Showcase blogs

One of the most common ways teachers use blogs is to showcase children's work. The blog can be set up to showcase work in specific subject areas or can vary by form. For example:

• Poetry and narrative writing
• Drawings
• Videos (class activities, class performances, readers' theatre etc)
• Podcasts (personal stories, public speaking, family history, oral reports etc)

Here's a great showcase blog for a grade 5 & 6 (here).

b) Classroom News blogs

This is a common way for teachers to blog. It can have an important role in keeping parents informed about the work that their children are doing as well as being an excellent way to showcase children's work. Here is a 4th Grade class blog in the USA (here). News blogs offer less opportunities for children to compose than other forms of blogging but has a place.

c) Literature response blogs

This application offers children a greater opportunity to respond to the writing of other students. It is simply a way to take activities online that require children to respond to literature that they have read (or which has been read to them). Often the teacher posts the first entry or task and students then respond to the book that has been read. Here's one 7th Grade blog that does some reader response (here)

d) Writing blogs

These are simply blogs that allow children to share their writing. Here is a wonderful example of how one parent set up a blog to allow her child to write his own 'Choose Your Own Adventure' story (here).

e) Mirror blogs

This blog application typically encourages students to respond to a blog entry (often written by the teacher) that invites some form of reflection or comment. For example 'Mr Crosby's 6th Grade' blog (here). The name 'Mirror blog' is simply a metaphor that relates to the fact that the sites encourage students to reflect on their learning.

f) HOT blogging

Lisa Zawilinski has an approach to blogging in class that she calls 'HOT Blogging'. While I don't find the name that helpful, the idea of using a blog to develop higher order skills is useful. It involves encouraging children to share different perspectives on a topic and exchange information with one another. The aim is to develop online comprehension and communication skills while promoting collaboration. It builds on Nancie Atwell's idea of the Dialogue Journal. She suggests a 4-step process that involves:

Step 1 - Providing background knowledge - this first stage is for the teacher to set activities that require the students to find relevant sites and resources that relate to a topic (e.g. understanding the background to a book).

Step 2 - Offering invitations to share ideas or an interpretation of the topic (e.g. responses to characters, events, events in the story etc).
Step 3 - After reading the responses of classmates, students begin to summarise content, develop their ideas on the topic further etc.
Step 4 - Considering varied responses and appreciating the views expressed.

The Zawilinski approach (as she describes it) is too complex in my view, but simpler variations on the approach could be useful. The key elements are to prime background knowledge, invite responses, encourage students to consider and integrate varied views.

Summing Up

Encouraging children to explore blogging is a useful way to get them to explore the Internet while writing and reading for varied real world purposes and with authentic audiences.

The above should not be seen as the only options there are; be creative with blogs. Once you are familiar with the various options for setting up a blog, play around with your site and think creatively about how you might use the technology application to stimulate children to read, respond, write, reflect and learn.

Look for writing opportunities that encourage children to write for 'real' audiences.

Think of creative ways to get children writing together; for example, try using a 'never ending' story strategy with different students writing each entry to build on the previous entries.

Related resources

1. Interesting article on blogging by L. Zawilinski (2009, May). 'HOT Blogging: A Framework for Blogging to Promote Higher Order Thinking. The Reading Teacher, 62,(8), 650–661 (here)

2. Reading to Learn: Using 'Text Sets' (here). In this post I talk about an approach to learning that can incorporate the use of the Internet.

3. Classroom blog service providers - while you can use existing blog providers like Blogger and Word Press, there are a number of providers that offer templates for classroom blogging. These include:

a) Edulogs - offer advertisement free sites that can allow the teacher to control comments and limit access to the site. They also offer templates for students that allow them to build their own blogs.

b) Class Blogmeister - once again this is free to educators and allows teachers to connect to varied blogs. While there seem lots of inactive blogs here there are good examples and ways for teachers to connect with other teachers and classes.

c) ePals SchoolBlog - this allows teachers to connect to other blogs and offers varied design templates and useful templates for surveys, calendars, parents-only sections, controlled public access etc.