Target

CoderDojo Italy, following the international guidelines of CoderDojo, aims mainly to bring the boys to develop their digital skills.The program, in fact, it helps you to use independently and consciously technology. The children, with the help of the softwareopen source , realize their programs, video games, presentations, animations, and share them online with the entire community.

Results achieved
Learning to program not only offers access to professions increasingly required, but is a way of approaching actively technology, it helps to develop logical and computational thinking and provides new tools for personal expression. It also helps to hone some skills (think creatively, reason schematically, collaborate with others), fundamental for students, no matter what will be their field of study or their occupation.

activity

Generally involve two phases lasting about an hour each, with the moment of exchange and sociability of the snack break.

In the first part, one of the mentors at all illustrates the creation of a project through a tutorial, that kids are free to follow or not, possibly adapting it to their preferences and their capabilities. For example, if the tutorial is to create a video game where a shark has to eat fish, kids can choose alternate characters, such as a monkey that has to reach the bananas, thus maintaining the dynamics of the game.

After the break, everyone is invited to create their own project, experimenting in a context in which any new information assumes a spendable immediate, as in the case of the variables introduced to store the score in a video game.

With increasing experience of the participants, the guided always leaves more space for the realization of individual and group projects, exploring new languages more and more complex as HTML and Python, or approaching through electronic platforms such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi.

Methods of implementation

CoderDojo uses mainly Scratch, a visual programming environment, free and open-source , very simple and intuitive, designed to allow a first approach to programming by anyone.

In Scratch, the instructions are represented by graphic elements that can be composed to create animated stories, video games, art and simulations. Projects can be shared with the Scratch online community through a social platform where you can exchange comments, create galleries, access and modify other projects, making it the remix .

Scratch is now used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, mainly between 7 and 18 years, and is the most appropriate tool and spread to take their first steps in programming.

The adults involved in the workshops are facilitators of the learning process. This is accomplished through a very informal interpersonal relationship, the absence of feedback, continuous encouragement to improve, the stimulus to collaboration and sharing. At each meeting involving several mentors, basically one of every four children, who in this way can also be followed closely and addressed individually to learn, respecting their own pace.

recipients

CoderDojo caters for the time and above all, to children and teenagers from 7 to 14 years.

They were made of the pilot experiences with children aged 5 and 6 years and also directed a workshop for teachers in which the tools, methods and paths were the same used in classic laboratories.

indicators

Since this is an open and free are not available reliable data on the number of beneficiaries reached and results in measurable terms.

Since February 2013 to today, they were born in the country more than 30 clubs, both in cities and in small towns. Some datarelated to only 50% of Italians dojo, indicate that the meetings were over 100 and have recorded more than 3000 participants. Upon submission of this platform, they are springing up elsewhere.