Humans of CoderDojo WA – Terry Keesing
Terry Keesing, Champion at Rostrata Primary School
This month, Rostrata Primary School opened its doors to 95 Ninjas!! Because of the huge demand, they had to split their Dojo into three separate sessions! I caught up with Champion Terry Keesing to ask some questions about his Dojo experience:
What has been the best part of setting up your Dojo?
The best part of setting up a Dojo is seeing the excitement generated by the children while working on their projects. The ninjas are very focused and love the interaction amongst themselves and the free choice they have to work on whatever they want. Is also great to see the girls getting involved in large numbers, and being involved in projects such as robotics. The parent mentors have been helpful and the Dojo has a nice warm community feel about it.
What has been the most unexpected part of the Dojo experience so far?
The most unexpected part was the large number of children wanting to be involved. We didn’t want to turn anyone away, so with 95 Ninjas enrolled, the number of Dojos increased to three. The Dojos run before school from 7.30 to 8.30 three mornings a week.
Any advice for new Champions?
My advice to Champions is: don’t worry about starting a Dojo! I have no coding experience myself, I am just a facilitator of opportunities. I think a little bit of structure is good, but have plenty of opportunities to explore available. For example, I have a web page with hyperlinks to different coding sites. This gives Ninjas an idea of what’s available to them. Mbot robots are fantastic for construction and purposeful coding, and Raspberry Pi and Raspbian are a cheap and great way to encourage coding projects. You don’t have to know about these things though! The Ninjas work together to solve their own problems, and that is the real value of running a Coder Dojo.
Perth has more Dojos than any other city in the world
Congratulations everyone…Perth is now home to 48 Dojos, with 50 Dojos in Western Australia! We saw a large jump in our numbers recently thanks to Ross from CoderDojo Global assisting with verifications, and it just keeps growing! These new bragging rights are testament to the AMAZING work Karen Wellington has done in helping to build and support such a wonderful WA community of Dojos. As Karen always says, “YOU ARE SUPER IMPORTANT”, and we can’t echo this enough! It’s always a pleasure to see how supportive the online community is, and how helpful you are when it comes to running and organising events, welcoming new Dojo family members, and just generally being cool. Hopefully we will see this number continue to grow throughout WA, helping more and more Ninjas to develop skills and passion in this important area. The future of WA is in good hands.
Kancho Calling – Dojo Census
In order to get a better picture of the Dojos in WA, we are asking Champions to please complete a VERY short Dojo census. This includes questions as to how the Foundation can better serve the community in 2016, and whether your Dojo is looking for mentors.
As well as improving our support of the community, we want to begin envisioning the next step for Dojos in WA, asking the question, “after CoderDojo, then what?”. Perhaps this will mean developing industry links and internship programs for Ninjas, perhaps it will mean helping Dojos to identify Black Belt Ninjas that we can support; however this unfolds, your feedback will be central to the process, and the Dojo census is the first step in achieving this. Thanks for your support.
Welcome, Rebecca
In March we welcomed Rebecca Loftus, who has stepped into Karen’s role as the CoderDojo WA program manager. Rebecca has spent the past four years living and working in Karratha, as the Head of the Science Department at St Luke’s College. She moved back to Perth at the beginning of the year and is currently completing her doctoral studies at Murdoch University. Her research area is Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) education, which is a new model for education that, coincidentally, has a lot in common with the already established CoderDojo model. Welcome, Rebecca.
Welcome, Neve
Karen hasn’t had too much time to relax with the arrival of her mini-Ninja Neve Aniko Wellington on the 24th of April. We wish Karen all the best on this new adventure, and look forward to her return towards the end of the year. Welcome, baby Neve.
New Online Home
Our new Website went live in April. Huge shout out to Karen Wellington and Robyn King, for driving this change, and thanks to the folks at Draw History for doing such an amazing job! We are calling on the community to send us news, pictures and stories from your Dojos so that we can share the good work that you do with everyone in WA, and beyond.
“Dozens of digital technology ‘ninjas’ are spending Saturday mornings working on games, apps, robots and 3D designs at ‘CoderDojo’ in Geraldton. The pilot CoderDojo program will run throughout Term 1 and meets demand from local children and young adults who want to get creative with technology. The sessions are each Saturday 10-12 at Durack Institute of Technology and parents can register children to attend online http://pollinators.org.au/learning/coderdojo/
CoderDojo is a facilitated program fueling young people’s passion for coding and better understanding the technology that shapes their world. In each 2 hour session participants hear about inspirational examples and are supported by peers and mentors to work on their own digital projects. CoderDojo makes development and learning to code a fun, sociable, rewarding experience and similar groups are run in more than 51 countries.
At the end of the first session, participants gave high ratings and praise for the format:
“I liked having experienced coders to help me when I needed help. It was great having it at the TAFE since the computers I was able to use were effective and helpful.”
“…the coding was fun and tricky but I got through it. It was a challenge that’s what I liked.”
Andrew Outhwaite, Community Lead at Pollinators Inc described a little more about the motivation behind the pilot:
“As well as being fun and educational, CoderDojo provides skills and inspiration for young people pursuing digital careers. According to recent national reports, there is a projected gap of more than 100,000 ICT workers in Australia in the next five years. Another report estimated up to 25% of the State’s economy will be impact by disruptive digital and internet technologies in the next ten year.”
“If our region wants a slice of the massive growth in digital and tech industries, local programs like CoderDojo are essential. Working with schools, Durack, GUC and local businesses we can grow the local digital economy and be a ‘smarter’ city and region while still having fun with our digital devices.”
Darren Winterbine, Training Director for the Management, Automotive, Computing and Engineering portfolios at Durack said,
“We are very supportive of this initiative to engage young people in coding. In addition to providing a safe and inclusive space for the participants, our Computing Lecturers and students are volunteering to mentor and guide them through the program.” Mr Winterbine continued,
“Our computer labs are up to date with the latest technology, making them an ideal learning environment for the group.”
The CoderDojo team are also on the lookout for technical mentors, and parent volunteers. Parents at the first session were already creating helpful automations for work and home using their phones and some fantastic software.
The CoderDojo pilot program is an initiative of Pollinators Inc thanks to funding and support from Mid West Science Engagement Group, Inspiring Australia and Scitech. Local partners include Durack Institute of Technology, with Fogarty Foundation and CoderDojo Foundation providing program support.”
Story from: http://pollinators.org.au/2016/02/22/coderdojo_geraldton/