Alert Learning Longford
Supporting students to learn the life and career skills required to be successful in the 21st century
Monday, 21 October 2013
Monday, 14 October 2013
Fees for Alert Learning's Halloween Coding Camp
Fees for Alert Learning's Halloween Coding Camp are as follows:
Morning Session, Youth 9 -13 years of age
October 29th, 30th and 31st
10am - 1pm (Check in from 9:25am)
12 euro daily/35 euro for 3 day camp
Please bring a drink & snack
Afternoon Session, Students 13+ years (Secondary School +)
October 29, 30th and 31st
2pm - 4pm
10 euro daily/25 euro for 3 day camp
More information on camps & learning outcomes may be viewed on earlier posts, or you may phone Cathy Lynch on 086 402 2616 for further information.
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
How To Book A Place At Alert Learning's Introduction to Python & HTML October Sessions
To book a place at Alert Learning's Halloween Coding Sessions, please email your child's:
Name
Age
Gender
Date of Birth
Session requested (Morning or Afternoon):
(Morning session is for youth 9-13 years; runs 10am - 1pm)
Afternoon session is for youth 13+ years in secondary school; runs 2-4pm)
Address
Any relevant medical information
Parent's Name, Mobile Number and Email Address
to:
Alertlearning@gmail.com
For further information on course fees, times, dates and venue, please see our blog or phone/text Cathy Lynch on 086 402 2616.
Monday, 7 October 2013
Programming Is The Core Skill Of The 21st Century
Programming skills are becoming increasingly important, and
are emerging as an essential core competency for all kinds of 21st Century
workers.
According to Mitch Resnick, who spoke at TEDxBeaconStreet in
November 2012, the point of teaching kids to code isn’t to create a generation
of programmers. Rather, it is because coding is a gateway to broader
spectrum of learning. “When you learn to read, you can then read to
learn. And it’s the same thing with coding: If you learn to code, you can code
to learn,” he says. Learning to code means learning how to think
creatively, reason systematically and work collaboratively. And these skills
are applicable to any profession — as well as to expressing yourself in your
personal life, too." Resnick also believes that young people
consider themselves "digital natives" because they can text and chat
and play games, he says, “but using technologies doesn’t really make one a digital native or fluent in technology.”
Fluency comes not through interacting with new technologies,
but through creating them. The former is like reading, while the latter is like
writing. Resnick means this figuratively — that creating new technologies, like
writing a book, requires creative expression — but also literally: to make new
computer programs, you actually must write the code.
So how can our youth learn how to code when it is not being
taught inside the classroom?
At the present time, both businesses and young people
have to be creative to seek out new ways of learning this essential skill.
When daily deal site Living Social couldn't find the coding
help it needed, the company took matters into its own hands and successfully
created its own qualified programmers. Through an experiment called Hungry
Academy, Living Social paid 24 people to learn computer programming
within five months. All two dozen passed the class and became full-time
developers at Living Social following their graduation.
“We believe that intelligence and passion are far harder to
hire for and much more important than a specific technical skill,” Chad Fowler,
LivingSocial’s senior vice president of technology, told the Washington Post
last year. “We have enough of the kind of DIY sort of mentality here and, maybe
it’s a little bit of hubris, we can teach faster than the industry.”
For students, there are many free online resources such
as Codecademy,
where individuals can take lessons on writing simple commands in JavaScript,
HTML and CSS, Python and Ruby.
As learning online in an isolated environment can be daunting for some, individuals may choose
to participate in out of school coding clubs to learn the basics in a supported
environment, when such options are available.
If you live in Longford, why not contact Alert Learning and
see if your son or daughter has the passion to learn how to code this
Halloween?
Check out http://www.alertlearning.blogspot.ie/ for
more information.
Halloween HTML & Python Course for Secondary School Students
Alert Learning is offering a short course for secondary
school students who wish to learn the basic fundamentals of Python & HTML in
Longford Town this October.
The aim of this course is to provide an overview of education and enterprise opportunities in the IT industry, as well as to provide a general introduction to computer coding via the computer programming coding language "Python". Basic website development using HTML will also feature as part of the course.
The aim of this course is to provide an overview of education and enterprise opportunities in the IT industry, as well as to provide a general introduction to computer coding via the computer programming coding language "Python". Basic website development using HTML will also feature as part of the course.
Python is free to use, even for commercial products, because
of its OSI-approved open source license and can be used for any programming
task, from Graphical User Interface (GUI) programming to web programming with
everything else in between.
The Python Software Foundation holds the intellectual
property rights behind Python, underwrites the PyCon conference, and funds many
other projects in the Python community.
For more information on Python, please see http://www.python.org/.
The learning outcomes of this introductory course include:
1. Basic use of the Python
interactive interpreter
2. Strings
3. Integers
4. Floats
5. Lists
6. Variables
7. Simple Expressions
HTML concepts that will be covered include:
1. Explain what web standards are, and why they are needed
2. Know what files comprise a web site
3. Create a site folder
4. HTML Tags
5. HTML Elements
6. HTML Page Structure
Course details are as follows:
Dates: Tuesday 29th
October, Wed 30th October and Thursday the 31st October
Time: 2-4 pm
Venue: Longford
Enterprise Centre
Fees: 10 euro per day;
25 euro for 3 days (2-4 pm)
Number of Participants:
Limited to 10
Requirements: No hardware is required as a computer and internet access is available at the Longford Enterprise Centre. Please bring a pen and paper to take notes.
How to register:
Email alertlearning@gmail.com or text/phone Cathy Lynch at 086 402 2616.
Halloween Camp in Longford Town For Youth 9 to 13 Years Old
Alert Learning is delighted to offer an introduction to computer coding in the Longford Enterprise Centre during October 2013.
The Halloween coding camp will offer facilitated training on introductory Python and HTML, as well as a general introduction to careers within the Irish software industry.
Python is free to use, even for commercial products, because of its OSI-approved open source license and can be used for any programming task, from Graphical User Interface (GUI) programming to web programming with everything else in between.
The Python Software Foundation holds the intellectual property rights behind Python, underwrites the PyCon conference, and funds many other projects in the Python community.
For more information on Python, please see http://www.python.org/.
This short course offered by Alert Learning will provide information on basic python fundamentals such as:
1. Using the Python interactive interpreter
2. Strings
3. Integers
4. Floats
5. Lists
6. Variables
7. Simple Expressions
HTML concepts that will be covered include:
1. Explain what web standards are, and why they are needed
2. Know what files comprise a web site
3. Create a site folder
4. HTML Tags
5. HTML Elements
6. HTML Page Structure
Course details are as follows:
For students 9-13 years of age:
Dates: Tues 29 October, Wed 30th October and Thursday 31 October
Times: 10am - 1pm. (Working parents can drop off kids from 9:25, with camp commencing from 10am)
Venue: Longford Enterprise Centre
Number of Participants: The camp is limited to 14 participants
Fees: 12 euro per day; 25 euro for 2 days, 35 euro for 3 days (10am to 1pm) payable on the 29th October
Snacks: Each child should bring their own drink and snack. Note: Food and drink cannot be consumed in the IT room. A designated snack time and venue will be provided on site in the Longford Enterprise Centre.
Other info: No hardware is required to particpate in this camp, as computer and internet access will be provided. A paper and pen should be brought for notes
Registration: Please contact Cathy Lynch at 086 402 2616 or email alertlearning@gmail.com to request a registration form & further information.
Learning How To Code
There is no doubt that that there are plenty of jobs in the
IT sector in Ireland, but without Computer Science featuring on either the
primary school curriculum or the Leaving Certificate Syllabus, there are few
ways that Irish children can be exposed to the necessary skills required to
take advantage of these employment opportunities when it is time to enter the
workforce.
For children not in proximity to free Coder Dojo
sessions (http://coderdojo.com/), there
are plenty of resources (some free!) out there, such as courses from online learning brands
such as Khan Academy, Udacity, Coursera, Codecademy, CodeSchool, and edX, but
most don't come with an instructor, instead relying on live or recorded videos
and possibly peer supported study groups.
Alert Training and Education believes that the best way for children to
learn how to code is within an instructor led, facilitated learning environment that delivers the fundamentals of coding via a combination of lecture, video, practical exercises and mentoring.
Please check back for further postings for
learning opportunities in the greater Longford area.
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