Wednesday, August 27, 2014

She is Small but Mighty: Girls who Code



Isn't it amazing how sometimes you can look for hours and not find something, but that moment when you least expect it... it hits you right in the face? In my free time I have been looking for articles regarding the common user and what coding means to them, but right as I found myself watching my latest YouTube shows, this pops up in my feed. Made With Code is an organization with one thing in mind, to make coding interesting to girls who are growing up in a world that tells them that science and math is only for the boys. This just isn't true. Coding is for everyone, and it makes up everything we do. The video explains their mission much more elegantly that I could ever hope to, but what I can tell you is, coding isn't scary, and it's very important. In fact, according to the website "only 0.4% of female college freshmen plan to major in CS" which is shocking to me.

Made with Code is a very user friendly website, which subscribes to the "three click" rule, or so I believe. To those that do not know, the "three click" rule is the belief that anything you search for should be accessible within three clicks. This accompanies the modern trend many libraries have been witnessing that patrons and users are becoming far to impatient to enjoy the hunt that we dedicate our careers to, but that is made for another rant on another day. 

This website doesn't merely limit itself to being an infomercial about how important computer science and coding is to girls either. It also serves as a hub to communicate with others who are willing to host hands on events in order to teach coding. The organization seems focused towards girls between the age of 13-18, but I definitely want to try out some of the workshops they have online, including making your very own 3D bracelet... for free. 

I believe websites like this are very important to the up and coming generations, and with such a user friendly interface, it doesn't feel intimidating at all to the typical individual who has never looked at coding in their lives. I look forward to seeing their next update when it comes out. 

3 comments:

  1. FWIW, The "snow" (movie noise pattern) on your site is interesting for about 3 seconds, then it's rather distracting/annoying.

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  2. I LOVE the video, and the idea of celebrating/encouraging girl to code. I also love the "made with code" website, and I especially like that they use an image of illuminate on the home page…what an awesome example of girl who code! I like some the projects on the "made with code" site.I hope to do some coding classes with teens at the library where I work. I'm thinking about Scratch, or maybe Hopscotch of Blockly. Any thoughts?

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  3. Agreed, this is so interesting! What they're doing sounds awesome!

    ps: love the A Midsummer Night's Dream reference in the title of this post haha

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