Ivelisse Figueroa, the assistant branch manager at Richard Byrd Library, watches the drag and drop coding project of Tabitah Press, 8, and sister Elissa Press, 10, residents of West Springfield, during the second session of Richard Byrd’s CoderDojo class. Photo by Alexandra Tecco/The Connection
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More than three dozen children attended the second CoderDojo class held at the Richard Byrd Library in Springfield on Saturday, July 16. CoderDojo, one of the library’s newest programs, focuses on engaging children from 7-17 in coding and related soft skills like communication, collaboration and creativity. These two--hour lessons are held in a relaxed environment, suitable for all skill levels and learning styles. Although there were numerous projects being worked on, the children that managed to piece together the code to get a cartoon cat to meow, provided the most undisputable feedback of the program’s success. The relative quiet of the room erupted with a chorus of cats’ meows accompanied by children’s laughter.
CoderDojo’s purpose is to “give the children the tools, let them explore and get out of their way,” says Steve Trickey of Arlington. Trickey is the lead mentor of CoderDojo held at Annandale’s Northern Virginia Community College and is assisting Richard Byrd Library this summer by guiding the mentors through the program.
The CoderDojo program was developed in Ireland in 2011 and has spread worldwide. The teaching method, in practice, makes the adult mentors provide assistance rather than direction as the kids work and collaborate. The software, Scratch, was developed by MIT while the educational resources were developed by Harvard. It all comes together to present children with loosely-defined objectives to direct their work, allowing the room for creativity, interpretation and innovation.
THE SOFTWARE is capable of building a variety of projects from simple to complex and allows children to “… get immediate feedback in a fun way,” explains Bill Kevit, volunteer with The Friends, and a leader of bringing the CoderDojo program to the library. Yet the system itself is user friendly. The participants included children with learning disabilities, children as young as six, mentors who had no experience coding and mentors who recalled coding when it involved room-sized computers and punch cards in addition to older children and mentor techies. Yet everyone was smiling, laughing and learning from the activities.
The reason many of the parents brought their children to the classes are similar. Fairfax resident Sheila Puschendorf summarized it, “trying to expose them to new technology…it’s the future in everything.” Puschendorf brought her 9-year-old daughter Sophia and 11-year-old niece Claudel Silva-Martins. The girls, prodded for what they were creating, “I’m gonna make him skydive,” said Claudel, never taking her intense gaze from the screen except to occasionally glance and see what her cousin was making.
The initial trial of the once-a-month summer classes, testing out interest in the program, has been an overwhelming success. Both classes filled within the first week of registration and had a waiting list. The day of the class calls hoping a spot opened up kept coming in, according to Ivelisse Figueroa, the assistant branch manager at Richard Byrd. The popularity and desire for the program has made the CoderDojo class a regular monthly opportunity available at Richard Byrd. The final class was scheduled for this August. However, the program has been extended through October 2017 on their website.
THE QUESTION now is “How do we meet the need? Right now we’re only touching a small percentage of those interested,” said Kevit. The once a month class has been booked solid so far. The library also received only 12 laptops for the program, hardware that will have to be shared across the entire Fairfax County Public Library system, according to Figueroa. While they hope to get more, the library encourages children to bring their own laptop in the meantime to allow them to save their work, but also to make sure there is enough equipment to go around.
The CoderDojo program at Richard Byrd is a step toward bridging the gap in tech knowledge, experience and access by the public at large. Figueroa envisions Richard Byrd Library growing into “technology hubs,” while their programs continue “increasing connections between technology and the library.”