HOUR(s and Hours) OF (Math +) CODE

Virtual Paper ID: 52875
  1. George Gadanidis
    Western University
  2. aaa
    Rosa Cendros Araujo
    Western University

Abstract: Today’s coding movement, inspired in part by Wing’s advocacy of computational thinking in education (Wing, 2006, 2008), has been taken up by industry, academics, and educational institutions. Although portrayed as a recent trend in education, the idea of bringing coding into classrooms is not new. We believe that we need to learn from the past. However, today there is a lot of momentum in engaging young students with coding, with for-profit and non-profit entities supporting the dissemination of this idea. In addition, there are vested interests that support and use the coding trend as a marketing tool for educational and consumer products. Is it possible to disrupt the overwhelming focus on coding-as-an-end-in-itself? Our first explicit attempt to disrupt the current coding-as-an-end-in-itself focus coincided with Computer Science Education Week, 4-10 December 2017, as we tried to expand the focus of what schools do for The Hour of Code. In this paper, we explain the context of this initiative, its elements, and the advertising principles used to have the initiative noticed in social media.

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