*** Great Success of the EU Code Week ***
The EU Code week – a campaign of the EU Commission promoting coding as the skill of the 21st century – is a great success. Just look at all the 3076 events in the 38 countries involved. The “official” EU code week was from October 11-17th but in fact, it is far from over. There are still 650 events coming up and new are being added every day. As Commissioner Neelie Kroes says in her blog post, EU Code Week is 'more than just coding, more than just a week', because ‘it is not about coding - it’s about the amazing things you can achieve and create once you’ve learned it!’
Also SAP contributed a bunch of events all over Europe as communicated here.
*** Launch of the European Coding Initative ***
During the EU Code week, on October 14th in Brussels, European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes responsible for the Digital Agenda launched the “European Coding Initiative – All You need is Code”.
The European Coding Initiative will promote coding and computational thinking at all levels of education, as well as in more informal settings in order to establishing coding as a key competence within every education system in Europe. The project was created in June 2014 under the auspices of the European Commission, and is supported by partners from the technology industry, including Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Rovio, Liberty Global and Facebook. The initiative also involves not-for-profit organisations involved in the promotion of coding and computer science education, including Code.org, CoderDojo and European Schoolnet (Coordinator).
During the event Commissioner Neelie Kroes launched the “All You Need is Code” Campaign Video and website of the European Coding Initiative and
called for an increased recognition of coding as a new fundamental skill for all Europeans as part of a broader digital skills set.
The agenda included:
- Q&A with European Commission VP Neelie Kroes and “All You Need Is Code” role models
- Presentation of the results of the report “Computer Science in European Schools” by Ms. Anja Balanskat, Senior Analyst and Project Manager, European SchoolNet
- Panel Discussion on “The Future of Computer Science in Europe”
Moderator: Ms. Jessica Cecil, Controller, BBC “Make it Digital”
Panelists:
Mr. G. De Graaf, Director, DG CONNECT, European Commission
Ms. Mary Moloney, CEO, CoderDojo
Mr. Oystein Imsen, Lecturer and Norwegian CodeWeek Ambassador
Mr. Liam Ryan, SAP Labs Managing Director
Mr. Manuel Kohnstamm, Senior Vice President & Chief Policy Officer, Liberty Global
Some impressions of the event:
The launched website will provide resources in a number of languages, addressing to everyone from the youngest coders, to pedagogical resources and lesson plans for teachers, to industry training and certification for professionals. SAP contributes and scale up existing initiatives like the openSAP, SAP Learning Hub, SAP Developer Center, Academy Cube and supports students and adults via training and learning resources available on the launched website. The SAP Young Thinkers program addresses also the youngest and brings them in contact with coding.
You can read more about how SAP Joins “All You Need is Code” Campaign and Engages Young People Across Europe in Tech Education here.
The initiative aims to position coding as an entry point to computer science and public sources, and engage a wider group of students.
The activities are:
- Promote and scale up existing initiatives from industry partners and NGOs
- Support teachers and students via training and learning resources
- Facilitate dialogue with policy makers across Europe to get their buy-in
- Reach out to teachers, students and parents to inform them on the importance of coding
Further partners are welcome: Technology companies who want to get involved in training the coders of tomorrow or associations active in the field looking to get involved in a global campaign are welcome to join.
You can follow the initative in social media:
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