Berkeley Coding Academy Goes Online
The Machine Learning & AI summer camp is virtual, and stronger.
At Berkeley Independent Study, I teach students math with an iPad and video camera in small seminars. It’s hard for students to engage with math online because the virtual disconnect is even greater. Even with projects centered around the coronavirus data, the question of “Why am I doing this?” looms larger than before.
On Thursday afternoons, during the AI / Machine Learning for Youth computer club, my students and I recharge. Originally on campus (funded by the Berkeley High School Development Group), sign-ups were limited to Berkeley Independent Study students. When education went online, the club opened up to the entire district. Enrollment has surged.
I did not know how the online experience would translate for high school students learning to code in real time. Through trial and error, and teacher and student feedback, I am refining a system that works.
Providing clarity of lessons, switching between guided instruction and layered problem-solving, moving at a slower pace, encouraging students to actively participate, and using the chat to share code and debug errors has led to robust sessions. Students with a stronger knowledge base have stepped forward to guide students who have never coded before. Every week that goes by, the learning and teaching process becomes more effective.
I am teaching Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Instead of sweating through another math class, my students apply pandas and matplotlib to analyze big data. They develop beautiful graphs and interpret statistics. They make predictions from this data using cutting-edge Machine Learning algorithms.
The club, however, is limited to students in the Berkeley Unified School District. When classrooms are physical, limiting enrollment geographically makes sense. When classrooms go online, physical distance is no longer a barrier.
This Spring, I developed the Berkeley Coding Academy to teach high school and middle school students from any location in the world. From July 13 to July 31, BCA is launching our inaugural Machine Learning & AI summer camp. BCA is delivering empowering content in an online learning environment that is exciting, professional, and transformative. BCA merges the best of the physical classroom with virtual classrooms to deliver an innovative, interactive learning experience.
Online learning environments encourage new methods of communication not commonly used in live classrooms. Live chat, for instance, is a great way to communicate and code-share. Some students feel more comfortable copying and pasting code than speaking out in class. Breakout rooms, discouraged in public education for safety concerns, allow students to work in small cohorts without distractions. At BCA, students journey through the program in small cohorts solving problems and building projects along the way.
One way to code online is the sharing of live notebooks. An example of a live notebook is a Google Colab Notebook developed and shared in real time. Although possible in the regular classroom, live notebooks receive less attention because they are not the primary mode of instruction. With online learning, live notebooks encourage students to model code being developed onscreen while the teacher explains the content.
Where Berkeley Coding Academy really stands out is the ability to incorporate the best of the physical classroom online: motivated and available teachers, opportunities for students to bond, individual plus group work, and clarity of work and expectations. My experience teaching in the physical classroom for over 10,000 hours guides all curriculum decisions. BCA searches for innovative ways to integrate successful classroom practices online.
The BCA curriculum is layered to accommodate students of varying backgrounds, including students who have never coded before.BCA provides a smooth onramp by illuminating the foundations of concepts with simple examples before moving on to more involved applications. All students receive challenge problems so that fast learners and experienced programmers remain engaged during individual work time.
Berkeley Coding Academy enters a new intersection, connecting the invaluable experiences of credentialed teachers with the rapid acceleration of technological growth. The content that students learn at BCA is not accessible to teens in most geographical areas. Computer science has traditionally been reserved for an honors high school curriculum. BCA teaches the foundations of computer science, along with its most exciting applications in Machine Learning & AI in a 45-hour curriculum based on evolving research and classroom experience. It will be available to everyone
I am deeply sympathetic to the losses that we are currently facing in education. My response, however, is not to retreat and take a step backward. Instead, with Berkeley Coding Academy, I want to take several steps forward. With peer support, the passion and experience of credentialed teachers, and the will to learn, BCA students will forge new friendships, gain new mentors, and learn life-changing skills. By building and evaluating Machine Learning models as AI, BCA students will gain the confidence that they can accomplish anything.
If you want to learn more about Berkeley Coding Academy, please visit our website at berkeleycodingacademy.com, or email me directly at corey@berkeleycodingacademy.com.
Corey Wade is the director and founder of BCA and lead author of The Python Workshop. He currently teaches math at Berkeley Independent Study.
