Code Creates Change hosted our first meet up yesterday evening. We are a not-for-profit group focusing on improving K12 coding education and providing a community for those interested in exploring this space.

It seems more than fitting to quote the brilliant Margaret Mead to summarize our sentiments of the evening:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

Bringing together a room full of passionate, intelligent and dedicated individuals was exciting. (Dedicated indeed! — Thursday evening before a long weekend and conversations ran long past our 2 hour meeting time!)

We were in the midst of tech industry professionals, parents, teachers, coding enthusiasts, librarians, edtech leaders and important others.

The conversations were rich, insightful and encouraging.

What do the masses want? Together we defined what we are looking for:

We need available and accessible mentors and leaders in K12 coding education. We need high-quality, fun, open coding curriculum and instructional resources for K12. We need a sustainable community to connect, collaborate and create.

Code Creates Change is that open community.

We had interesting conversations around what K12 Computer Science education in Ontario looks like. Fruitful discussion. Insects were involved. We discussed strengths and weaknesses of the current model of disseminating tech literacy.

Is coding education like a butterfly emerging from it’s cocoon, struggling yet something beautiful emerging? Perhaps like sunflowers, sporadically growing in pockets as seeds spread with the wind’s currents.

Strengths that arose in discussions: We have passionate educators in this space who are experimenting, paving the way, and making K12 coding education a reality. We have tech geniuses in our midst who want to connect with the classroom and be part of this revolution.

Areas that we need to work on include: forming a collection of high-quality, fun open (ever-evolving) curriculum resources, building the bridge between industry and school boards, bringing silos together under one platform for common goals, connecting educators with leaders/mentors, professional development for educators, network/community support.

Where do we go from here?

Share your thoughts in the k12 code blog, post your interests for future events on the discussion board, let’s get started and move forward together!

We invite you to join the conversation and be a part of the community at www.codecreateschange.org