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Ten more CoderDojo clubs are to be set up over next twelve months

The exact locations has yet to be set in stone, but it’s expected that some of them will be set up in Dublin, Kildare and Limerick.

TEN NEW CODERDOJO clubs will be set up across Ireland over the next twelve months, bringing the expected number of new clubs to open up to 36.

The announcement, which was part of the second EU Code Week, is being done in partnership with UPC.

The locations of the new clubs hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, but it’s believed that some of them will be set up in Dublin, Kildare and Limerick.

Commenting on the announcement, the Global CEO of CoderDojo said that coding knowhow is becoming an important skill for young people in life, regardless of whether they use it for a future job or not.

Being able to code is almost like having a superpower and EU Code Week offers us the opportunity to make coding more visible not only amongst the children themselves, but also among parents, teachers, people in technology and the general public.

CoderDojo has more than 140 Dojos located across the island. The volunteer-led initiative, which teaches kids between 7 and 17 how to code, develop websites and apps, was founded by James Whelton and Bill Liao in June 2011. Currently there are now more than 528 Dojos in 48 countries, with an average of two to three clubs being launched each month.

The announcement was part of UPC’s involvement with the European Commission’s Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs, an initiative which plans to respond to the shortage of workers in the digital sector. It’s believed that roughly 7,000 such positions remain unfilled in Ireland.

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15 Comments
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    Mute George Knot
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    Oct 9th 2014, 8:00 AM

    Is there a coderdojo for over 17s?

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    Mute David Evans
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    Oct 9th 2014, 8:49 AM

    If you’re being serious, there are loads of online courses from edX :)

    https://www.edx.org/course-list/allschools/computer-science/allcourses

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    Mute phil
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    Oct 9th 2014, 9:26 AM

    Fas offer brilliant entry level I.T courses online also. I currently am doing a MTA in networking and will move on to software development and they are very good courses.

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    Mute dna30
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    Oct 9th 2014, 10:24 AM
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    Mute Patrick
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    Oct 9th 2014, 4:13 PM

    Maynooth University one is for ages 6- 19 .

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    Mute George Knot
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    Oct 9th 2014, 8:11 PM

    I am being serious.. What I like about the coderdojo set up though is that there is a community/group aspect to it.. I would like to pick up coding as a hobby rather than as a certificate or diploma course.

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    Mute Stephen Small
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    Oct 9th 2014, 7:54 AM

    Absolutely brilliant. Fantastic thing to have in the country.

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    Mute Eddie O'Mahony
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    Oct 9th 2014, 9:09 AM

    Definitely a good step, but code clubs as part of school life is truely the way forward. Government need to support schools in making it attractive for programmers/developers to want to go into teaching (.NET, Java, Ruby etc etc), but I fear they will only do this when its too late and other countries steal a march in this area!

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    Mute Scorpionvenomm
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    Oct 9th 2014, 8:53 AM

    It’s brilliant for kids I go with my nephew and his friend every week.

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    Mute Rachel McEneaney
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    Oct 9th 2014, 10:22 AM

    Has anyone got a child currently doing this? I have a 7 year old who’s big into computers and was thinking of signing him up.

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    Mute Dave O'Shaughnessy
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    Oct 9th 2014, 10:34 AM

    Visit coderdojo.com/ Rachel, try to find a Dojo near to where you live (or you could even organise your own Dojo) and just bring your son along with a laptop to start coding with and you both join in, and hopefully he’ll have the natural Grá for Coding and you’ll be with him there to support and participate. Best of luck.

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    Mute Rachel McEneaney
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    Oct 9th 2014, 10:53 AM

    Thanks Dave. I’d love to see how it’s done too.

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    Mute Kate Bielinski
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    Oct 9th 2014, 2:44 PM

    Rachel my son (7 in dec) has been going to coder dojo since last easter I think. He loves it. Def recommend it.

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    Mute Derval O'Neill
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    Oct 9th 2014, 2:23 PM

    If you want to start learning the basics of coding and then build your own app, I can recommend Buzztouch.com. I have built a number of apps using this platform. After you complete your project you own the source code and publish the apps in your own name. My most recent app is Irish Solo Sets designed for Irish dancers and has done quite well on the App Store. Coding is a great way to be creative and the app store is a fantastic way to access to the global market place.

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    Mute Michelle Graham
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    Oct 18th 2014, 6:19 PM

    I organise the dojo in Dundalk and we have 70 kids signed up every second week from September to May, then once a month June, July and August. It’s a fantastic thing for a child if they are interested in computing and I can’t recommend getting involved more. We’ve had coders with us for two years that started out without any idea how to program that are now teaching others how to write client-server applications in Python, or building raspberry pi-based networks. It makes an enormous difference to the community and opens doors for everyone involved (both mentors and coders). However, this article makes it sound like a central organisation sets up dojos like branches in a bank! Dojos are organised and run by locals in the community, each is completely independent and one can be started at any time.

    My point is this: Don’t wait for one to be started by a central body. If you want one near you, then act on it! If you know about computing, check if there’s one already running in the vicinity (https://zen.coderdojo.com/ has a list of all currently registered dojos and there should be a point of contact available too) and if there’s one around then sign up. If there isn’t, talk to others in the area and see if you can get 2 or 3 mentors together, then go to http://www.coderdojo.com and set one up yourself. It can be hard work at times, but you’ll never regret it. Dundalk is up and running almost 2.5 years, Drogheda is running almost 3. Get a few interested and enthusiastic people into a room and you can have one in your own area in next to no time, instead of hoping that there’ll be one within driving range.

    Oh, and if you don’t know anything about computing, you can still get involved in loads of ways. Dojos will always take an offer of help, even if it’s just being an extra body for organising!

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