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Google-Funded Project Envisions Nation's Librarians Teaching Kids to Code (ala.org)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the overdue dept.

"We're excited to double down on the findings of Ready to Code 1," says one Google program manager, "by equipping librarians with the knowledge and skills to cultivate computational thinking and coding skills in our youth." theodp writes: Citing the need to fill "500,000 current job openings in the field of computer science," the American Library Association argues in a new whitepaper that "all 115,000 of the nation's school and public libraries are crucial community partners to guarantee youth have skills essential to future employment and civic participation"... The ALA's Google-funded "Libraries Ready to Code" project has entered Phase II, which aims to "equip Master's in Library Science students to deliver coding programs through public and school libraries and foster computational thinking skills among the nation's youth."

"Libraries play a vital role in our communities, and Google is proud to build on our partnership with ALA," added Hai Hong, who leads US outreach on Google's K-12 Education team... "Given the ubiquity of technology and the half-a-million unfilled tech jobs in the country, we need to ensure that all youth understand the world around them and have the opportunity to develop the essential skills that employers -- and our nation's economy -- require."

4 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Who teaches the teachers? by sconeu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Who will teach the librarians to code well enough so that they can pass on that knowledge to the kids?

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    1. Re:Who teaches the teachers? by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I wish my local librarian understood this. I wanted to donate $200 in Arduino stuff to the Library and she kept on bothering me about how would I come and train the kids on it. Could I have classes etc.

      I was the 14 year old kid that lived at the library (Only place with Internet in my county). You don't need to teach them anything other than point them in the direction of reading material.

  2. Re: Better to spend on education than salaries by AuMatar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No there aren't. Not unless you're counting the retired by choice. I just went through a job search. I had more companies begging to interview me than I could reasonably handle. Salaries for experienced devs are hitting the 200K/yr range because there aren't enough of them.

    What there are is way too many intro level people who take a bootcap or make a website or two and call themselves programmers, making it hard to find quality to fill low level jobs. But there aren't anywhere near enough seniors on the market at the moment.

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    I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  3. Re: Better to spend on education than salaries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Studying law is even sillier than tech. Most people that graduate in law are under employed or doing a job that doesn't require a law degree. Medicine is okay, but the profession artificially limits the supply to keep wages up but the industry simply turns to ARNPs and decimated the nursing profession with medical techs to make up for it.