Community

1 October 2021 · by Nuala McHale

Ten years ago the first CoderDojo session was held in Cork, Ireland by teenager James Whelton and entrepreneur Bill Liao. In previous years, we’ve run a spooky challenge during October. This year, we want to mark the 10 years of CoderDojo by encouraging young people to join in with the celebrations with birthday-themed coding projects! So, today we are launching the CoderDojo birthday greeting giveaway! What is the birthday greeting giveaway? Young people (aged 7–17) from Dojos worldwide, as well as those new to CoderDojo, are invited to create a project… Read More

1 September 2021 · by Nuala McHale

This month you and your Dojo may be considering returning to in-person events or running online sessions. To help you do this we have refresher workshops for volunteers as well as new project pathways young people can use. Online refresher workshops Restarting with Scratch – Thursday, 23 September 2021 at 16:00 BST.   Join Carmelo Presicce, who started a Dojo in Italy and works as a Research Assistant at MIT’s Scratch Lab, and Learning Coordinator Liz Smart to learn about new projects and freshen up your Scratch skills. Introduction to physical computing… Read More

23 July 2021 · by Nuala McHale

Ten years ago, on 23 July 2011, the first CoderDojo session was held in Cork, Ireland by teenager James Whelton and entrepreneur Bill Liao. From that first session, CoderDojo clubs sprung up across Ireland, and then spread globally to more than 100 countries over the last decade. During this time, dedicated volunteers have run thousands of CoderDojo sessions across the world, making the CoderDojo movement a global phenomenon.  Well done to all involved! Over the years, you’ve had a huge impact in your local area. We thank you for your contributions as part of the wider… Read More

30 June 2021 · by vasu

In this blog, Vasu, our Club Programme Coordinator in India, shares her experience of how the CoderDojo India community came together for Coolest Projects Online 2021. An opportunity to connect, collaborate, and celebrate! This blog is dedicated to some extraordinary Champions who went above and beyond! Their efforts resulted in more than 100 projects being registered for Coolest Projects 2021 by the CoderDojo community in India. Coolest Projects aims to enable young people to get creative with tech, have fun, and be a part of something exceptional. Running Coolest Projects online… Read More

11 June 2021 · by Nuala McHale

To support CoderDojos running online, we regularly conduct safeguarding visits to online sessions. This enables us to see how Dojos are running and provide any additional guidance to volunteers.  So far in 2021, we’ve visited online sessions hosted in Colombia, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, India, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Spain, the UK and the USA. Below are the key things we learned about the ways Dojos are operating during this time. Scratch demonstration during an online Dojo. Image credit: Alessandra Bilardi, @abilardi (Twitter) Some initial stats Of the Dojos we… Read More

3 June 2021 · by Vanessa Greene

Over 1,100 young tech creators from 47 countries share their innovative ideas in this year’s Coolest Projects showcase! Hundreds of these young people are involved in CoderDojo clubs around the world, where they developed the skills, with the help of Dojo volunteers, to make their ideas a reality. To celebrate our CoderDojo Ninjas who took part, here’s a small selection of the amazing entries to the Mobile application, Hardware and Advanced programming categories. Our previous blog includes projects from Scratch, Web and Games categories, and you can explore all project entries in the… Read More