Hi all, On the lighter side of things, this is a short clip of ten year olds here in Italy having fun learning some basic computer science concepts. Enjoy! ;-) http://bit.ly/1l7QSEE

Very nice! They understood all those programming concepts and were able to explain quite well in their own terms. Thanks for the translation -- I greatly enjoyed the enthusiasm. :-) -- Niraj

Well done Derval. Let’s talk soon, I’m working on a program for after-school high school kids here.. would like to hear a bit about how you approached the curriculum and materials etc. €

Thanks guys! It's been very rewarding working with these kids. They are hugely enthusiastic about understanding these concepts and literally take it all in their stride. Be happy to share my experiences with you @Uelsimon... I have been doing one 90 minute lesson a week with these children since January. What I have typically done is follow the code.org materials for the first half of the lesson and then use the second half to talk about what is currently being talked about in the media about technology. The code.org site allows teachers to set up progress dashboards whereby all their pupils register and as they go through the various puzzles, their progress is logged. It is fun to look at the children's progress at the beginning of each lesson and pitch the boys against the girls and that kind of thing. (The girls inevitable win every time ;-) ) In the second half of the lesson we look at the IT industry and what's being said about it in the press. This helps put the coding ideas in context, underlining the importance of understanding it and opening the children's minds to what's going on in the world of technology. In recent lessons we have discussed Whatsapp, Facebook, Reflector, Siri, Foursquare, Oculus Rift and a bunch of other stuff... the kids are just in awe about it all. It's a lot of fun! Derval

This is so cool, Derval! Let's talk about this at the next Buzztouch Educators group. I am going to forward this link to the distribution group for Buzztouch Educators to make sure everyone sees the video. Just send me an email or PM if you want to be on the Buzztouch Educators group. ([email protected]).