Easter Coding Camp Offers Great Chance for Children to Learn Computer Skills

Easter Coding Camp Offers Great Chance for 

Children to Learn Computer Skills

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre in association with Local Enterprise Office will be running a Coding Camp for children aged between 8 and 14 from Tuesday 7^th April to Friday 10^th April 2015.

The Action Plan for Jobs 2015 emphasises the importance of computer literacy to the future. Jordan Casey is a fine example of the benefits of learning digital language from a young age. The 14 years old Waterford entrepreneur is the CEO of his own company, Casey Games-an award winning independent video game company. Click here and watch a short movie  about Jordan . 

The teenage tech prodigy’s company has had success developing apps for mobiles and the web such as Greenboy Touch, Alien Ball versus Humans, and Food World.

The Dungarvan Enterprise Centre's Coding Camp will be run in association with Calypso IT local based apps as well as developing skills in writing HTML, using quiz HTML, and coding CSS.

The week long camp will be delivered by the teacher and industry professional who also volunteers at Tramore Coder Dojo.

The camp is suitable and will be beneficial for children with an interest in computers, gaming and coding or children who have a keen interest to develop skills in these areas.

The camp will run from 10am to 1pm. The cost is €80 per child.

For further enquiries or to book now, call (058) 23598 or email dungarvanec@gmail.com. 

Coder Dojo needs You!

As the song says “Children are the future teach them well and let them lead the way”

All kids now seem to be whizz kids when it comes to using iPad and laptops to play games. Would it not be great if they could put all that time to better use?, The Coder Dojo programme does exactly that, it teaches kids the skill of computer programming so that they can create their own websites and games and even design apps. Coder Dojo is a non-profit programme that relies solely on volunteers. This is a global movement and there are currently 420 Dojos in 43 Countries. The Ninjas will learn to use HTML, CSS and PHP. Bill Liao who has been involved in the set- up of the Coder Dojo movement encourages us to empower children to be creators rather than consumers, to get the children to start thinking about how these games work as opposed to just swiping screens. This is a free programme  open to kids from 8-11 years of age. The Eircom Junior Spider awards have seen a 45% increase in participants, many of these kids are or have been Coder Dojo Ninjas.

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre has been involved in  the Coder Dojo programme since 2012, and so far has put eighty Ninjas through the programme so far. The Ninjas from the 2013 programme will receive their belts on the 31st of May 2014.

If you have a programming background and are familiar with HTML, CSS and PHP and can give the kids two hours of your time every second Saturday during the school term we would love to hear from you. Without the help of volunteers this programme can't go ahead, thus preventing the kids from discovering their potential which may set them on a career path that may never have been explored without Coder Dojo.

If YOU can help keep this programme in Dungarvan or have kids interested in becoming Ninjas please contact us on 058 23598 or dungarvanec@gmail.com

Who is Bill Liao? The entrepreneur and self-made millionaire comes to Dungarvan.

The 16^th of May 2013 marks a very important date in Dungarvan Enterprise Centre’s calendar as Bill Liao, investor, author and member of the entrepreneur hall of fame will be visiting us to give a once off seminar on the digital world.

So who is Bill Liao? Aside from his full time role as venture partner with the highly successful firm SOSventures, Bill Liao is also a founder of charity WeForest.org and co-founder of the innovative business social network XING. In 2011 Bill Liao co-founded the ground breaking Coder Dojo movement in an attempt to teach children how to write computer codes and programs. In relation to the movement he has stated that “Computer programming is a language skill and it needs to be learned young.” At this time Coder Dojo is operating in 22 countries and teaches 10,000 children every week. Bill Liao is also known for his involvement as investor and director in such companies as Silicon Republic, Storyful and many more and from his best-selling book “Stone Soup: The Secret Recipe for Making Something from Nothing.”

Having Bill Liao come to our Centre is an absolute privilege. Especially as DEC Coder Dojo has been such a success with the young people of Dungarvan. Anike Tyrrell, CEO of Waterford County Enterprise Board noted that “Dungarvan has one of the best fibre optics networks in Ireland and Bill Liao is a huge name in the digital world, his presence in Dungarvan only further pushes the notion that we could transform our town into the digital centre of the south-east.”