Cornwall and area teachers learn how to code at Teacher.con | Local News - Standard Freeholder

It was the teacher’s turn to learn on Saturday as Canada Learning Code came into town for Teacher.con, continues Standard Freeholder.

Nima Boscarina speaks to teachers about coding at the Teacher.con on Saturday October 27, 2018 at the Nav Centre in Cornwall, Ont. Lois
Photo: Ann Baker/Cornwall Standard-Freeholder/Postmedia Network

“We are a national program,” said Sharon Brown. “We are a national charity. We have been recipients of some very generous funds so we can offer Teacher.con. This is our 12th across the country.”

Brown said they started Teacher.con in June and groups varied from smaller ones like the one in Cornwall, into larger ones of over 100 teachers.

“It’s a multi-day experience,” she said. “We offer different platforms and different tools. It’s not just one way of coding, it is many ways of coding. We are looking at vocabularies that are standard to all coding. So very beginner basic levels for teachers, we have lesson plans.”

Brown said the lesson plans are all created by teachers to integrate coding lessons into specific areas and across grade levels. She added they had a lesson plan challenge across Canada where teachers could submit a sample lesson plan for coding...

Brown said the idea is for teachers to learn how to code so they can bring it back to their classrooms.

“We do talk about the importance of coding. Why coding? Why is this such an important skill,” said Brown. ”We believe it is a super-power, first of all. And it’s a digital literacy our learners need to be exposed to in order to understand this world we live in today. We hope this will help them become more than just consumers of technology, but creators with technology.
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Source: Standard Freeholder