YC Backs Its Next Nonprofit, Coding Education Program CodeNow | Hacker News Reader

YC Backs Its Next Nonprofit, Coding Education Program CodeNow

techcrunch.com

57 pointsseashore33 comments

I love this because it works on getting kids into the wonder and power of coding before they hit the CS meat grinder later on. Falling in love with it and getting some experience before they hit more rigorous learning down the road. It will help a lot of other CS & engineer majors in their first year. I hope that made any sense.

Thx! Exactly our goal. Get them excited about learning to code early on so they will stick with it as it becomes more difficult.

I'm curious what kind of programming will be taught. Processing? Python? Javascript/jquery? Will the focus be on more 'learning the basics' i.e. what is an array, how to write a forloop or a focus on a specific, usable language?

We teach Ruby. Students learn about: - variables - notion of different data types (string / integer/ array / hash) - string interpolation - iteration / enumeration - looping - boolean conditionals - defining/invoking methods

Neat. What lead you to decide on Ruby? I feel like Python used to be the most common beginner language, and maybe it still is, but it really seems like Ruby has gained over the past few years. Which is fine, because it's a great language, but I am curious what gives.

When we first started we had an amazing group of volunteers with experience in Ruby. Our focus is project based learning. It's been perfect for this.

The TechCrunch article shows a photo with one of your stickers next to an Arduino and breadboard. Is Arduino part of your curriculum as well?

Yes, for one of the projects students work with Arduinos using the dino gem.

Really nice to see a new ambitious program. As a you are a non profit, I'm interested to learn about how you imagine working with other existing initiative like (from memory) Coder Dojo, or Girls who code. (We of course need thousands flowers, with everything from family-lead activities like our Coding Goûter, to non-profits, to for-profit workshops or lessons, and even in-school programs. At the same time I feel we also need to build up a positive ecosystem of code education. We are not at the whole ecosystem stage yet.)

Thx! The ecosystem is starting to develop. We have conversations with most of the established orgs in the learn to code space. It's important to attack the problem from multiples angles.

"A new approach, which the classes have already begun to adopt, is bringing more students in but dividing them into groups of six to eight. Each of those groups will work with their own volunteer trainer, and they’ll move at their own pace."

If the goal is to scale small group in-person instruction, why not use Open Systems Instruction? This seems like the perfect use case. The book Public Schools Should Learn To Ski describes the benefits really well, but I'm sure there are other books on this.

Not familiar with Open System instruction. Is it similar to Open Learning? Our model draws threads from the flipped classroom approach.

No, it's a variant of the Keller Plan, but without the bias toward written instruction.

Wow this is fantastic. I think exposure to this kind of stuff is something that not enough kids get. It's not their fault and I'm glad to see somebody taking charge of spreading the word about tech.

I'm working on a hackathon to merge students (not just college) and professionals in NYC and would love to get in touch with you guys.

Thx! Would like to learn more about what you're working on. Send us an email info(at)codenow(dot)org

Great to hear a non-profit is attacking this. Unfortunately, companies like code academy don't benefit from users actually learning to code. They are focused on user engagement. Ideally, they are one and the same, but in reality so many of these "learn to code" platforms do not teach the concepts very well.

Even for-profit companies could make "fix" vs. "ongoing treatment" work in a market where there is a constant supply of new patients (children) and a huge market relative to the size of the company. If one person learns to code reasonably well through something like this (or codecademy), referrals should be cheap customer acquisition.

What's the point of teaching people to program? Why is this a non-profit? Why not make this a for-profit entity? Does this have noble goals that aren't addressed by a free and for-profit market? If so, what are those goals? Is this the best way to achieve those goals?

You're potentially right that this could work as a for-profit entity too; it looks like they're going to provide their basic systems to companies or non-profits who want to replicate it.

"Teach your non-technical employees the basics of code" would probably be a better team-building exercise at a company like HP than doing outdoor activities.

As a non-profit, you could charge 5-10x the cost to run those courses, and then run the revenue back in to the non-profit school programs.

There are also lots of profitable commercial companies serving the education market, so if they'd wanted to, this could have been set up as a commercial entrant. But being a non-profit makes it easier to get adoption in schools I think, and allows them to use volunteers, vs. expensive staff.

crickets

Your questions made me think that any response would probably be met with comments like "well, what do you mean some people are 'disadvantaged'? Why don't they just study something useful and work hard? What do you mean 'deserve'? What do you mean 'under-represented'? As compared to what, some kind of ideal representation? What is this bleeding heart rubbish? Why don't you trust the market?'

Dunno about everybody else, but it doesn't really seem a conversation worth having to me.

If the conversation isn't worth having then why are we even talking about non-profits at all?

What's the point of having YC support a non-profit venture?

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I don't think the conversation would be worth having with you because of the giant gap between your starting position and reality.

Congrats on being YC's newest nonprofit! The scalability of in-person training is a concern that I have with my education /consultancy business, as well. I look forward to hearing more about how you expand to hundreds of thousands!

Sounds like a fun program! Come to Cleveland, we could use something like this.

Great idea! Glad to see them getting the help growing.

Thx! Excited to have YC's support.

Hi Ryan. I want to talk to you about expanding further. My email is in my profile. Thanks.

Deleted comment

The introduction of universal literacy is but a terrible machination to deprive us hard-working scribes of our wages. These bright-eyed children (so eager to learn our trade) are weapons forged to deprive us of our pay. Let us stand against this sickening project to educate our children - for there is no class of people so trod upon as those in our trade, no bundle of sticks in such need of binding. And let us make this stand now before the boots of our oppressors become child-sized!

This is probably a new HN record in mistakenly ascribing bad intentions, which is pretty impressive.

That's not our intention. Our focus is to create awareness for these students that becoming a software engineer is an option.

A brilliant goal, but don't get hung up on it. I strongly suspect that writing code is a skill that will permeate through the entire job market over the next decade or two - the ability to write simple code will be as important as good communication or basic maths. Everyone will need it, from secretaries to construction workers to CEOs.

What you are doing is going to be much bigger than just software engineering. And that's awesome. :)

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