ANC Intro:
(“The push for kids to learn coding while young has increased in the past few years.
While it’d be fair to assume schools should be the place to learn tech, Mac Konrad found an unexpected place teaching it.”)
VO:
While some may still prefer books but here at the Onondaga Free Library, they aren’t clinging to older technologies.
They’ve got their eyes set square on the future.
For the past few years Alyssa Newton has been holding coding classes at the library.
She started teaching the class after the Hour of Code campaign for kids took off but since then the class has morphed into a coding class for the whole family.
According to Newton, it’s important to start kids young so they’re prepared for the future.
[TAKE SOT: Alyssa Newton
DURATION:0:16]
(“Provide teens and young adults opportunities to have access to technology and resources to help them become 21st century learners. So we really got excited about coding and computer science education and just getting families excited about that as well.”)
While Alyssa herself supplied laptops in the early days to code on, since then a grant from Senator John DeFrancisco allowed Alyssa and the library to add tablets and small robots so kids have a wide range of tech to learn from.
Standup:
While the library hopes to add more tech and volunteers to help teach the class in the future, right now they’re just happy to help where they can.
[TAKE SOT: Maggie Gall
DURATION:0:17]
(” For so many industries whether it’s the beauty industry or the medical industry the jobs are gonna be there and the kids are really lacking the education in the nation, locally, in our community.”)
VO:
Alyssa says she hopes the class will inspire parents to demand coding education from their schools.
For N-C-C News in Syracuse, I’m Mac Konrad.
Mac Konrad Syracuse, NY–The push for kids to learn coding while young has increased in the past few years. While some may still prefer books, at at the Onondaga Free Library they aren’t clinging to older technologies.
They’ve got their eyes set square on the future.
For the past few years Alyssa Newton has been holding coding classes at the library. She started teaching the class after the Hour of Code campaign for kids took off but since then the class has morphed into a coding class for the whole family.
According to Newton, it’s important to start kids young so they’re prepared for the future.
“[The goal is to] provide teens and young adults opportunities to have access to technology and resources to help them become 21st century learners. So we really got excited about coding and computer science education and just getting families excited about that as well, Newton said.
While Alyssa herself supplied laptops in the early days to code on, since then a grant from Senator John DeFrancisco has allowed Alyssa and the library to add tablets and small robots so kids have a wide range of tech to learn from.
While the library hopes to add more tech and volunteers to help teach the class in the future, right now they’re just happy to help where they can. For librarian Maggie Gall, kids just having the knowledge opens doors for them.
“For so many industries whether it’s the beauty industry or the medical industry the jobs are gonna be there and the kids are really lacking the education in the nation, locally, in our community,” Gall said.
In the end, Alyssa says she hopes the class will inspire parents to demand coding education from their schools.
