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"As cool as technology is, its intricacies and inner workings are sometimes intimidating, especially for young people who may be more interested in what technology can do for them rather than what they can do with technology. However, when students hurdle that obstacle and see the value of computer science - specifically coding - they gain a broadened perspective and the potential for a rewarding career in the tech field. The following resources will help you teach your students the basics of coding and will provide tips on how to keep kids interested as you go."

"E.A.K. teaches code using 'stealth learning' - our goal is to provide learners with their first steps towards digital literacy in the most entertaining way possible. By changing the source code of the levels - written in HTML and CSS, just like a web page - players must rescue kittens to complete the game."

Today was Dr. Davey's first Maker Day, and an amazing one at that! Here's a look at our day. All of the Grade 1-Grade 7 students participated in today's Maker Day. Students attended two of seven different sessions based on their interests: Minecraft/Coding, Collaborative Art, Beautiful Junk, Positive Graffiti, Making Music, Lego/Blocks, and Egg Drop. Staff members paired up together to facilitate the learning at each of the sessions, and the students directed most of the learning based on their interests. I (Aviva) worked with an amazing Grade 4 student that led the Minecraft/Coding session, and even worked with small groups of students on coding the Arduino. It was really quite incredible! After two sessions, students reflected on the day and on their learning, and then extended the "Maker Learning" back in the classroom. Today was all about the Learning Skills, problem solving, creativity and critical thinking. As you can hear in our video reflection, there were also links to our classroom learning including Science (Structures) and Math (shapes, figures, and non-standard measurement). There was also a lot of Arts learning today (with creating music and creating works of art including the elements of design). What an amazing day!"

QR Core is a QR Code generator, it will allow you to create QR codes for names, urls, phone numbers, email addresses or plain text.

QR Core is a QR Code generator, it will allow you to create QR codes for names, urls, phone numbers, email addresses or plain text.

Wyoming science teacher London Jenks not only allows mobile technologies in his classroom, but he's also learned how to maximize them as educational tools, tapping the devices for assessments, research, and even student scavenger hunts using QR codes.

"This fall, the entire British school system will embrace computer science. The UK is the first G8 country to include computer science education in its national curriculum, and the move could serve as a test case for so many other nations across the globe, including the United States. As computing comes to dominate our world, programming skills are more valuable than ever, but even the U.S.-the center of the technology universe-is still struggling to bring coding into the classroom. Part of the problem is that, before students learn how to code, their teachers must learn too. Pulling all that off is a massive endeavor."

"This post is about a topic and app close to my heart. Computer programming is the engine of modern life and dream maker for tens of thousands. More and more countries are introducing the subject as compulsory schooling at surprisingly young ages. The UK is introducing a national school programme in september this year whilst also funding yearofcode.org to increase momentum. Code.org is pushing an international message with big-name endorsement. Even small countries like Estonia have their 5-year-olds taking their first steps into logical problem solving. A site I've used for years is codecademy.com"

"One of my very favorite uses of technology in education is when it used by students to create things. There are so many ways to be creative with technology - writing, creating art work, composing music, creating web sites, developing presentations, and so on. One of the most intense and potentially rewarding creative undertaking students can tackle is coding - developing their own programs! The resources available to help interested individuals learn how to code have never been better or more plentiful. Schools and teachers have embraced this as an opportunity, setting students up to learn coding (and some highly motivated students take it on themselves)."

"Looking for some good iPad apps for scanning and reading QR codes? Here are the three titles we recommend the most. Of course, there are several other good QR reader apps out but the ones we are featuring today are especially helpful in that they allow you to scan and take you directly to the linked website.The first app in this list has  an added feature which is that of creating PDF files from scanned material"

"The UK's 11-year-olds will be issued with a basic computer by publicly-funded broadcaster the BBC this year, to encourage them to get into coding. The simple Micro Bit computer will be given to 1 million children starting UK secondary school in this coming autumn term. Coding has been on the school curriculum in Britain since last year as part of a move to give kids a foundation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. In secondary school, children learn two or more programming languages as well as related subjects like Internet safety."

"Augmented reality apps like Aurasma can provide a fun and interesting way to present new information to students. But, like anything else, there is a time and place for using augmented reality in education. At other times a QR code may do a better job of delivering information to your students' mobile devices. Let's take a look at use cases for each."

"If you've been looking to learn how to code, we can help you get started. Here are 4.5 lessons on the basics and extra resources to keep you going.7 "

How deliciously, nerdily awesome! "@courosa: "New #Minecraft Mod Teaches You Code as You Play" #edchat #coding http://t.co/9OYpClXgAs"

"Many of the applications for introductory program are based on the logo turtle concept.  Even at that presentation, there sometimes is a challenging entry point.  You have to understand the concept of the stage, the mathematics of location, movement, etc. before you even get started. In the case of CodeMonkey, they've take more of a challenge / gamification approach. Yes, you work directly with code instructions like STEP and TURN but they're done in the context of solving a problem.  The video above gives a nice description of how you or your students work within the environment. As with many of my obsessions with coding and Computer Science, it's just plain fun.  Stepping back for a moment, I had to reflect on the fact that they've introduced the concept of coding and problem solving in a very non-threatening manner.  I was quite impressed."

"The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. Anyone, anywhere can organize an Hour of Code event. One-hour tutorials are available in over 30 languages. No experience needed. Ages 4 to 104."

"If you've always had a desire to build your own apps or create your own websites, then you can begin your coding education with nothing more than a browser, an internet connection, and some spare time. Here we've picked out six of the best resources currently available online."

"The first 400 teachers to complete Choose to Code can receive $750 in classroom funding from DonorsChoose.org. Choose to Code guides your students through a series of online tutorials, walking them through the process of creating and publishing their own website."

"Over the past decade, millions of kids around the world have used Scratch to code their own interactive games, stories, animations, and more. This outpouring of creativity inspires us to continue to extend and improve Scratch, so that kids everywhere have new opportunities to express themselves creatively with new technologies. Today, we're launching Scratch 3.0, a new generation of Scratch that expands how, what, and where kids can create with code. As we've tested prototypes of Scratch 3.0, we've been amazed by the projects that kids have made - like a hedgehog that speaks French, a hippopotamus that dances to hip-hop, and a soccer game you control with your shoe."

Coding is the enemy of computational thinking," Stephen Wolfram announced during his keynote at the Building Learning Communities® Education Conference. What was remarkable about this comment were the agreeable nods from the crowd. It seemed there was a collective understanding to this notion, and perhaps one that needed further reflection. This year, the conference had several sessions focusing on computational thinking (which, I might add, is incredibly encouraging to see), and in each one I attended, a special note was added: "Coding and computational thinking are not synonymous."