Communications of the ACM
A New Group Aims to Make Programming Cool
Hadi Partovi (left) founded Code.org and works on the nonprofit foundation with his twin brother, Ali (right).
Credit: Hadi Partovi
Code.org was founded with the goal of increasing the education of computer science in classrooms and sparking more excitement about the subject among students. Code.org's first project will be a short film starring various technology industry celebrities, who will talk about how programming can be exciting and accessible. The video's purpose is to challenge the stereotypical cultural image of programmers, says Code.org founder Hadi Partovi.
The nonprofit organization is part of a much broader movement by the technology industry to train more people in computer science at a young age. Code.org also will create a database to help parents find schools where computer science is already being taught and to advocate ways of making it more available to students.
A lack of qualified teachers is one of the most serious problems blocking greater access to computer science in classrooms, Partovi says. "It’s difficult to convince people who are getting the highest salaries in industry to get one of the lowest-paying jobs," he notes. Partovi also believes that part of the problem is the development of devices such as the iPhone that hide their complexity from users, which discourages people from understanding more about how they work.
From The New York Times
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