Iam Hadi Partovi, co-founder of Code.org, here with my identical twin brother Ali Partovi. Ask us anything.

What do you think are the most significant obstacles to getting public education, nationwide, to incorporate coding into its standardized curricula?

In order:

Obstacle #1: people don't even realize it's a problem. (addressing this was our top goal, hence the video/etc, and you can help with that). People all know US is behind in math/science, but nobody realizes that 60% of math+science jobs are in computing, but in 90% of schools it's not on the menu

Obstacle #2: we need a great high-school-ready online curriculum, so that the training can be done by computers, with teachers as facilitators. Codecademy and CodeHS are both close

Obstacle #3: getting more teachers trained to either teach or at least facilitate. This is the hardest problem

Obstacle #4: making it more cool / acceptable for girls. This isn't an obstacle to your question, but I think it's a HUGE deal

Obstacle #5: getting all 50 states to count CS as a graduation credit. (only 9 do so far)

As a female CS major in college, I notice that many other females (and males as well) lack confidence in their coding abilities due to not having had exposure to the area in high school. Starting small, I would love to help introduce CS courses into local high school curriculums. So my question is: what initiatives can we take to help kick start a CS program at our local high schools?

sorry to plug our own site, check out http://code.org/help. We've linked to existing initiatives, but sign up and we are collecting names volunteer helpers in case we can do something even bigger. But TEALS, CitizenSchools are both existing initatives listed on our site that can help with this

What are some opportunities that can open up for someone just by learning some basic coding skills?

If only basic coding skills, you likely won't get hired at a software company, but:

1) almost every major non-tech company needs people with coding familiarity. Eg "web developer" or "technical support specialist"

2) you could write an iPhone app and make money on the side

3) computer science principles force you to think in a more structured way, how to break down hard problems into smaller parts, which I believe makes people better problem-solvers and managers (managing your time, or managing others)

There are opportunities, I live in San Diego and there are more software / IT jobs here than people to fill them. My small company alone has 5+ software type jobs and many other technically related. That said right now, without a degree in CS or related, you will not get paid more that you could get in many other jobs. Can we change that?

yeah. In the Seattle area (where I live), if you look at the top 5 jobs, 4 of the top 5 most-needed jobs are computer programmers (ahead of nurses, bus drivers, etc)

I want to say how inspiring your movement is. As someone who works in IT, but hasnt had an opportunity to code on a regular basis due to my role, you have inspired me to set aside an hour a day for nothing but coding.

Thank you so much. It has been overwhelming to see all the responses, but we know we've hit a positive nerve of interest. And it is rewarding to be doing something that can very clearly help the rest of the world

As a Computer Science student, what should I be doing to get the most out of my University course?

You're already in the top 1% of the world when it comes to programming skills. If I were in your shoes, the two pieces of advice I'd give: (1) network with fellow students, so you graduate not only with skills, but with a base of awesome coders you can recruit to your next gig, whether it's a job or a startup (2) build some projects that you can point at on your resume - an app or a website, to showcase your work besides just Univ research projects or grades. That's the best way to differentiate yourself from other college grads

I am a software engineer I have kids in school now. They had access to learning software for all subjects including programming like stuff. They are good students and have been in honors classes. However, they have been basically driven from math by teaching styles and methods used in US schools. My kids have ability to excel in Math (and computer Science), BUT both have had teachers so strict and harsh in Math teaching that the are already thinking they do not want to pursue careers in Math related fields (Sad).

I see this, and the fact that there are many other potential career options, as a reason for drop in kids pursuing Computer Science as College path. Are you (Code.org) doing anything to change this? If not, how can you really raise your percentages of CS students in US?

a couple of thoughts: 1) CS is not math. it's closer to math than other topics, but very little math is required. In making the interview, we asked Bill Gates how much math is required, he answered "Addition, Subtraction". Tony Hsieh said "multiplication tables". These weren't scripted We asked that in every interview, and everybody said "you don't need math". It's a huge misconception that CS is math. A 10 year old can start programming with Scratch before they've learned Algebra. Please intro your kids to easy coding first. if they are <16, try Scratch. If they are <12, try RoboLogic (on iOS).

How do we raise percentages - by getting more people to watch the Code.org film. We've tested it in highschool classrooms, 60% of viewers say "I didn't want to code before, but now I want to learn". Show it to more kids, have your school principal play the 1min version to all students

I'm 14 and I'm really interested in starting with coding, any advice for beginners?

TOtally agree with Andrewff. start with easy stuff. For example, try the iPad game Robo Logic. Even a 8 year old can do it, but the harder levels get more interesting. Or Cargobot on the iPad, which actually gets quite tough. These aren't "coding" per se, but teach the very same concepts, and you'll learn them as total fun like a game. Second - recruit a friend to do it with you, because you will bounce ideas off each other and help each other figure stuff out. If you don't have a teacher in school to do it with, better to have a friend so if one of you gets stuck (or bored), there's somebody providing the help/motivation that a teacher would otherwise provide

If I were to start coding now, from scratch, would code.org be enough to reach an intermediate level of knowledge on the subject?

Would I be able to learn it all by myself? How long does it take to be confortable with the basics?

Code.org will help you find sites that do the teaching - we aren't the instructors. CodeHS, Codecademy, Khan Academy, they can each train you in JavaScript, the most popular "professional" language. If you learn JavaScript you can build a mobile app or a dynamic Web page, and get a job. It would take 2-4 weeks to get comfortable with the basics, 12-16 weeks of really concerted effort to be job-ready. This all assumes you're average or above-average in terms of work ethic and IQ

Hello! What about non-US countries? Will you open your brach's? For example, in Kyrgyzstan. And how did you pick online resourses like codecademy to show in your site? What were the criteria? Sorry for my English. It's not my native language. Thank you for your time.

we are focused on US for now. We encourage people to use our marketing material (the film, or the quotes on the home page) to help start local movements. We are translating the film to many other languages. Beyond that, no specific plans, but if we develop technology that can be used elsewhere we will likely opensource it both to get volunteer help and so others can use it

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We will add them soon, but we're mainly focused on helping people get started - so the harder languages (you forgot ObjectiveC) aren't really our top priority. Our goal is giving the early taste to the people who have absolutely no background. But we need to do a better job of graduating them to all the other tools and sites that teach everything else

What would you say is the best coding language to start off on?

depends on your age <7: lightbot or robologic <14: scratch 15+: javascript

What do you guys envision for the volunteer program? I am a software engineer in Philadelphia PA and have signed up to donate some of my time. I only found programming through a 10th grade class in high school, which evolved into my college major (and job in school as a TA), and now its my passion and career.

Thanks again for all your hard work to get code.org running and hopefully we can really make a difference in the lives of kids as a computer science teacher once did for myself when I was in high school.

We are still collecting the data to figure out what to do. We had no idea how much interest we'd get. We thought it would be neat, but we're absolutely overwhelmed with the response.

You can see the public stats (5mm views in 2 days). The hidden stats: 4,000 schools have asked us for help bringing them CS. 14,000 engineers have signed up to volunteer. Clearly we have our work cut out for us, but if we just connect the right volunteers to the right schools we could double the number of schools in the country. If you signed up at http://code.org/help, stay tuned. :)

What's your opinion on the effect of place in the success of an entrepreneur? I mean the country , state , etc . Mojtaba Tabatabaie thanks

it's really helpful to be somewhere near (1) other coders (2) customers (3) startup support ecosystem (lawyers, mentors, etc). SF Bay Area is amazing for that, but also Seattle, Austin, NYC, London, Tel Aviv. But don't let that stop you. The most important trait of an entrepreneur is to not take "no" for an answer and keep trying, don't give up

What is the best way to encourage girls to code? Been doing this for decades now and it is the best fun! How can women help?

oh shoot I forgot to actually answer the question. We made sure our short film has a balance of women, we looked at many studies on the right messages for women to hear, and they are sprinkled in there very intentionally. (for example: Ruchi: software is build in teams. Vanessa: software is about humanity, helping people. office montage: showing people working together). How can you help? easiest = spread the video. More difficult but more impactful, personally mentor one girl. NCWIT has a great program called Aspirations in Computing to recognize girls in CS. They could use help I'm sure

OMG so glad you asked this. The under-representation of women in computing is horrific. I would say it's the worst thing ever, except that the under-rep of minorities is even worse!! (in all of NY state, <50 african americans took AP CS in highschool. In my homestate of WA, 5. WTF)

how are you guys planning on tracking actual progress wrt this initiative? what metrics & how will you measure?

short term: video views (measure of changing US opinions)

longer term: # of states who recognize CS as a graduation credit, and # of schools that offer it

(downstream effect, but not primary goal = number of college grads who take jobs)

your work is highly inspirational. thanks for undertaking such a great cause. Question: budget cuts/limitations are a reality. when schools ask 'well, what should we cut to teach CS?', how will you answer?

thanks man. Truly thanks

short-term answer: add CS via an afterschool club, not as a full-week course. the computer does 75% of the teaching, making the teacher's job easier (and thus cheaper).

longer-term answer: (if we succeed enough at making it cool/desired) did you notice how all the students want to learn CS? see what they don't want anymore and cut that. :-) This is the part that EVERYBODY can help with

JUST watched the video. Perhaps this is covered by your web site, but is it possible to find/create code clubs for younger kids? Elementary/Middle school where they could get together locally and code away?

For now you can start a codeclub using either CoderDojo (if you are already a skilled mentor), or http://codecademy.com/afterschool. We're going to likely be doing something in this space too, not trying to reinvent the wheel, but to perhaps mobilize people to bring this to more schools

Where does the money go to those who decide to donate to the cause?

Our bank account and future vacation budgets!!! muahaha!

Just kidding. Roughly: 1) continued promotion of the problem, since most people don't even realize this is a problem, and you can't start a movement to fix a problem nobody knows about

2) efforts to convince the school boards of the 41 states that don't recognize CS as a real course to update their rules for the 21st centure

3) connect the 13,000 engineers who have signed up to be volunteer teachers (http://code.org/help) with the 4,000 schools who want help introducing CS (http://code.org/teach)

4) develop curriculum to enable #3, if existing tools don't suffice

Hi I watched your video with my husband and kids. I have encourage many people to watch it also. The thing is my daughter goes to a school that doesn't have a decent computer science program. She a junior in high school, we live in Houston, TX now. Last year, we were living in San Diego, CA and she was fortune enough to go to S.T.E.M. program through JROTC. My question is, how do I get teachers and other parents involve to demand that coding be taught in their school? And what other programs are you all offering during the summer or after school for kids who do not have access to it in school in Houston, TX?

We are just getting started. To start, have your kids start learning, pick one of the 3rd party "courses" or tools offered at http://code.org/learn. Next, use our video and print out the "quotes" and "stats" pages to mobilize within your local school, point them to our "teach" page. We are going to be reaching out to those schools that submit to us on http://code.org/teach. We've collected many many names of schools, volunteers, etc, to enable people to start small movements around the country

I'm an aspiring coder, what kind of jobs are out there and will code.org get me ready for college courses properly?

The jobs: average salary $80k in the US (much higher than the average!), and many places offer starting salaries in the $100k - $120k range if you're super good. Anywhere from webmaster at a small local company, all the way through software engineer at the next Facebook or Dropbox where you could become a millionaire right out of college.

Code.org doesn't teach you directly - it helps you find online courses. CodeHS or Codecademy will each get you plenty ready for college. CodeHS probably better/easy place to start, Codecademy can take you beyond to even get a job once you learn languages like Ruby or Python

Thank you guys for answering my first question. I have (at least) one more.

As a high school student, I took several AP courses resulting in my taking upper level courses during my first semester, and not doing as well as I would have done had I taken the earlier courses in college. What are your opinions of Advanced Placement Courses, specifically in Computer Science and how can they be used effectively?

the AP CS course in highschool is way too difficult and esoteric. It jumps into Java programming, and all sorts of really hard stuff like class inheritance and stuff that should be taught later on. There's a cross-organizational effort to make a new AP exam called "CS Principles" which is more accessible, more interesting for more than the math geeks, and which is better as a preparatory course. We're a huge fan of that. AP courses are really important because it's the easiest way of defining a curriculum that is standard across the entire country. Without it, most school administrators can't differentiate between "programming" vs "learning Excel and PhotoShop"!

can you guys talk about what it took to make that video?

time, connections, money, and a lot of testing :)

The most important part was recruiting billg + zuck. getting them to say yes was easy, actually pinning down a time to film them was hard. But once we had them on board, almost nobody else said "no", (except a few people who won't go mentioned).

Lesley Chilcott did an amazing job interviewing people. Check out the clip of Mark Zuckerberg on Fortune (exclusive video we gave them). It is the friendliest, kindest, warmest Mark Zuckerberg you will ever see. Lesley was brilliant to bring that out of him, get him into his comfort zone

One part you don't see is how much testing went into it. From our past experiences we know a lot about how to use testing to make things viral. We tested the movie in schools and tweaked based on feedback. We showed it to teachers and tweaked based on feedback. Ultimately the home page is CURRENTLY a live A/B test between two versions of the film, and we are looking at % who act on it, and youtube stats, to decide between them. The headline on Youtube - tested for click-through rate.

How did you find out about people like Will.I.Am and Chris Bosh and their coding background for the video? Did they reach out to you? or what was that process?

we knew will.i.am personally from our work at iLike. Our director Lesley Chilcott did the research to learn about Chris Bosh having studied at Georgia Tech and she reached out to his agent. It was easy to recruit people to join Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg :-)

If we can outline the framework for MVP, as it were, for Common Core Standards in programming and tech in schools, we may have an easier time getting the educational system on board. What are you proposing that framework include at each grade level?

we are hoping to convince Achieve.org to incorporate CS standards in the "nextgen science standards" (NGSS), which is the curriculum standards they are authoring and many states are going to adopt. Achieve has a lot on their plates, initially thought no way, we can't do it. But after we told them about the support we are seeing they want to work together on this, and have even provided a quote of support on http://code.org/quotes

Hey, thank you for opening code.org! Several years ago, I was looking for something like this. I couldn't find it, so I postponed learning code. Finally, I can learn easily from home! My question is: How much are you focusing on translating the website/courses/etc. to other languages? I'm very interested in learning to code through the Japanese language, but so far only a few things on your website is in another language.

thank you for the kind words we are translating the video. you can help here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1v72iM0reILSCbyJo4870yYXzMKmSXd9IlOc5usL3xQo/viewform

we won't translate the rest

Anything I can do to help code.org without knowledge of programming?

some ideas: 1) spread the word, either the video on the home page, or the infographic on http://code.org/stats. Really, go out of your way to promote it - not to promote us, but to help start a movement. 90% of Americans don't realize the problem/opportunity, it's a real way to help fix America - fix the economy, fix the American dream, but realization of this is step 1

2) sign the petition on our home page

3) contact your local school, ask them to show the video to their children. Show them http://code.org/teach for resources

4) if you're not in the 9 good states in the map on our STATS page, contact your local state school board or state congressman, ask them to fix it

It looks like we're going to be closing up soon, but thank you all for your questions :). I'm surprised nobody asked "How the @#$ did you get [insert celeb name, eg Snoop Dogg, Dr Oz, etc] to tweet about Code.org?"

Meanwhile, please help us spread the word, whether you use our own web site and links, or just as a spokesperson in your own community. We need fixing CS education to become a national imperative, and you are the ambassadors :)

I want to thank you so much for making that video. I showed it to my 9 year old. He is hooked and began making things on scratch. I seriously have to force him to get off of scratch now. My question is do you have any how to lessons on the site to help him improve?

check out scratched. http://scratched.media.mit.edu/. they have lots of lessonplans there (focused for teachers, but if you're the "teacher", download some of the curriculum)

Two questions:
What do you suggest to increase the gender and ethnic equity in computer science that is a HUGE problem at the HS level?

How do you suggest getting state boards of education to support computer science as a core level class(math/science)?

I am a computer science teacher in Utah and am offering a 1 week girls coding workshop this summer.

totally agree huge problem. different solutions.

the ethnic inequity (which is RIDICULOUS) is about 9/10 schools don't even have it on the menu. Solving that means bringing afterschool clubs to those schools at first so the teachers are more comfortable with it and there's at least an option

the gender inequity is about marketing - our film specifically went out of the way to address that (see my earlier answer on this). Another part of the long-term solution is what vjgpo says - adding CS into required curriculum early, so girls realize it's not so hard.

These are both very, very hard problems. We spent a lot of effort in our short-film to touch upon key messages to help :)

I'm moving to a new city in a few months and I'm looking to start a coderdojo or something similar, but I don't know who to ask to be mentors with me. How do you recommend finding mentors that will be both effective and dedicated to this mission?

We are collecting volunteers at http://code.org/help, you can submit your info there, and we will over the next month or two find ways to help people in similar locations connect with each other. Or - just use Facebook to find people near you (using the new Graph Search :-))

What are your guys opinion on programming boot camps?

Huge fan of them. We have built (and still growing) a database of them by geolocation at http://code.org/learn/find-school. The public education system in the US should ideally fill this role over time, but it will take time, and it's exciting to see private businesses spring up to handle the demand

What's the zaniest twin-prank you've ever pulled?

FINALLY, a question unrelated to computer science. Please up-vote this, because you won't learn this anywhere else:

I thought Ali's first girlfriend was a horrible fit, and was pissed that he stopped spending time with his guy friends (ie me). So I broke up with her, pretending to be Ali. Twice.

I dont have any question.. Just a big THANK YOU for doing this for free! i am at high school now learning computer science and this will help me get better.. I Really hope one day i become as good as you guys.. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart!

made my day. thank you :) and what Ali said. Please make an effort, everybody should, this can boost the US economy and fix the American dream!

here's an idea i had regarding getting CS into curricula... what do you think. basic premise:

• learning to program is more fun than learning math

hence, if learning math is taught (to some extent) via programming, which with the proper IDE could be more visual, provide instant feedback, etc. etc., suddenly students would be more engaged and even learn math without 'knowing' they're learning math. sort of like when little kids learn foreign languages.

point being perhaps you could encourage /math/ instructors to weave more programming into the teaching methodology & hit two targets w one stone. of course in no way this replaces teaching math, but makes it more engaging & fun.

fyi there's a program called Bootstrap that does this. It's not totally as easy as what you suggest. Bootstrap is based on Scheme, which is syntactically really a great fit for teaching Algebra. Most other languages the time spent learning the syntax or how the language works are a big distraction from learning the math, and there's not enough hours in the day or time to re-train the teachers to accept it

Isn't it a risk to have our kids spend extra time on programming sites, when they need high scores in all classes, AP classes, volunteer work, etc. to get to college these days? The only way to get my kids to see software development as something other that sitting in front of screen for extra hours cranking out the code, is to have them sit in front of screen when young and code. Then they still have to do all the other stuff (regular school, sports, volunteer, etc). Don’t we need to make a fundamental change in education?

this may be a bit radical, but the first thought that went through my head is to wonder which is more important - learning to code, or going to college? 75% of English majors who graduated college in 2011 came out without a job. Multiply college tuition * 4 years, that is a lot of money and effort that we consider a required investment to be a contributing member of the knowledge-worker society. I'm not sure I'd say it's a bad idea, but certainly learning to code takes less than 4 years of full-time effort, you can get really good in just one year, and if you spent only 1 year on it you could get a solid job, or build an app that changes the world, or add it to your toolchest for your future career as a doctor or whatever. That said, don't force your kids. They should like it :)

As a Canadian, do you have any plans to bring this movement to Canada as well? Or are you focused on the United States only? I have actually started reaching out to teachers I know to keep them in the loop on Code.org.

Right now focused on the US for most efforst, but the short film on Code.org and the "Quotes" page are TOTALLY meant to be used internationally to help people start local movements. (we're looking for volunteers to help translate the film. If you're French-Canadian you could help :) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1v72iM0reILSCbyJo4870yYXzMKmSXd9IlOc5usL3xQo/viewform)

The video pretty much said that everyone should learn how to code. While I don't agree, I'd like to know your personal opinions as to why you think that way. I mean, physics is everywhere, but that doesn't mean that everyone should be a physicist.

I definitely don't think everybody should get a job as a computer programmer. We have 4mm students graduating highschool each year in the US, they should all learn basic coding, even though there will be at most 200,000 jobs just for software. Why?

1) it's fun. Much more fun than memorization, which is most of what they do

2) it is creative, and thus empowering. Builds confidence, which most students lack - junior high and high-school are very insecure times for people, and building something cool can change how they feel about themselves, esp for girls

3) the world around us is going to be swallowed by technology. It's already everywhere, but it will be doubly so in just 5-10 years. No matter what field you go into, it will help not to have a fear of this weird black box called technology because you rely on it daily.

4) And if you want to become an entrepreneur, the net 10,000 big companies will be cross-over companies - bridging technology with medicine, bridging technology with entertainment, name-your-field. The people who make those things happen will have to have studied both fields to get it right

I just wanted to say that I really like the message behind code.org. Programming is one of the core reasons I've found success in feature films and has actually even penetrated my creative process. Congratulations and really great idea.

thank you so much, it is so rewarding to read little messages like this, makes my day :) thank you :)

How can software companies help? After all we have a vested stake in the outcome.

These are all ways to help Code.org, which also we believe will help the final outcome. So far Microsoft, Google/YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter are all helping in one or more of these ways, and it is a huge part of our early success. If you're at a software company, tell your CEO to step up and stand with the tech titans and help fix this :)

1) ask all employees to promote http://code.org in their local communities. Not to endorse us, but to market the issue and raise awareness. Raising awareness is step 1.

2) ask employees who are engineers to consider signing up as a volunteer at http://code.org/teach, and be willing to let them spend some work time volunteering.

3) donate $ at http://code.org/donate or contact us

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yes I live in the Seattle area and know Kevin and TEALS quite well. The senior exec at Microsoft who sponsors that effort happens to be my next-door neighbor and is very passionate about this too

I'm a school board member for a K-6 district. I'm hoping to get a less piecemeal computer curriculum used by the computer specialists at our schools (currently it's typing, reports, presentations, and websites to support reading learning and math fact memorization). I'm thinking of advocating Scratch as the "programming" component. I know some 5th-6th graders can learn Python, etc, but things we use need to be accessible to all kids. Besides Scratch, do you have any other suggestions? (P.S. Thanks for the great video.)

Scratch :) Instead of researching other languages, check out ScratchEd http://scratched.media.mit.edu/, and save yourself the time :)

Hello, i'm a 22 year old business student in France and am really interested in getting started with coding. Any advice? also i was looking for coding summer camps for adults (in europe or the US) but didn't find anything...

start online. http://code.org/learn

i know that this effort is US focused. if things go well here, any plans for expanding the initiative worldwide? surely the problem is at least as bad in most other countries, no?

no plans. It may take 5- 10 years to fix in the US. Ask me then :)

but we will internationalize the video. If you want to help translate, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1v72iM0reILSCbyJo4870yYXzMKmSXd9IlOc5usL3xQo/viewform

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yup - we need more like it in every city

Who were your idols in computer science field?

Steve Jobs. Bill Gates. my dad.

(note: my dad wasn't in CS, but he helped start Sharif University, which is the top tech university in Iran and I'd go as far as calling it the MIT of the Middle East)

As a lady learning to code right now...thank-you for collating all these resources together in a friendly manner. It makes it so much easier ^{_^}

you're very welcome. And please share http://code.org with your friends/community. We need more women speaking up to show that it's not just for guys. As a guy, I can't do that, aside from asking you

As the president of the technology club at my high school, I'm tasked with teaching the students a new technology every month. In your opinion, is teaching programming in a structured classroom environment more beneficial to students, compared to having them explore coding on their own time at home?

ABSOLUTELY. Start a club to use http://codecademy.com/afterschool or http://codehs.com, and have the group go through the classes together.

I am a computer science teacher for a CTE magnet program. What is your opinion on using MIT's AppInventor for learning programming?

it's fantastic - it's easy like scratch , but "build an app" is a huge draw for getting students motivated

Hello Ali and Hadi

Are you aware of any countries that do really well in integrating coding as part of early education? if so, which countries and how are they doing it?

Estonia is the best - they are introducing it throughout K-12. They are a tiny country, but super high penetration of coding in their job market, which is one of the places American companies outsource jobs when they can't find people locally

Have you interacted with Dr. Armando Fox and Dr. David Patterson from UC Berkeley? They taught an edx.org course (the free, yet full featured university courses) on Software as a Service application development, and it personally changed the course of my life/career. They have an excellent perspective on design as a whole, and how software fits into the picture.

They teach it in Ruby-on-Rails and emphasize beautiful code and agile development techniques. If you have some moderate experience in programming you can jump right in (like a full college course, or some amount of time spent learning a single language).

The thing I love about programming is all of the stuff you want to know is out there and so much of it is free. If you want to self-educate, all you need is the motivation. That course jump-started my desire to learn programming again and understand at an academic level. I truly appreciate initiatives like these.

thank you - we are working with Dan Garcia who does the Berkeley intro-CS course which we're a big fan of. Thank you so much for your kind words, and please promote our short film to help convince others to learn to code ;)

Ok, thank you all for participating, we are done! :)

if you had president obama's full attention for 30 minutes, what you ask/tell him about this whole issue?

It would take <30 minutes

1) We have a low-cost plan that can boost the US economy by $500b AND reduce inequality and improve upward mobility, while making school more fun. Nobody else has such a plan

2) computer programming is 2% of all science+math education, but 60% of all science+math jobs. Don't lump it into the "vocational engineering" category or the "stem" category. It is larger than all the rest of that combined, should have its own category.

3) We aren't doing well at math/science, but at least we're trying to teach them, every student has access. 90% of schools don't even teach CS, which is un-American, especially since there are more jobs in it than all other math/science combined. Declare it a national imperative to fix this

4) Every student should be exposed to the basic concepts as early as age 10. let's drop things that are no longer relevant in our education system (for example, learning cursive handwriting)

5) how can you help at the federal level? "Make it a national imperative" to increase coding classes and access. Sell visas to high-skilled immigrants and use the $ to implement a "race to the top" program for states to adopt CS

6) There are already free, online courses to teach it. Just need your help to get more students, parents, teachers to use them

As a prominent place to learn some webdev skills, how do you regard w3schools.com? I "think" I learned some solid information on html, css and javascript, although I don't know what to think of the fact that they seem to imply they are affiliated with the World-wide Web Consortium even though they aren't. Should we trust w3schools?

I would suggest Mozilla Thimble for getting started learning HTML + CSS. Don't have a very strong opinion on this to be frank

Hi, I'm 21 and have ADD. I really really would like to learn how to code, in any language (but more specificity, Java and HTML). I try to sit down and begin learning it but I find it hard to stay. I'm currently using Codecademy to learn but again its not keeping me engaged. Any tips?

Also, the video is very inspirational..Thank You

Not familiar enough with ADD to answer, but I'd suggest trying codecademy AND codeHS AND khanacademy to see which is a better fit. It's possible that the other two because the alternate from video -> exercise -> video may pace it better for you

Hello there, My question is that will there be any programs of implementing teaching programs on coding on other foreign countries?

probably not by us, anytime soon