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James Whelton, CoderDojo founder with Megan Cowan at the inaugural CoderDojoGirls session at DCU

CoderDojoGirls boots up at DCU

DCU has launched CoderDojoGirls, a new computer coding club aimed at sparking the interest of young girls in technology. 

Based on the model of CoderDojo, the global movement of free coding clubs for young people, CoderDojoGirls caters for the specific interests and motivations of girls, helping to build up their confidence and interest in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  Activities will be focussed on projects such as creating a pop band fan page, building pianos or just having fun with social media, all under the guidance of female mentors. 

DCU CoderDojo mentors, Noel King and Niambh Scullion were inspired to develop this new learning-through-fun forum for girls when they noticed their quicker drop-out rate from traditional CoderDojo groups.

Niambh, DCU and IBM CoderDojo mentor said highlighted the importance of engaging girls with technology at an early age,

“It's so important to get girls exposed to technology at a young age.  When a girl comes to a CoderDojo, not only does she learn how to program, she learns how to analyse, dissect, research and resolve problems.  The girls become more than just consumers of technology, they contribute and create, and do so collaboratively.  All these are life skills that they will carry with them to school and later on, career.  With the level of exposure to mobile devices and the Internet, children now are native to technology, where will their insights and creativity take us?”

Noel King explained how activities are tailored towards young girls,

“CoderDojoGirls is going to be totally girl-centric.  At CoderDojoDCU we have always focused on fun and engagement first with every week being another exciting step in the tech adventure.  We encourage participants to suggest initiatives for this dojo and aim to align materials to their interests.  To get us started, two amazing projects have been proposed.  A piano game that teaches you how to play your favourite pop song - through this rocking and fun game there is so much great learning from a cool webpage to a HTML5 game.  After this we are going social with a social network game which you can share with all your friends.  We hope this focus will lead the girl tech revolution and, through our lead mentors Niamh Scullion and Sarah Doran, we have two excellent and passionate role models.”

CoderDojoGirls runs every Saturday at DCU from 10am and girls, aged 10-18 interested in taking part can book their place at http://coderdojogirls.eventbrite.com/#.