It is officially Computer Science Education Week this week.
Two years ago, the folks at code.org launched a movement called the Hour of Code to help celebrate Computer Science Education Week. The original idea was to encourage schools and students to spend at least one hour writing code during the week.
The result? Ten million people did it. And so began the viral movement of spreading the importance of programming to the youth of the world.
Fast forward to two years later, during this same week, almost 200,000 different groups will do an Hour of Code. This means that 50 million people will spend an hour writing code this week.
The point of this is not to turn everybody in the world into software engineers. Instead, we want to demystify the perception of computer science to make it seem approachable. And again, enlighten students on its capabilities.
The Hour Of Code becomes the foot in the door toward a more comprehensive computer science program for students.
If you are a teacher, check out this page on how to get going with an Hour Of Code in your school. It’s actually really easy to do.