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Education Programming

Code.org and Coldplay Launch Global Campaign To Inspire Kids To Code and Dance 53

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
theodp writes: Tech-bankrolled nonprofit Code.org is inviting kids to join the Coldplay Dance Party, explaining in a Medium post that "we've teamed up with award-winning band Coldplay to launch a global campaign that celebrates music and computer science." Teachers and students are encouraged to "share your creations for Code.org and Coldplay to see!" on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, although a footnote warns: "In most countries, use of social media is not permitted for underage students [Dance Party targets kindergarten thru high school students]. Do not post videos or photos of students without the permission of a parent or guardian." From the announcement: "Coldplay and Code.org believe in the power of computer science education for every student, in every classroom around the world. That's why we're teaming up to inspire students everywhere to code and dance [YouTube] -- let's celebrate the magic of computer science and music! Join the party by using Code.org's Dance Party activity to code your own choreography to Coldplay's "Higher Power." Get creative with classic moves, and have fun with new album-inspired visuals and dancer formations! Post or submit your creations for Coldplay and Code.org to see, and we'll share the best ones on social media [GitHub]. Plus, you'll get a chance to win tickets to see Coldplay on tour, or a chance for your classroom to video chat with the band." "This is a new creative way to continue introducing people to play with and dance around the practice of programming," Google AI Chief Jeff Dean tweeted to his 200K+ Twitter followers. "Since it launched in 2018 [in partnership with Amazon]," Code.org exclaimed in its Medium post, "Dance Party has engaged more than 5.7 million students!"
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Code.org and Coldplay Launch Global Campaign To Inspire Kids To Code and Dance More

Code.org and Coldplay Launch Global Campaign To Inspire Kids To Code and Dance

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  • I was introducted to programming (Score:3, Interesting)

    by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Monday February 21, 2022 @10:21AM (#62288449)
    Fortran II around 1973 I think. I was in 10-11 grade and a teacher taught 5 of us fortran programming on punch cards after school. He borrowed an 029 punch card machine from Univ of Wis River Falls and once we created our card decks we would send them to River Falls to be run. Each round trip took 7-10 days. It was really disappointing to get your deck back with a syntax error and have to do the whole trip again. Anyway, Because of that exposure I decided to become a self employed software developer. For a farm kid who lived 10 miles from a small town with 800 people the exposure to programming paid off. From my point of view the exposure to new things is what counts not what was learned, but learning what the opportunities were available. Needless to say teaching after hours did not go over well with the establishment. The young 1st year teacher was gone the next year.

    Schools are there to expose students to ideas and see where it goes.

    • Re:I was introducted to programming (Score:5, Insightful)

      by CubicleZombie ( 2590497 ) on Monday February 21, 2022 @10:34AM (#62288491)

      I have a relative who went into CS because he liked playing video games. He realized too late that writing code is nowhere near as glamorous as playing a video game. If you found punched cards interesting then you're made for this. Most people aren't.

      I fear they'll throw dancing and fun and pop music into the mix and convince kids to go into a field they're not going to enjoy. Like 1998 all over again.

    • What a Coincidence (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Kunedog ( 1033226 ) on Monday February 21, 2022 @10:39AM (#62288507)
      No way, in junior high I also had a teacher would picked a handful of boys, invited them to after school, exposed to us to Coldplay and then molested us.
    • My first exposure was to a Wang programmable calculator, programs on "hanging chad" IBM Port-A-Punch cards. I implemented a model rocket center-of-pressure formula from an equation found in a newsletter. This high school had open access to the machine, as long as one did not make others wait too long. The next year, in another state, my only exposure was through a library book on the IBM 1130, and some basic self instruction courses that someone from IBM gave me. That school had a timesharing terminal t
    • What? Schools are there to educate students, not to expose them to random ideas and see what sticks.

  • The joke is too easy. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Stonent1 ( 594886 ) <stonent.stonent@pointclark@net> on Monday February 21, 2022 @10:26AM (#62288455) Journal
    You know how I know you code? Because you listen to Coldplay.

  • Next up... code.org and Lewis Hamilton are teaming up to inspire students everywhere to code and drive really fast.

  • Coldplay target market (Score:5, Funny)

    by bickerdyke ( 670000 ) on Monday February 21, 2022 @10:43AM (#62288523)

    If you team up with Coldplay - aren't you rather targeting people in their mid 40s?

    Cue "How do you do, fellow kids?"-Meme

    • Yep. This is for laid off coal miners.

      • Its for all the liberal media thats been getting laid off for 2 years.

        They really should learn to code. Someone gave that advice once. Not sure why they dont trust the person who gave it. Its as if they know the person is a liar, perhaps through personal experience.

  • Why not code and eat buirgers? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Monday February 21, 2022 @10:43AM (#62288529) Homepage

    Or maybe code and play football in the garden?
    Or code and skateboard?

    Seriously, wtf is this nonsense? Do these people seriously think that somehow because kid likes A and your try and force and association with B the kid will think "Hey! B must be cool, I'll do it!". Sorry, kids don't work like that as anyone who's a parent (ie , not these guys) would know.

    Also if a kid is interested in computers he'll get into them without patronising BS dreamt up by so called independent "educators".

  • Music and Computer Science mixes well. (Score:3)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Monday February 21, 2022 @10:58AM (#62288573)

    In general I had found people with Music Education to be better coders than ones who strictly followed the sciences, or engineering.

    The following skills really do help.
    1. Improvisation: When conditions change, you will need to keep your mind flexible enough to change as well. If someone (or yourself) screws up, being able to recover with with an improvised method to play on the strengths of the screw up, can often make a better overall design and product.

    2. Playing to the audience: Your audience, customers or bosses. May be traditionalist stuck in the do it the way it has been done before, or they are like we want a new take on that idea. Knowing how to judge your audience and coding or playing music for their likes is a major skill.

    3. Confidence but without Ego: Confidence in your work and your skills is important, if not you are too timid to shine and show what you got. However you will need to get past the Dunning Kruger point where you are crap but you think you are good, and are apt to change directions and unlearn bad habits to get even better.

    4. Skirting the limits of the rules, without passing them: A Pro classical player may have a lot of rules, compared to say a Jazz player, however they know how to play within the confines of the expected music, while bringing something new and personal to it. Coding you have a lot of rules that you need to follow, however experience lets you know how far said rules can bend, to allow for improvements and better ideas.

    5. The power of simple: You don't need to be flashy and complex all the time, actually doing such is a detriment. Some of the most respected music that we love comes down to a simple melody played well, or sometimes just holding a long note. Sometimes just a good CRUD form will solve the problems, vs trying to auto-fill with advanced AI and predictive analytics.

    6. Play to the Pattern not the Notes: A run of 32nt notes is much too fast for someone to read and react in real time. the musician will see the pattern of the notes, and keep a note of the exceptions and just play the pattern. When coding there are a LOT of gaps in our specs, we need to fill those gaps with the existing patterns that we are given.

    7. Let someone else shine: You may be the star, but you need to let others shine as well. Being able to step back and let others do the support work, as well allowing them to get some notice, actually works well in the software development industry.

    8. Not letting mistakes slow you down. Everyone makes mistakes, a good performer will just play on after making a mistake, and most people will not notice it, a really good performer will find a way to turn that mistake into an advantage.

    9. Practicing skills helps make them better: Sure you are a good coder, but you can be better, practice your coding and learn new skills.

    10. Think outside the box, but end up back in it. There is a difference between originally and chaos. The more outside the norm you go, the longer it will be to get back into a comfortable resolution.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Viol8 ( 599362 )

      most of that is a load of hand waving vagueries that could apply to anything.

      "Not letting mistakes slow you down. Everyone makes mistakes, a good performer will just play on after making a mistake,"

      Excuse me? A good programmer DOES NOT move on until he's fixed and tested his mistake.

      I suspect you know a lot about music but very little about professional progamming.

      • Well Music Education can apply to things other than coding as well. But the professional Software Development methods do relate well with music.

        An important aspect about professional coding if you were a professional you should know. The project will need to be complete and sent to the customer at some point, coding for perfection, means the product will never be completed. Mistakes are not necessarily bugs in the code or defects in the operation or performance of the product.

        For example, In SQL I have

    • Insofar as music and math are closely connected on a neurological level, sure. Past that you might as well be talking about playing football. You could substitute team sports for music in everything you said and it would be just as true.

  • Why? (Score:5, Funny)

    by demon driver ( 1046738 ) on Monday February 21, 2022 @10:59AM (#62288575) Journal

    Why scare away kids with such terrible music?

  • After you have completed the coding exercise we would like to stand up perform The Floss. We only hire the best coders/dancers at our firm.

  • Fuck off already (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    code.org is cancer. Fuck all the cringe social media "code" posting and this dance nonsense.

  • If you try your best and you don't succeed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by RightwingNutjob ( 1302813 ) on Monday February 21, 2022 @11:14AM (#62288615)

    You're probably not going to do well.

    And no amount of aging rock bands is going to fix you.

  • I always find it difficult to type while I am dancing. It irritates the person you are dancing with as well. Maybe it only works with Coldplay music. I'll never know.
  • That Coldplay was still a thing.
    Man, I fell old now.

  • Wow. Innovative. Inspiring. (Score:3)

    by NicknameUnavailable ( 4134147 ) on Monday February 21, 2022 @12:25PM (#62288941)
    Next they should do a campaign to teach people how to sleep while skydiving. Come on guys, what other completely-fucking-antithetical things can we combine into cool new hobbies destined to doom people's livelihoods and/or actual lives?

  • The only band worse that Dave Matthew's. Only creeps like these bands.

  • to attract people with something absolutely unrelated to day-yo-day reality of this line of work. this is giving false hopes! try that with medicine instead maybe? this is also a very critical field for society, maybe even more so!

  • No-one who hates sexism should support sexists code.org.
    code.org penalise teachers for teaching boys.

    Fuck those sexist sows.

    https://developers.slashdot.or... [slashdot.org]

  • Predicted fail (Score:3)

    by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Monday February 21, 2022 @04:19PM (#62289879)

    This sounds as bad as the time Apple pushed that fucking U2 album on everyone, not to mention the cringe "presentation" at the Keynote, with a seemingly never-ending speech about how everyone was getting it for free, like, right now!

    Tim Cook may be a master of the supply chain, but a good public presenter he sure is not.

  • Code.org and Coldplay team up to make programming fun.

    AND IT'S NOT CALLED CODEPLAY???

  • Who would dance to Coldplay's songs?
  • Oh, you don't care? That's fine, nobody cares about code.org either.

  • Not all people are ment to be coders, and the ones who are will learn and do by themselves, or register for those classes.

      We have so much shit, security nightmare code out there as it is and it will only get worse when everyone "learns to code".

      Idealistic ideas like this rarely pan out well in reality.

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