Panelists: @Adria Richards | @Noah Kagan | @Sasha Laundy
Friday, March 8 | 5:00 - 6:00PM | Austin Convention Center, Ballroom BC
This panel of experts will explore the opportunities of learning to program, career options and the outcome of the growing online market for education.
As the number of companies utilizing the cloud, smartphones and API’s grow, the demand for skilled programmers is increasing but there is a problem. There aren’t enough developers to go around. By 2018, there will be more than 1.4 million job openings in the IT sector. Companies are desperate to build their products yet the numbers of CS graduates, self-taught developers and number of H-1b visas to bring in overseas talent don’t add up. In fact, It’s not only Silicon Valley; the shortage of programmers is being felt worldwide. With 50% of higher education institutions planning to take their coursework online in the next ten years, how people learn new skills is rapidly changing.
Thanks for the info. I volunteer with an organization called Patriots Technology Training Center in Prince George’s County, MD. We are trying to get students interested in programming via video games. We had them create video games using a 3 D drag and drop game engine called Kodu. It gave instant feedback which was good. The unfortunate thing is when they move to higher level game engines used to create professional video games that require math, comprehension, and time, most students shy away. It is not just the subject matter that presents challenges. gender is also a challenge. Girls are not attracted to video games for whatever reason. We seek input from female programmers to offer guidance on how to get girls interested in programming video games or anything for that matter.
Patriots would like to help Prince George’s County produce more programmers by partnering with community colleges, for profit colleges, and universities to identify strategies to help students overcome the challenges of programming. We seek help from any and all programmers, math tutors, math teachers, etc. that have something positive to contribute.
Website: http://www.patriots-ttc.org/
There’s an excellent organization in Washington, DC, founded by Leshell Hatley, that engages African-American and other youth in STEM by teaching them how to make mobile apps, robots, and games; explore career options; and inspire students to pursue careers in computer science. My three sons participated in Uplift Inc.’s Youth APPLab that was funded by a grant won from the MacArthur Foundation in 2010. In the first year, my oldest son and another student programmed a business card app in less than thirty minutes at the Digital Media and Learning Conference in 2011. That experience inspired my son to pursue a career in software engineering. My youngest son started in the program when he was seven and by the time he turned eight, he had two apps on Google Play. Not only did this program give them the knowledge to make and publish apps, but it also inspired my two oldest boys to start their own business, Snikwah Interactive. Today, Snikwah Interactive has two apps on the market with about 2500 downloads.
In regards to girls, the first program at Uplift Inc. had about seven girls and ten boys. However, this past summer during the XO AppLab where they learned Python and built a computer app in six weeks for the One Laptop Per Child computer, there were only two girls and five boys. However, this group made history as they became the youngest African-American team to build an app for the XO laptop.
Coming up on March 9, 2013, the Washington DC Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and Uplift, Inc. are holding a hands-on activities, STEM event at Howard University for middle school and high school students. Hopefully, this will encourage more girls to develop an interest in STEM fields.