Getting ready for EU Code Week 2019
Publication date: September 13, 2019
New online course for teachers, an extended repository of handy materials and a revamped website
In 2019, EU Code Week will place a special focus on training teachers to increase their confidence to introduce coding and computational thinking into the classroom. To that end, the
2019 edition features a new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), an updated database of materials and an improved website. These actions prepare, encourage, and empower the community ahead of EU Code Week which will take place between the 5th and the 20th of October 2019.
Starting on the 16th of September and running until the 30th of October, teachers and educators are encouraged to enrol in the new EU Code Week MOOC. By taking this course, teachers will learn how to participate in EU Code Week and which engaging activities they can offer to their students. The course will provide primary and secondary school teachers
with new ideas as well as free training materials and resources such as ready-made lessons plans. It helps them to bring coding and computational thinking into the classroom, no matter the subject or teacher’s previous experience.
The course will also support educators in becoming familiar with innovative tools and approaches such as visual programming tools, robotics, making and coding and show how to use them in all subjects. Those who successfully complete the course will receive a signed certificate of completion recognising their achievement.
More materials and a redesigned website
In addition, EU Code Week introduces several updates to the website that will facilitate participation in the initiative, as well as further help, develop teachers’ digital skills and confidence. A new set of training materials, including tailored lesson plans, has been fully translated into 29 languages, ranging across topics from creative thinking and app
development, to making and coding for all subjects.
The EU Code Week website has been redesigned and refreshed to improve the user experience and make finding information and adding a Code Week activity easier. Finally, the teachers and communications toolkits, two key guides providing information and resources about Code Week for teachers and stakeholders are now available in 29 languages, facilitating education, promotion and dissemination on the national levels.
In order to help activity organisers with practicalities and explain why digital literacy is a key competence in today’s economy and society, @CodeWeekEU will organise its first-ever “Ask me anything” online session. It will take place on Thursday the 19th of September at 19:00 CET and users can already tweet or post on Facebook questions, ideas or suggestions with
the hashtag #CodeWeekAMA.
With the 5th of October quickly approaching, EU Code Week is looking forward to another successful year with thousands of activities already registered. Anyone in Europe or beyond can organize a workshop, seminar or a programming session to share the magic of coding and computational thinking within the community and develop digital competencies that are becoming crucial for success in the 21st century.
About EU Code Week
EU Code Week is a grass-roots initiative that celebrates creativity, problem-solving and collaboration through programming and other tech activities. In 2018, EU Code Week engaged 2.7 million people in Europe and beyond with nearly 44 000 activities organised across more than 70 countries. The European Commission supports the initiative as a part of its Digital Single Market strategy and Code Week is also one of the actions under the European Digital Education Action Plan. With its aim to reach schools all over Europe, EU Code Week contributes to making “digital literacy a foundation for everyone” as set out in the political guidelines of the new European Commission president-elect Ursula von der Leyen.
This press release was originally published as a news article on the Digital Single Market website of the European Commission: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/getting-ready-eu-code-week-2019-new-online-course-teachers-extended-repository-handy-materials
