Gearing up to celebrate EU Code Week 2019
Publication date: June 3, 2019
By the EU Code Week Team
The seventh edition of EU Code Week will take place on 5-20 October 2019. Ahead of this, teachers, trainers and activity organisers will get a chance to use new
training opportunities and learning resources to reach more schoolchildren in the EU and Western Balkans.
In 2019, EU Code Week will significantly extend the support for activity organisers. To get ready for the peak of the campaign from 5 to 20 October 2019, trainers, teachers and coding enthusiasts will get new learning materials, lesson plans and online training to make their coding classes more engaging and fun.
Firstly, the first EU Code Week Icebreaker Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) will take place between 3-26 of June. This short 5 hour MOOC is open to teachers of all subjects who want to learn more about integrating computational thinking and coding into their classrooms. The MOOC will provide teachers with innovative ideas, free training material and other
resources to help them organise activities during Code Week, increasing students’ engagement and motivation to learn. No previous experience of coding is needed to participate in this course.
Secondly, the EU Code Week Summer School, which brings together selected primary school leading teachers (educators acting as multipliers on the local and regional levels), will take place on 9-12 July. This unique pilot training project will empower primary school leading teachers by providing them with tools, hands-on workshops and training resources so they can implement coding effectively in their classrooms while developing and applying innovative teaching approaches to increase young students’ knowledge and motivation. The course curriculum is based on the exclusive Computer Science Fundamentals from the Code.org curriculum and the EU Code Week methodology.
Thirdly, a Deep Dive MOOC for teachers of all subjects will start on 16 September and will run for five weeks. This MOOC will enhance teachers’ pedagogical competencies and practices by improving their understanding of coding and computational thinking. The course will offer a selection of classroom activities and resources dealing with Scratch, app development, tinkering, making and robotics. These free training materials will empower teachers to acquire the skills and confidence needed to effectively implement coding activities in the classroom and to take part in EU Code Week. This course will build on the EU Code Week Icebreaker MOOC, so teachers who have already completed this course will be able to directly access the Deep Dive MOOC.
2.7 million participants in 2018
EU Code Week is based on a growing network of around 80 volunteer national ambassadors, 42 national education ministry coordinators, and 280 leading teachers. They have been key contributors to the success of Code Week 2018, which saw the participation of more than 10% of schools across the EU and Western Balkans and reached over 2.7 million participants in nearly 44 000 events.
The aim is to have education ministry coordinators and leading teachers in all EU and Western Balkan countries. A call for leading teachers is still ongoing for several countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and Kosovo) in which additional numbers are needed.
To accommodate even larger audiences in 2019, important updates have also been made to the EU Code Week website providing more comprehensive tools, information, and learning and teaching resources in the current 29 languages available on the website.
For more information on EU Code Week and planned activities in 2019 and beyond, please contact your local EU Code Week ambassadors or the European
Commission through info@CodeWeek.eu.
To access the original press release published in 29 languages on the European Commission website, click here.
