The College of Western Idaho is one of four colleges across the state that will help Jr. High and High School students learn to build websites and apps through an online program.  Two thousand students are already registered!

Welp, it already feels like the kids are smarter than us parents sometimes, and this will not slow down that mission one bit.  I mean, the kids don't have our wisdom from years of dealing with jobs, relationships, and various human-involved situations, but they can probably out-code most of us.

Governor Brad Little announced the Idaho Codes program this week and invited students in grades 7-12 to access the Coding Foundations course that teaches them how to code in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.  And they don't have to have any prior coding experience.

PROGRAMMING POL
Otto Kitsinger for Idaho STEM Action
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The summer coding camps will be at the state's four community colleges -- College of Eastern Idaho, College of Southern Idaho, College of Western Idaho, and North Idaho College. Camp capacity is limited with some locations only having 30 seats available, so it's best to hop on it quickly at IdahoCodes.org.  As of Monday, more than 1800 students had registered statewide for either the in-person or online classes, and 33 percent are girls.  They really want girls to get signed up and get involved in the field.  The online versions, of course, have greater capacity, and all of the classes are free.

St. Luke's vice president and CIO Reid Stephan is on the Idaho Technology Council's board of trustees and said the program isn't just for a software developer, programmer, or coder.  He said, "A coding class teaches problem-solving skills, how to be creative, and to be tenacious and stick with a problem until you solve it instead of giving up."  That can be a gift that keeps on giving.

I gave up on policing screen time a long time ago and I pretty much let the kids have at it.  Bad parenting?  Oh, we do play outside too, but I figure screens are part of life, and if they're going to be on them regardless, they might as well do constructive things with them.  Idaho Codes might be a great start.

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