Hardware Autopsy

We offered a hardware autopsy class yesterday for any of our regular ninjas who wished to learn about the components of a PC and how to take it apart and put back together. We had a generous donation of 5 old computers, mouses, keyboards and monitors.

There was huge interest but as we had five computers we limited it to ten kids for each session. We had two sessions one immediately after the other so twenty kids attended altogether.






Chris demonstrated taking apart a computer and explained the function of each component. Then the ninjas paired up and started to take apart the computers. There was amazingly different reactions to the task, some kids used military precision, taking note of exactly what they were doing so they could put the parts back again correctly. Some were almost scared to start unscrewing things, and others just dived in and worried about how they were going to put it back together again later. Some of the kids told me of their plans to build their own pcs and others are hoping to troubleshoot their own computers at home. Chris, Ray and I helped out if they needed advice, but the ninjas were quite capable. All the computers worked again when they were put back together. For the second demonstration, Aran and Seán who attended the first session, stayed back to mentor the second group.

All in all it was a great success, the kids seemed to enjoy it and feedback was good afterward. We will be running it again next week as there were ninjas who wanted to do it but didn't get a chance yet.

Here is a link to the hardware autopsy handout. 

Laura Kenny

Dojocon 2013

Arriving at Slane Castle

The sun shone on Slane Castle, Co. Meath for Dojocon 2013, the 2nd annual Coder Dojo conference,  on Saturday 13th April. After an early start I arrived unsure what to expect. Fellow mentor Dave, administrator and parent Susie and coordinator Roisín also attended.

James Whelton

From start to finish it was an extremely well organised event. Each session was split into three streams 'education', 'tech' and 'creating a dojo' and there were some very interesting keynote speakers also. Slane castle was a wonderful venue and added to the fun of the day. The most overheard comment was 'oh, i know your face from twitter', or 'Hi, I'm x, I know you from twitter'. There was a very jovial atmosphere and everyone was both helpful and willing to learn from each other. I guess that's what happens when you get a bunch of volunteers all together.

I made lots of contacts, so many nice genuine people,  I know who to talk to about how to make our own badges, I got ideas for how to encourage kids and some tips on how to get kids to start showcasing their work and mentoring themselves. I got a lot of ideas from talking to people in between the talks and at lunchtime. If that was all that happened I still would have come away with a wealth of information to improve our own dojo.  Add to that the talks I attended and my brain was spilling over by the time we left around 7pm.

I went to mostly technical stream talks, everything from the future coderdojo rockstars to github to scratching with Leap and Kinect. I went to a talk on child centred learning, very positive and useful in my roles as parent, educator and mentor. I really enjoyed the talk about creating an online learning environment for coderdojo and all the different issues around that. At many of the talks the short 30 minute time frame left me wanting more, the talks were so interesting.

Coderdojo's Future Rockstars

I learnt to solder and to pick locks at lunch time. I was very excited to hear R.E.M. playing at Slane again - 'Stand' was on the music mix playing between talks.

Kimberley Bryant founder of Black Girls Code gave the last talk of the day, and although people were getting tired by this stage her talk was so moving and inspiring that she reawakened everyone. All in all it was a wonderful experience and I look forward to next year's conference.

Laura Kenny 

13 April no regular reason

We know our ninja coders might be disappointed to hear that there is no regular coderdojo in Gorey this Saturday, 13 April. But does no club mean no coding? really?   you guys can still work on your own projects. Seriously the club is for mentor and support - no dojo meeting does not mean no coding! Parents you can do a lot to encourage your kids and screenagers to keep on coding.

We'd love to see you take initiative, then you can share your projects with each other when the club gets back to normal sessions on the 20th of April.

There are two specific reasons why there is no dojo this weekend. I thought it would be good to share them because they are positive.

1. The Irish Science Teachers’ Association (ISTA) Annual Conference will take place on 12th-14th April in Gorey, Co Wexford at the Gorey Community School. So the school where we normally meet will be off limits but is being taken over by some of the best brains in the country. I have been working with Mary Mullaghy to showcase coderdojo at the conference. A mini dojo has been put together and will run at the conference. Only 12 children could attend, the opportunity was offered to coders who have been to seven sessions. Mentors and parents will be there also. I believe the python group might get a chance to see the game they all worked on compiled. I know some of you are really excited about that. Hope you get a chance to share with some curious teachers.

2. DojoCon 2013, global mentors conference is on this Saturday in Slane Castle. Four of us, Dave, Laura, Susie and myself are attending, fact finding how to make our dojo more mega for our kids and teenagers. I know some of the other mentors wanted to go to but tickets sold out fast. I'll be strongly encouraging everyone to blog about what was what at the conference from their perspective.
There will be a live tweet stream on the day and I'll be tweeting via our @Coderdojo_Gorey account. 

The exciting thing is that both of these conferences will be connecting via Gorey mini dojo over skype around lunchtime. 

NEXT dojo meeting in Gorey is 20th of April. 

If your children or teenagers are interested in attending please read FAQ's frequently asked questions. 

If you are interested in volunteer mentoring great! we are currently looking for Scratch, HTML, Python and Javascript please see mentors.

Remember Lets get Gorey coding!
Roisin Markham

CoderDojo Gorey is a volunteer led open learning initiative.