Providing tech information and resources for your patrons can be a continuing challenge in libraries! There are several discussions floating around the library world right now about different areas in this topic; so we are sharing one here to see what kind of resources might be available for your own work.

The question:

I am wanting to give my teen homeschooling community access to easy and fun access to beginner’s coding courses here in the teen department of my library. Where would you suggest I start? (I have absolutely NO knowledge on how to code or where to begin!)

Answers:

• Try techrocket.com – they have a variety of tech courses, most free.
• I have done hour of code with teens, but you have to dig up the stuff for that age group. I have also used Hopscotch and scratch. This summer we will be coding with Bloxels.
• I’ve used Hour of Code with kids as well.  A lot of kids use code.org in school. We’ve done a lot of Hopscotch projects.   There’s a lot of Hopscotch how-to project videos on Youtube.  They were always a little involved for the 9-10 year old set, but they would be good for teens.
• I’ve just started working with Scratch to develop a program for teens. It is free, and so far worth more than the cost (not always guaranteed). There are a lot of good resources, both online and print, for learning Scratch.