Smart Google Doodle puts coding in everyone's hands
Coding is for everyone.
The idea of stringing together commands to make a program is daunting prospect for most, but that's because many have never seen visual programming tools. Until now.
Monday's Google Doodle puts a super-easy visual programming tool on the search page and gently guides even the most programming-averse among us with straightforward and kind of cute tutorials.
Google's Programming for non-programmers" effort is part of Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 4-10), which is held in honor of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper and is designed to get everyone, but especially students, to try just an hour of code. And, yes, Code.org created an Hour of Code program that helps coordinate many of these efforts.
While there are in-person, free Hour of Code programs at Apple and Microsoft stores around the world, Google's on-your-desktop approach certainly has the widest reach.
The Google Doodle programming interface is simple, colorful, and easy to use. There's a blocky white rabbit and the carrots he wants to eat. You help him reach these carrots by dropping programming blocks into the space below and hitting a big orange play button to test your code.
Scratch teaches basic sequences, and increasingly complex nested loops. While there are multiple ways to program a solution, the Google Doodle encourages you to find the shortest, or most efficient one.
There's also a companion Web site that lets students design their own Google Logo using a visual programming app called Scratch. It also includes a link to Teacher Resources in case you plan to teach code in the classroom.
If you don't think you or your kids need to learn coding, consider this statistic from Code.org: 71 percent of all new jobs in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), but just 8 percent of all STEM graduates are in computer science.
Even if you're not into coding, you'll probably have a good time just trying to figure out the best way to get the rabbit all her carrots, and you'll probably learn how to code, anyway.
Topics Google
Lance Ulanoff was Chief Correspondent and Editor-at-Large of Mashable. Lance acted as a senior member of the editing team, with a focus on defining internal and curated opinion content. He also helped develop staff-wide alternative story-telling skills and implementation of social media tools during live events. Prior to joining Mashable in September 2011 Lance Ulanoff served as Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for the Ziff Davis, Inc. While there, he guided the brand to a 100% digital existence and oversaw content strategy for all of Ziff Davis’ Web sites. His long-running column on PCMag.com earned him a Bronze award from the ASBPE. Winmag.com, HomePC.com and PCMag.com were all been honored under Lance’s guidance.He makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Fox News, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Kelly and Michael, CNBC, CNN and the BBC.He has also offered commentary on National Public Radio and been interviewed by newspapers and radio stations around the country. Lance has been an invited guest speaker at numerous technology conferences including SXSW, Think Mobile, CEA Line Shows, Digital Life, RoboBusiness, RoboNexus, Business Foresight and Digital Media Wire’s Games and Mobile Forum.
