CoderDojo is a global volunteer-led community of free programming workshops for young people. The movement is a
grassroots organisation with individual clubs (called "Dojos") acting independently. A charity called the ''CoderDojo Foundation'' operates out of
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, and supports the various clubs by providing a central website and some other support services. Supporters of CoderDojo believe it is part of the solution to addressing the global shortage of programmers by getting young people more involved with
ICT learning. The movement has seen significant growth since its founding. The CoderDojo Foundation estimates 1,250 Dojos spread across 69 countries, with a growth rate of several new Dojos every week.
History
Founded in July 2011 by
James Whelton and
Bill Liao, the first Dojo took place in
NSC Cork,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, on 23 July. James and Bill were self-taught programmers and wanted to create a space where young people could learn code in a social environment. In less than one year, the CoderDojo movement was spread across Ireland and other cities like
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, and
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
.
In May 2017,
Raspberry Pi foundation
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a British charity and company founded in 2009 to promote the study of basic computer science in schools, and is responsible for developing the Raspberry Pi single-board computers.
Foundation
The Raspberry Pi Foun ...
merged with CoderDojo.
Press Coverage
CoderDojo received positive reviews from newspapers including
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
announced a partnership and a grant of $200,000 to CoderDojo in order to help "support 14 CoderDojo code clubs – or Dojos – globally, with each of them being run by Salesforce.com "champions".
Many CoderDojo volunteers focus on improving the extreme shortage of women in technology
by using specific strategies to engage girls. In particular, challenging the socially accepted idea among young women that the world of the computer sciences is "not for them". Some Dojos have even chosen to run special CoderDojo Girls sessions to encourage young women to participate in computer science. There has been some success with attracting girls into Dojos through making female mentors visible to newcomers.
Established in mid-2013 by cofounder James Whelton, the CoderDojo Foundation is focused on supporting, scaling, and empowering the CoderDojo Community. With a small core team of 6 people based in
, Dublin, Ireland, the Foundation advises new and existing Dojos, develops resources to assist Dojos, and manages international partnerships and events on behalf of the Community.
The focus is on scaling the CoderDojo movement to make coding clubs even more accessible for young people all over the world. The foundation has a stated target of encouraging 100,000 children to code regularly and having 1,500 Dojos spread across 60 countries.