Hello!
2014-09-26 1:43 GMT+03:00 Guido Arnold guido@fsfe.org:
We would like to encourage everybody to participate in one of the existing events to make sure that Free Software will not remain unknown to these kids. As they are already interested in coding, it would be a shame if they wouldn't learn about Free Software, don't you think?
My club here in Tampere will participate and the site koodikerho.fi will heavily promote free and open software. The club started 2 weeks ago and we have 13 children fron the 3rd grade (9-year olds), they are progressing nicely and surprisingly the majority is girls!
Hello Otto,
On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 04:24:35PM +0300, Otto Kekäläinen wrote:
2014-09-26 1:43 GMT+03:00 Guido Arnold guido@fsfe.org:
We would like to encourage everybody to participate in one of the existing events to make sure that Free Software will not remain unknown to these kids. As they are already interested in coding, it
My club here in Tampere will participate and the site koodikerho.fi will heavily promote free and open software.
Great news! :)
The club started 2 weeks ago and we have 13 children fron the 3rd grade (9-year olds), they are progressing nicely and surprisingly the majority is girls!
Wow, that's even better news! As you write "surprisingly", does that mean you won't tell us the secret how you did that?
Or is the education system and society in Finland just so awesome that girls aren't subliminally told tech stuff is nothing for them? I think I've got to visit you one day...
Anyhow, please keep us posted and share your experiences!
Greetings,
Guido
On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 18:53:50 +0200, Guido Arnold wrote:
Hello Otto,
On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 04:24:35PM +0300, Otto Kekäläinen wrote:
2014-09-26 1:43 GMT+03:00 Guido Arnold guido@fsfe.org:
We would like to encourage everybody to participate in one of the existing events to make sure that Free Software will not remain unknown to these kids. As they are already interested in coding, it
My club here in Tampere will participate and the site koodikerho.fi will heavily promote free and open software.
Great news! :)
The club started 2 weeks ago and we have 13 children fron the 3rd grade (9-year olds), they are progressing nicely and surprisingly the majority is girls!
Wow, that's even better news! As you write "surprisingly", does that mean you won't tell us the secret how you did that?
Or is the education system and society in Finland just so awesome that girls aren't subliminally told tech stuff is nothing for them? I think I've got to visit you one day...
Given Otto's surprised I'd say it's more likely they haven't been told often enough yet that tech stuff isn't for them.
@Otto: and in the interest of that I would suggest not to show your surprise of how good they are whilst being girls. As a female classmate in CS once told me that she thought the constant surprise about how good she was (in spite of being a girl), was amongst the most off-putting behaviours she got exposed to.
Hello,
2014-09-26 19:53 GMT+03:00 Guido Arnold guido@fsfe.org:
The club started 2 weeks ago and we have 13 children fron the 3rd grade (9-year olds), they are progressing nicely and surprisingly the majority is girls!
Wow, that's even better news! As you write "surprisingly", does that mean you won't tell us the secret how you did that?
The goal was to reach to children young enough that they haven't yet "learned" the stereotypic role models that boys to tech and girls don't. It was suprisingly easy to achieve. In the group there is no trace of a sentiment that tech stuff or coding would be a boy thing.
Or is the education system and society in Finland just so awesome that girls aren't subliminally told tech stuff is nothing for them? I think I've got to visit you one day...
You're welcome! Ryanair and other cheap airlines fly directly to Tampere, so it is easy to come here :)
Hi all,
It's nice to hear about FS coding initiatives around Europe!
While I agree it's nice to get some of the codeweek.eu events free-software-minded, I believe that the coding week wasn't meant to be ethical in this way in the first place. Starting with the website (they use proprietary stuff like google maps) that promotes the idea that anyone and anything is welcome to join (including those promoting proprietary software and the idea that kids should be proprietary-software-dependent), trying to make look the event free software-ish doesn't help much. I agree that whoever attends a free software event in the coding week will benefit, but overall the week with proprietary software events (e.g. [1]) will just make free software look like a yet another legitimate option, thus completely bypassing the very essence of the free software movement.
I see others might disagree, but things fail when not built on solid grounds. The coding week doesn't seem to have solid grounds, at least free-software-wise. The week is there because of competitiveness, markets, leadership, entrepreneurship, and economy growth [2], and it's not there to form a society based on the ideals of emancipation and solidarity.