Young creators prepared for the future

Computational thinking and programming are increasingly present in school classrooms due to the implementation of new Education laws over the last years. As a result, more and more children are discovering programming and all that they can do by acquiring this skill. It allows them to move from being mere technology consumers to becoming creators, turning their ideas into reality through website and app design, video game creation, robotics and electronics, artificial intelligence, and more.

Learning to code offers many cognitive benefits and is the best way to develop computational thinking, which is the ability to solve any kind of problem (not just those related to programming) through techniques like decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, or algorithmic design. Therefore, programming after-school activities not only help young people acquire a technical skill, but also teach them essential transversal competencies for their personal development. Through programming, students enhance their creativity, communication, teamwork, and, most importantly, problem-solving skills. In this way, learning to code is learning to think, and choosing an after-school program in programming and computational thinking like Codelearn is a future investment at both academic, professional, and personal levels.

A method designed for all ages

Learning to code requires effort and consistency. To tailor the programming learning experience to younger children and turn the activity into a motivating challenge, Codelearn has been using its own method for over a decade, combining gamification techniques and a detailed long-term study plan on its platform. The online platform presents content as adventures, following the stories of the Codelearn characters.

Each of these adventures corresponds to a programming language or other programs, and students must complete the previous adventures to unlock new ones, ensuring that all students follow the same order defined in the curriculum. The first adventures help them acquire basic knowledge through educational languages like Logo, Scratch, or Karel, and then they begin learning widely used professional languages and technologies, such as Python, Linux, Java, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, Unity, C ++, and many others.

Moreover, each time a student completes an exercise, they earn rewards in the form of points that can be exchanged for physical or digital prizes, character upgrades, or access to complementary adventures that personalize their platform experience. This reward system, similar to that used in some games, along with the adventure-themed curriculum, makes the Codelearn after-school program fun for younger kids (from age 7) as well as teenagers and young adults. If you want to discover the Codelearn method and online platform, contact any of our centers to receive more information about the after-school program and request a free trial class with no obligation.

Your ranking position will allow you to earn special badges, like the “August Leader” one, reserved only for the top 20 ranked students, and doing exercises continuously will enable students to earn the “Summer Force” badge, which can be achieved by working for four consecutive days and also grants an extra 1000 points. But doing exercises in August will be rewarded regardless of your ranking position, as all students who do exercises during this month will earn special points linked to special prizes in the platform’s store. Among these prizes, there will be four Nintendo Switch Lite consoles and digital gift cards of various amounts, so your efforts during the month could have a great reward.

On the other hand, we remind you that from August 1, students can activate the free mode of the platform. We hope these rewards help you maintain some consistency and work during the coming weeks so as not to forget everything you’ve learned this year and to arrive in September recharged and eager to continue learning to program.

Have a great summer!

A unique method and a detailed curriculum

From its foundation, Codelearn has set itself apart from other similar extracurricular programs thanks to its pedagogical approach. The programming school for children and teenagers follows its own method and a detailed curriculum aimed at developing skills that will last a lifetime, providing these young learners with the necessary tools to tackle any challenges they encounter. Unlike other academies and courses, it’s not just about learning to use a couple of specific programming languages or currently popular software programs. Instead, it’s about acquiring knowledge of as many languages and technologies as possible to be able to understand any new language that may emerge, choose the best option for providing technological solutions for different situations, and at the same time, work on problem-solving, a valuable skill both in the professional field and in the personal sphere.

To achieve this goal, the content is structured according to the curriculum and presented in a concrete way to adapt the teaching of these disciplines to the reality and needs of young learners, keep them motivated, respect each student’s work pace, and ensure that it is a real and effective learning experience. All of this is made possible by our primary working tool, the Codelearn online platform, which uses gamification to make learning programming a fun activity.

Flexible learning and personalized follow-up

Thanks to the online platform, each student can learn at their own pace without depending on a group and without attending lectures, as is the case in other similar academies. Each student has their own user account to access the platform, work on their exercises autonomously, and progress depending on their dedication, motivation, and ease of understanding new content. Therefore, students have some flexibility in terms of accessing the platform, which is available 24 hours a day, year-round, and choosing a schedule to attend the center.

Attending the center facilitates the follow-up of the student’s learning by their Codelearn tutor, who will exchange messages with the student through the platform whenever needed throughout the week. During this in-person lessons, the tutor can more easily help the student resolve any doubts and provide additional explanations. The tutor is responsible for guiding and accompanying the student throughout the learning process, so even though students work autonomously, they are never alone in their learning journey. Additionally, at the end of each trimester, the tutor will write a report for the student’s family, who can also monitor the progress made through the platform by accessing their profile from the parent’s portal.

10 years preparing for an imminent future

Codelearn was created with the idea of helping young people prepare for the future in a context where technology was growing at an increasingly rapid pace. A decade later, that pace has not slowed down but continues to accelerate. Technology is becoming more integrated into our daily lives, and in recent years, we have seen the emergence of new professions related to artificial intelligence, big data, robotics, and other fields directly linked to programming. Programming has also gained importance in other sectors such as medicine, economics, chemistry, and more.

Learning to program is necessary to understand a world where technology plays such a significant role, and having basic programming knowledge will soon be essential even for those working in seemingly unrelated fields, as most jobs will rely on software tools. At this point, being able to communicate with machines is as important as learning to read or write. And the best way to learn something, especially during childhood and adolescence, is to do it in a fun and engaging way, as we do on our platform.

This week marks the beginning of a new school year in our centers, and it could be a great time to join the adventure of programming. Welcome once again to Codelearn, the best extracurricular program for the technological future!

In recent years, coding after-school programs have gained popularity among the youngest, who are increasingly aware that their relationship with technology can go far beyond being consumers in front of screens. Programming is starting to be introduced in schools and the use of educational tools such as Scratch or App Inventor presents children and adolescents with the opportunity to become creators and shape their own ideas to create video games, animations or mobile apps. In the same vein, educational robotics also helps them work on their STEAM skills in a playful way.

If your children are interested in the world of computing and technology, the best way to delve into it today is with a programming extracurricular activity, which not only helps them learn the most important skill of the 21st century, but at the same time facilitates the acquisition of transversal skills that are essential for personal development, such as creativity, communication or teamwork. At the end of the day, the most important thing at these ages is not learning to code, a technical skill that will certainly be an added value for their future, but everything that comes with doing it: learning to code means learning to think because it is the best way to develop computational thinking, which brings a whole series of advantages for everyday life.

Computational thinking is the ability to solve problems of any kind, not just those related to programming. Computer programmers are used to apply techniques such as decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction or algorithmic design, but all these techniques can be applied to any other field: it is easier to solve a problem if we break it down into smaller problems, if we recognize some parts of them that we have seen before and if we are able to identify what is really important and can separate it from other details. Learning programming is the best way to develop this type of thinking, and therefore it is not about learning specific knowledge, but about acquiring skills and competences that last over time and are useful to face any challenge.

Thus, with an after-school program like Codelearn, children who have an interest in technology have fun while learning programming video games, control robots or create mobile apps, while their families see it as well as an educational activity which is very important both in terms of the technical knowledge acquired there and their children’s personal development. Problem solving, imagination and creativity, teamwork, communication, improved self-esteem, critical thinking or improved performance in other school subjects are just some of the benefits of the adventure of learning to code. If you want to receive more information about the Codelearn method, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

The first news is that from September all students will receive seniority badges for each year you have been enrolled in Codelearn. Within your profile on the platform you will see a single badge appear, the longest that corresponds to you by seniority (if you signed up 7 years ago, you will see the 7 year badge, and next year you will only see the badge of 8 years). When this badge is “bright yellow”, it will tell you that you can click it to collect points and celebrate another year on the platform. It will give you 1000 points for each year, and once collected, the badge will stop glowing and you won’t be able to collect more until the following year, when the new badge appears.

As usual, you can use these points in the store to buy prizes, adventures, avatars or upgrades for your character. In addition, from now on your seniority badge will give you access to exclusive prizes based on how many years you have been a Codelearn student. In this way, everyone will benefit, since it is not only a way of rewarding the loyalty of the most veteran students, but at the same time it also facilitates the access of the newest students (who have fewer points) to prizes that sometimes they can’t get easily. In September, you will see the first prizes restricted to your seniority range. We hope you enjoy these new advantages and wish you a great summer.

Thank you for trusting Codelearn for another year!

Programming and robotics activities are cognitive after-school activities, but we can work on these disciplines (which require a lot of effort and perseverance) differently than we would in classrooms within school hours and we need to make every effort to ensure that students have fun while learning and preparing for their future. That is why Codelearn follows its own methodology, which uses gamification techniques to tailor the activity to children and maintain their motivation and desire to learn.

It is increasingly important to have a basic knowledge of programming and learn more about the technology that surrounds us, as it plays an increasingly important role within our day to day and therefore there is more difference between those people who can understand technology, are able to communicate with computers and can take full advantage of them, and those people who are only consumers of technology but cannot use all the resources it offers us to create new solutions or improve existing processes.

Learning programming will be almost essential for children when they grow up and enter the world of work, if we take into account that every passing year more jobs are created related to technology and more professionals with this technical knowledge are needed. However, beyond the long-term benefits this activity can have in the professional field, the most important thing when choosing such an after-school activity is the benefits of learning to code during childhood, especially those provided by the development of computational thinking and how it helps children learn to think and solve problems of any kind.

That is why an extracurricular program is both a fun activity for children and a commitment to the future, as it responds, on the one hand, to the new interests of many children who are passionate about technology and, on the other hand, to a need of training which also has multiple benefits for child development.

The Codelearn Method

Codelearn is a programming and computational thinking school that aims to help children and young people prepare for the future and learn 21st century skills in a fun and age-appropriate way. It uses its own game-based learning method and follows a detailed curriculum that has been developed by IT and Education professionals and is constantly being reviewed and updated.

The school uses an online platform as the main tool, which allows students to progress both in Codelearn centers and at home. The contents are structured in many adventures presented by a universe of fictional characters, and these adventures are divided into chapters consisting of programming exercises which help each student to learn autonomously and earn points that can be exchanged for objects and avatars in the Points Store, as in some video games.

Throughout the year Codelearn organizes complementary activities that serve to work on other transversal skills, such as creativity and teamwork. For example, there are competitions where artistic creations are valued and also individual and team coding competitions, thus encouraging socialization between students both within the same center and among all Codelearn academies.

More than 90% of parents in the US believe that learning to code will be essential for their children’s future, and they value very positively that elementary and high school students can learn programming in school, according to a series of recent studies from Gallup and Google. The latest data also indicate that more than half (53%) of students in the US already have a coding subject in the school where they are enrolled and that more and more teachers are advocating that programming should be included in every school’s program.

In 2013, England replaced the old computer science subject (focused on the use of office tools) with a specific programming subject, which has since been included in its national curriculum and is compulsory for all students from 5 to 16 years old. Three years later and after two years of providing prior training for teachers of all subjects, Finland included programming in the school curriculum in 2016. In this case, it is also mandatory for all primary and high school students, but instead of creating a specific subject, they are committed to working on computational thinking and programming in all subjects and delving into it especially within the subject of mathematics.

Computer programming is related to many other subjects and one of the benefits of learning to code from an early age is that it helps students to improve their performance in other subjects such as math, science, or languages. This improvement is also transferred to college and other higher education studies, so that later the development of computational thinking also facilitates the adaptation to adult life, both on a personal and a professional level.

Specifically, one of the most sought-after skills in a professional environment is programming (in 2020, more than 800,000 offers were published in the ICT field in Europe), which is no longer an exclusive competence of computer programmers. Mathematicians, economists, chemists, lawyers, psychologists, linguists… On the one hand, more and more different profiles are needed to develop emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence; on the other hand, new hardware and software solutions are applied to many spaces such as operating rooms, laboratories or translation agencies. We live more and more surrounded by technology, so all the professions will need to adapt to this new reality, some of them may disappear and also we will see new ones appear.

Codelearn has created a new proposal for schools to help them include programming and computer thinking in classroom during school hours. Officially launched last September, Codelearn Classroom can be considered as a programming subject or can be included in other subjects such as Technology or Maths. It follows a detailed study plan and presents structured content, offers planning and monitoring tools for teachers, adapts to all primary and secondary school levels and uses its own platform and learning method, which have been developed by experts from the IT and the educational world.

If you are interested in including coding in your school, please contact us to receive more information about Codelearn Classroom.

Therefore, Codelearn focus on working on computational thinking, the ability to learn to learn, which helps us find solutions to problems of any kind, and work on it while we learn programming, which is surely the most important technical skill of the 21st century. However, beyond acquiring the digital skills that they will need once they enter the labor market, learning to code from an early age has many benefits for the development of children: through learning to code we can acquire other important skills such as teamwork, adaptability, creativity, critical thinking or logical thinking, among others.

To achieve this, we have developed a unique method and a detailed curriculum that allows young people to learn different programming languages and technologies progressively. Unlike other technological activities, Codelearn do not focus on a single program or language, which will sooner or later become obsolete, but we want children and adolescents to acquire skills and abilities that will last a lifetime. The curriculum follows a logical order and has been designed by various experts in both technology and education. Thus, we can ensure that students continually practice all they have already learned while continuing to learn new things.

The main tool of Codelearn method is an online platform with which each student can progress at their own pace, so that the needs of each one and their learning process are respected. They can follow the method for years and learn some basic content at first and acquire more specialized knowledge later. Our goal is for them to be able to carry out their own projects and stop being just consumers to also become creators of technology.

If your children love technology and you would like them to learn new digital skills and develop computational thinking in a fun way, you can take a look at our online program and try it for 15 days.

Every year we celebrate a September Raffle. We give all our students a number and they can also get extra numbers and more chances to win according to the school years they have been learning to code with Codelearn (one extra ticket for every year following our method).

During the months of September and October we will use the daily numbers of the ONCE charity lottery ticket to make the raffle so it is fair and clear for everyone –students can check the winning numbers in the public list of the foundation and must have the last two or three numbers in common with the ONCE’s daily winner.

This way we try to reward our students’ loyalty, as it makes us really happy to keep helping them on their learning process.

Good luck to everyone!

1) In order to participate, it is essential to be a Codelearn student at the time of the raffle. The student must have been enrolled before July 31, 2021, he must be a student since then without interruptions and he cannot have fees or amounts pending payment. In the case of students who follow the Codelearn method at school, the student must be active on the day of the draw, either because the school is doing the activity that month or because that month the student is following the after-school program at a Codelearn center or online.

2) Each number is nominal and non-transferable. Codelearn will have a record of who has each number, will notify the winners and will tell them from what date they can pick up the prize at a Codelearn center. Only those to whom Codelearn has assigned the number directly, prior to the date of the draw, and who meet the conditions of these rules at the time of winning the prize can win and collect the prize. Codelearn may reassign numbers if students fail to meet the conditions, for example if they unsubscribe before the day of the draw. The student must collect the award within 3 months. In the event of physical impossibility of collecting a prize, the student may request it to be sent before this maximum period, at the student’s expense.

3) Students will be able to see the number or numbers they have in the Games and activities section, on the Codelearn platform.

4) Each student will receive a number for the fact of being a student. Also, additional numbers will be received for seniority in Codelearn: 1 extra number if they started the 2019-2020 school year, 2 extra numbers if they started the 2018-2019 school year, 3 extra numbers if they started the 2017-2018 school year, 4 extra numbers if they started the 2016-2017 school year, 5 extra numbers if they started the 2015-2016 school year, 6 extra numbers if they started the 2014-2015 school year and 7 extra numbers if they started the 2013-2014 school year.

5) The ONCE winner number has 5 digits. The prize will go to the student or students with the number that matches the last digits according to the table above. That is, if the ONCE winner of the day is, for example, 07435, and the last 3 numbers must match, the Codelearn winning number will be 435. If the last 2 numbers must match, all the numbers ending in 35 will be awarded. The ONCE draw can be consulted on the website https://www.juegosonce.es/historico-resultados-cupones-once

6) The name and location of the winners will be made public through the blog and / or social media. Codelearn may also take a photo of the award ceremony and upload it.

7) In the event that a Codelearn student does not want to participate in the raffle, they must notify Codelearn before the draw date in order to reassign their number. Similarly, winners may waive their prize if they want, but cannot decide to exchange it for its cash value or any other prize.

8) In the event that a prize has no winner, Codelearn will look for a new date to raffle it again.

9) In the event that the ONCE draw is cancelled for any reason, Codelearn will seek a new date to re-draw all pending prizes.

Codelearn centers are closed on August, but you can still learn in the online platform and work on your coding skills. As we know you might need some motivation to keep doing coding exercises, every year we try to give you a good reason to do so: get one the highest scores and win prizes!

Complete your exercises correctly, win points and try to reach the Top5 of the August Ranking. At the end of the competition the five students at the top of the ranking will get a prize. Also, we will raffle four more prizes among the rest of participants.

The more points you have, the more chances you have to win! Warning: the points you get while the free mode is activated won’t be taken into account.

– 1st ranked: i3 Laptop
– 2nd ranked: i3 Laptop
– 3rd ranked: Nintendo 2DS
– 4th ranked: Drone
– 5th ranked: Drone

Also, another drone and three Arduino Kits will be raffled among the rest of students.

Enjoy your summer!