The Raspberry Pi Foundation and the CoderDojo Foundation recently announced a merger, with Raspberry Pi Foundation CEO Philip Colligan joining the CoderDojo board. So if you ever wanted to teach kids coding, now is a great time to start a CoderDojo in your local area.
We caught up with Raspberry Pi's CEO, Philip Colligan and CoderDojo spokesperson Rosa Langhammer to talk about the proposed merger. The two Foundations will share back-office resources and expertise to deliver more quickly on their shared goals.
CoderDojo fans won’t see any change at the Dojos, however. CoderDojo spokesperson Rosa Langhammer tells us that “CoderDojo is and will always remain 100% content, software and hardware neutral!
“The Raspberry Pi Foundation works to put the power of digital making into the hands of people all over the world,” continues Rosa, “and the CoderDojo mission is to give every young person an opportunity to learn and create with technology. By combining our efforts we get closer to these shared goals.”
Start a CoderDojo in your area and teach kids to code
The merger will allow CoderDojo to reach even more young, enthusiastic makers and coders. We’ll hear more about these plans in the summer, but Rosa did reveal that part of the strategy review includes “mapping the path to 5,000 Dojos [worldwide] by 2020.”
But, “the first priority,” Philip tells us, “is to make it as easy as possible to start a CoderDojo. That means investing in the tools and resources that CoderDojo champions and mentors need.”
Enabling more people and businesses to set up Dojos won’t be easy. That’s why the Raspberry Pi Foundation will be “bringing all of the capabilities and expertise of the Raspberry Pi Foundation to support the growth of the CoderDojo movement around the world.”
“The CoderDojo Foundation team is really excited,” says Rosa, “and is looking forward to working with a wider team of people with similar goals, cooperating on new projects and pooling all our experiences and talents to give more people the opportunity to learn and be creative with technology.”
Raspberry Pi and CoderDojo working together
Why now? “In a word: demand,” Philip explains. “We know that young people all over the world are crying out for places they can go to learn how to get creative with digital technologies. Education systems aren’t responding quickly enough to that demand, so we decided that we should join forces to accelerate the growth of the CoderDojo movement.”
Both Foundations were established at around the same time, and “we’ve been working together in lots of ways from the beginning,” says Philip. “Lots of the people who are CoderDojo champions and volunteers are also members of the Raspberry Pi community.” He also confirms that “we have no plans to change the approach to Code Club or CoderDojo; our priority is encouraging the growth of both initiatives all over the world.”
Start a CoderDojo in your area
Aimed at young people between the ages of 7 and 17, CoderDojos are free, community-led programming clubs for anyone curious about coding. Whether that’s building websites, apps, or just figuring out how technology works, Dojos have always offered freedom from hardware and software restrictions – any tool is fine, as long as you’re coding.
So you can start a CoderDojo in your local area.
”The CoderDojo mission is to give every young person an opportunity to learn and create with technology,” as spokesperson Rosa Langhammer puts it.
Key to the movement are the volunteer ‘Champions’ who set up the Dojos. If you or your organisation would like to set up a Dojo, the CoderDojo Foundation will help you get started: visit CoderDojo for details. You don’t need technical skills to start a verified Dojo, just the ability to bring people together, and a passion for the power of code to build a positive future.
To search for a Dojo near you, check the interactive map.
