Story by Ashley Smith
APS Communication Team Intern
Metal wires and electrical signals ̶ those make up the future of the world.
The 21st century is defined by fast unrestricted information and technological advancements. Those individuals who understand how to construct, program and use technology will be at the forefront of shaping our future. For this reason, students at Rangeview High school excitedly gathered to learn the basics of computer programming. Their faces beamed with pride for their creations: small, simple lines of computer code that could be used to move a character on the screen or build a digital object. Students learned these and many more foundational skills in only one hour, also known as “Hour of Code. ”
Code.org is a website set up to teach children the basics of programming. This week they had an event called “Hour of Code” where they challenged students to practice computer code for one hour. Rangeview Cyber Patriot leaders, Randy Mills and Analyn Alquitran, got behind the movement and signed their students up to learn coding for an hour, and to be inspired by tech-driven celebrity Ashton Kutcher. Many schools applied but only seven classrooms in the country were chosen to speak with a celebrity.
Kutcher talked with the students about many topics surrounding technology. He said, “I believe that in the future there will be two kinds of jobs; jobs where computers tell you what to do and jobs where you tell computers what to do. And I've never liked getting told what to do.”
He encouraged students to learn programming or computer related skills so that they could get ahead in our tech-driven society.
APS thanks Kutcher for the words of encouragement and Code.Org for the challenge. We also thank Randy Mills and Analyn Alquitran for their effort to engage our students.