Coderdojo MentorMeetUp at Bank of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin.

Coderdojo Ireland’s Mentor MeetUp series around the country continued yesterday with a Dublin meet. Thanks to Bank of Ireland for venue and refreshments, and Nuala and Philip of Coderdojo Foundation for organising the logistics. It was a terrific MentorMeetUp in Trinity College, with a definite TeachMeet flavour. The group in attendance was the perfect mixture of the inquisitive and the informative – everyone added something to the mix. The features speakers and topics are listed here – but in truth it was the audience engagement who made the afternoon buzz.

1. Mags Amond – some simple hands-on ideas to introduce ninjas to CS, with a view to Code Week 2017.
2. Philip Harney – update on develepment of all Coderdojo resources.
3. Daniel Brierton – update on all things Coderdojo Zen.
4. Abeer Alsheaibi – From the CRITE lab in TCD, Abeer outlined here current PhD research on TPACK, Bridge21 model, and pedagogy for current and future Coderdojo mentors.
5. Guillaume Feliciano – all things Sushi Card, with an interesting twist on keeping language and translation in mind when designing them.
6. Niambh Scullion – a ‘from the heart’ overview, informed by Niamh’s experience, on how to ensure (and endure) a continued and focussed drive to include girls.

The breakout conversations, over pizza and beer, were most enjoyable. One result to celebrate from this MeetUP was that one student of computer science attending announced that he’d like to set up a dojo in Trinity.

Here’s to the rest of this series around the country – keep an eye on @coderdojo and @coderdojoIRL for details.