Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

We run 2 'terms';

Autumn ( roughly starting on the 1st October).
Winter ( roughly starting mid January ).

each term is 1.5 hours for 9 - 11 weeks.

We issue tickets publicly via eventbrite ( example click here ).

We run on Monday Evenings from 7:30 - 9:00. The reason for this is our colleagues in CoderDojo D15 ( https://www.facebook.com/coderdojod15/ ) operate out of Institute of Technology Blanchardstown ( ITB now known as Technological University Dublin - Blanchardstown Campus ) on Saturday mornings. As this clashed with matches,training,dancing and other activities, we were asked to have an alternative time slot to provide options.

We have a welcome message on our email distribution list. This can be signed up to at;

http://www.coderdojocastleknock.com/contact/join-our-email-distributon-list

This distribution list is to provide information re CoderDojo Castleknock and is the central contact point. Also please follow us on facebook and twitter as we update our website, twitter feed and facebook page on activity.

Details of different ways to contact us are here.

We generally run 2 terms. One in Autumn and one after Christmas. We run classes from 7:30 - 9:00 at Castleknock Community College.We do not run a summer term for a number of reasons;

1. No access to school ( we want to acknowledge their help ).

2. Weather is hopefully better ( Don't look out a window ! ), so the feeling is, its nice outside - be outside.

3. With holidays for mentors and ninjas (children), its very hard to arrange a set of dates that suits all.

CoderDojo Castleknock approach is to provide tickets for a block of classes - a term. The idea is two-fold;

- classes build on each other, i.e concepts covered earlier in the term are built on;

- We have finite resources re room space and for certain courses which depend on hardware, we have a limited number of kits which translate into tickets.

We make tickets available at the start of each term and then close tickets until the next term

We will provide updates to link to book free tickets when they are available at either

mid/late September - for Autumn term
January - for post Christmas term

in the following locations;

Re used to get started. Typically, the starting areas are

Scratch ( see https://scratch.mit.edu/ )
HTML ( see https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/html-css/intro-to-html/v/making-webpages-intro )
Electronics Arduino ( see https://www.arduino.cc/ )
App Inventor (Android) see ( http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ )
Python ( https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-python )
Unity 3D ( https://unity3d.com/unity ) Just a quick comment here, a modern laptop is needed as otherwise its very frustrating as everything is slow
Minecraft ( https://minecraft.net/en-us/ more of interest is writing 'mods', - tools and modifications that extend or modify the original Minecraft game)
Electronics Microbit ( see http://microbit.org/ )

Depending on the planning meeting, we will focus on up to 3 of the above

Of these we would divide into beginner/intermediate/advanced as

Scratch beginner/intermediate
HTML beginner/intermediate/advanced
Electronics Arduino intermediate/advanced
App Inventor (Android) beginner/intermediate/advanced
Python intermediate/advanced
Unity 3D intermediate/advanced
Minecraft beginner/intermediate/advanced
Electronics Microbit beginner/intermediate

Next steps.

Sign up to http://www.coderdojocastleknock.com/contact/join-our-email-distributon-list if not done so already, so you get updates when tickets for next term are available,
Get tickets ( see above ) when they are released. They will be released publicly roughly a week before the new term starts. As they say in the ad's, "when they are gone, they are gone". Also please note, tickets cannot be reserved.

if we have not answered your questions, quiz us !

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