to think about something when you went
to school you probably learned the
basics of reading writing and maths then
it was later on in your life when maybe
when you went to college that you
learned the skill to choose in your job
now I think this needs to change why
don’t we teach young people these skills
earlier I’m going to tell you about some
of the amazing things that I’ve seen
when young people have been given the
opportunity to learn to code island and
the world will face so much changes over
the next century and we need to prepare
the next generation for this change so
I’m here giving you a talk about change
you might be wondering what would a
14-year old know about change well quite
a bit in fact people my age have already
lived through a lifetime of change think
back to the year 2000 most of you will
probably have a clear memory of the
start of the millennium I don’t it was
it wasn’t long after gu who was born –
nowadays whenever we have a question we
turn to Google just think how many of
you have already used Google today back
in 2000 there was no such thing as a
smartphone most people probably had
Nokia’s my granddad still has a
non-smart phone and he jokes that
recently he had to go into a building
and was belonging through a security
scanner I don’t he went to put his phone
through the security guard said there’s
no need to put that through we don’t
scan antiques back in 2000
they’re searching that sharing and
social media wasn’t much of a thing if
you wanted to talk to your friends you
went to you went out and met up with
them or you phoned them now we have
Facebook Twitter Instagram snapchat and
so many social media platforms to share
on I’ve never lived in time without
internet before I was born you probably
it’s a dial-up to get online remember
that screeching car noise I don’t
I’ve also known that never lived in a
time without someone being in space
nowadays astronauts tweet pictures of
Ireland and the world from space so as
you can see there’s been so much change
in the past 16 years think of all the
change that will be happening in the
next eighty four years not only changes
in tact but changes in the world around
us for example climate change there will
be more electric cars in the road which
will be better for the environment will
be using cool tech like augmented
reality every day in our workplace
undertone and we’ll be traveling to
space and back using reusable rockets so
as you can see there will be so much
change and we need to make the most of
all this change is coming our way we
need to prepare the future generation
one a really great way to do this I
think is by teaching young people how to
code coding is writing lines of
instructions which tell a computer what
to do and it can help you make websites
apps games and even control robots why
can coding helpless while coding to help
with problem solving skills and I found
that after I learned code in school I
was able to find alternative ways to
solve my mouse problems coding lets you
be creative anything which you can
imagine you can make with code just
think of other things that we use every
single day that I made with code Netflix
Google Twitter Facebook Instagram the
list goes on
this is what we should be telling young
people to show them that coding isn’t
boring lines and instructions it can
actually let you make really amazing
things and one place that I can see this
happening is in coder dojo coder dojo
are free classes for young people to go
to to learn to code with the help of
mentors and that’s where I learned code
in Carter go Joe Dublin City University
age 9 I remember going into my first day
not knowing anything about coding and
when I came out I was so amazed that I
could make my very own website looking
back on it now is really simple I just
changed background colors out of images
and text but at the time I was
fascinated I think every young person
should have the opportunity to feel that
fast
when they’ve made their very first
website game up or robot since then I’ve
gone on to make much more complex apps
and games one of the absalom made is
called Auto journalist
it’s to help journalists and
interviewees who live in different time
zones to do interviews the journalists
consult the questions is when the
interviewee the interviewee then records
themselves on their camera or microphone
on their phone answering the journalist
questions once the journalists receive
the recordings they will have good media
content and will be able to write their
piece another app that I’ve made it’s
called recharge my car it’s out the
drivers of electric cars find all the
charging points in Ireland and see
whether they’re currently Anisa not
withering charged money car you can find
out whether a electric car charging
point is free for you to before you
drive to us with recharge money car I’ve
worn top prize at the coolest projects
Awards in 2014 the coolest projects
awards are the big competition for young
people from car garages all over the
world to come together for one day and
present projects that they’ve made using
code to other young coders from going to
the coolest projects for the past few
years I’ve seen so many amazing projects
that young people have made there was an
app that uses Bluetooth to find your
keys which could be really handy and one
girl programmed a robot that can solve
the Rubik’s Cube from the coolest
projects Awards on coderdojo
I’ve had so many amazing opportunities
in somewhere 2015 I went to a Fox
incubator where I spent three weeks
living in a big house over in London
with 50 other girls wearing wet hay to
an attack business the age of the girls
ranged from 11 to 22 and it was so cool
to see some of the projects that the
other girls were working on there was an
app to prevent harassment for women who
are walking on the street a device which
would help people with Parkinson’s
disease to walk and these projects are
solving such important problems so just
imagine that if we gave every young
person the chance to learn to code all
the problems we could solve
in December 2015 I won’t eat you Digital
Girl of the Year alongside Yasmin Bay
from England this has opened up so many
opportunities for me to meet amazing
people to go to cool events see how the
change in our future will be shaped by
tech ge invited me over to their minds
and machines your conference where I
learned about hair data will be able to
help with big engineering and
manufacturing projects in the future one
thing that I found really cool was
Heather reusing connected technology to
get more energy from wind farms I got to
speak of events to encourage more young
people to try out coding because it’s so
important I’m a member of the digital
Youth Council of Ireland and we’re a
group that makes sure that the voice of
young people in Ireland is heard in
science tech engineering math and
education I’ve been so lucky to meet
other people that also have the vision
that young people need to learn more
about tech in January I went to the
World Economic Forum in Davos or I met
will.i.am Bono Arianna Huffington and
Marc Benioff who had Salesforce while I
was over there I helped to run a
coderdojo session for some of the local
schoolchildren in Davos who had never
coded before they loved us
from my journey here a few things that
I’ve learned about getting young people
interested in coding if they already
have an interest in a TV show or a game
like Minecraft then links that interest
with coding my brother who was eight
years old at the time is really
interested in minecraft and he tried out
the Minecraft era of code the RF code is
a website that encourages kids to try a
simple coding for just an error it links
with movies like frozen and Star Wars
my brother was so amazed so he could
edit things in the Minecraft game using
lines of code that he could write
himself we definitely need to make sure
that we’re telling young people the
coding is all about creativity and
making things we need to see more girls
in tech as well
one way that I can see this happening is
grove is girls hot garland they host
one-day events for girls to come along
to with their friends and do workshops
on science tech engineering Matt’s on
coding another way is coderdojo girls
cutter dojo girls was set off a few
years ago in cardio dojo DCU it’s a
coder dojos session for girls to come
along too and they can learn how to code
while they’re surrounded by other girls
their age that are interested in tech
while I was over in the World Economic
Forum in Davos I heard Arianna
Huffington say that whenever you’re
giving a talk you need to leave people
with something to go away thinking about
something they can do so my message is
kids need skills what can you do you can
mentor or set up a coderdojo you don’t
need to have that many tech skills to
set up coderdojo you just need to be
able to support the kids and make sure
that they’re creating cool things
another thing you could do is to
introduce kids to online learning to
help them learn new skills so if you
have children nieces or nephews show
them things like Khan Academy for math
so let’s give kids the skills for all our futures thank you