notes+on+coderdojo

CoderDojo seems like a cool idea, I think in some ways it is very similar to the CodeClub initiative. They provide a framework to register and set up a club, that is intended to be run once a week or perhaps less often in a community space somewhere. Students bring their own laptops. CoderDojo also has some stored resources, across languages like Javascript and Python. The resources include downloadable files, and instruction cards that they structure like "sushi cards". I still can't figure out what a sushi card actually is. Here are some of the key links for CoderDojo:
 * Main site at http://coderdojo.com/
 * Resources at kata.coderdojo.com
 * Wiki (for instructors?) at http://kata.coderdojo.com/wiki

Javascript lessons
I tried out their very first lesson in Javascript, titled "Beginner Javascript Sushi", available at: http://kata.coderdojo.com/wiki/Beginner_JavaScript_Sushi It is basically tinkering with a "simple" HTML/Javascript file to do things like:
 * trigger alerts using alert
 * write content to the page using document.write
 * set up ready functions using JQuery!

Things I liked
I liked the way they have a pretty simple format and make their resources freely available (I did register for a free account, so I can't actually say without a little checking if you can download resources without registering)

Things I didn't like
Firstly, it just dives in to a bunch of examples without any programming basics. Secondly, the cards are meant to be printed? But even as a PDF on my system, the code they ask you to put in can't be copied from the PDF! So you have to type it all in manually. $(document).ready(function { anyone? But they have included a copy of JQuery so it's easy to include it at least. Thirdly, there are some errors even in their most basic of lessons. On card 5 of 9, it says to add id="title" but then the same shows id="name". And this lesson is suddenly **really** complicated, with pretty poor instructions. It took me over five minutes to figure out where to put the new code, and get the syntax of it right, using the Javascript console.