#ladieslearningcode

Nowadays it’s essential to know the basics of technology, design and marketing. Fortunately, Toronto is a place to be as there are plenty of schools that will help you to become a tech savvy. Learn from the industry professionals and never miss that perfect job opportunity again. FYI, all schools on the list below have free workshops.

Photos are up from CreativeMornings/Toronto with Kate Hartman, taken by Luana Suciu.

It was a Mother-Daughter Hack Day for Girls Learning Code

Yesterday saw Mozilla's Toronto office hopping with girls, moms, aunts, neices, grandmothers, and mother-figures all learning the basics of code supported by the incredible mentors at Ladies Learning Code.

Girls Learning Code is less about “code” and more about changing the world – through teamwork, creativity, and, of course, technology.

Buenas tardes a todos!

Este va a ser uno de mis post preferidos: No saben hace cuanto tengo ganas de compartir esta idea -y ver quién se suma-

Empecemos por lo primero:

En uno de mis tantos momentos de navegación en la red, gracias a Ellas 2.0, fui a dar con el grupo de chicas Ladies Learning Code:

Un grupo de mujeres que gracias a un simple tweet plasmando una idea y mucho esfuerzo en conjunto lograron reclutar coach's para que enseñen a mujeres a programar.

Este movimiento comenzó en la ciudad de Toronto y ya se extendió a Calgary,Halifax, Londres, Ottawa y Vancouver.

Yo les escribí para que me permitan poner en marcha la idea aquí en Buenos Aires pero tras una reunión decidieron que van a ir más lento con respecto a la expansión internacional.

Como este grupo existen varios:

Girls Who Code,centrado en enseñarles a mujeres de nivel secundario

Girl Develop It, entre otros.

En líneas generales están centrados en enseñar lenguajes, en mi opinión, menos robustos y toscos, sino más bien ágiles: Python, Ruby, CSS, HTML.

Esto me inspiró para adaptar este formato de grupos de mujeres bajo la siguiente idea: crear un grupo de mujeres centradas obtener los recursos humanos, económicos, legales para montar una ONG que nos permita poder enseñarles a mujeres de clase baja a programar. Mujeres  que deben tener el potencial de motivación e inteligencia necesarios para tener una exitosa carrera en la tecnología pero no tienen los recursos para poder llegar a siquiera aprender sobre el tema y convertirlo en fuente laboral.

El hecho que el alcance sea a mujeres de bajo recursos es que considero  que la programación es una herramienta poderosisima para que mejoren su situación económica. Es sabido que el trabajo en la tecnología & informática en latino américa tiene un alto nivel de vacantes y buenos niveles de remuneración. ¿No sería una oportunidad maravillosa para explotar capacidades y talentos en tecnología que quizás nunca conocieran ni darían a conocer?.

¿Te interesa sumarte? 

Si es así, escribime a [email protected] y charlamos. Sea cual sea tu profesión podes a ayudar a darle forma a esta idea y empezar a correr la bola (y armar este proyecto).

Nos vemos en la próxima!

This past Sunday I attended an HTML/CSS workshop put together by Ladies Learning Code . They describe themselves this way:

We’re a women-run not-for-profit group working to empower everyone to feel comfortable learning beginner-friendly technical skills in a social, collaborative way.

I discovered them through a friend of a friend, while doing follow-up on a meeting about a mobile app development.

Shawn Konopinsky from Nascent sponsored a Ladies Learning Code event last November. Following is an interview where he discusses why he contributes to their community, and the reason why I looked into LLC in the first place.

http://ladieslearningcode.com/2011/11/from-our-november-sponsor-nascent/

In short, he is a supporter of LLC because he feels that the tech industry is too male-dominated. I have to agree, frequently being the only female at the table.

Who wouldn't want more sweet-smelling, charming, intelligent females in their midst? Certainly anyone who would like to have a successful business.

The wonderful group of women who organized LLC, many of whom I met this past weekend, have found a niche, and the support they get from the instructors and mentors who present the sessions are a testament to that. Not to mention that all of the instructors and mentors volunteer their time.

My session was an Introduction to HTML & CSS, which I mostly get, have eyeballed and tinkered with from time to time, but I had never attempted to build a website from scratch before, until last Sunday.

While the site I developed is probably the ugliest thing I have ever designed, in fact it is so abysmal that I am not going to post a link or a snapshot, I am rather chuffed that I actually did it. More than that, I understand what I did, and could do it again.

This is in no small part due to the excellent instruction from Mark Reale (@markreale), Jonathan Levstein (@JLevstein) & Aaron Ritchie (@vsmantis) from BNOTIONS/the Yorkville Media Centre, and support from the mentor at my table, Jamie.

Jamie mentioned to me that once I was finished the workshop I would never look at websites the same way again, and he was right. I'm already picking apart websites, sorting out their construction and eyeballing their column widths.

More practically, and why I decided to attend the workshop, knowing what is underneath a website and any other digital platform will help me design better integrated workflows for content sharing using standardized HTML tags and CSS.

I look forward to more sessions with the Ladies. The next session is Photoshop/Indesign and they mentioned that a date for a Wordpress session will be posted soon.