Annual Report 2022

What We Do and Why It Matters

The world is changing, and we want Canada to be ready. We’re here to make sure that all people in Canada — particularly those who are marginalized and underrepresented in tech — have access to the knowledge they need to prosper in our digital world.

We envision a prosperous Canada where all people have the skills and confidence to harness the power of technology to create a better and more inclusive future.

Canada Learning Code brings accessible computer science to communities across Canada so that everyone can create with technology. We do this by partnering with educators, designing resources, and delivering learning experiences.

We hope to be the spark that ignites the start of big things.

Things that are out of this world.

Canada Learning Code Teen Ambassadors create Braille Assist, a working prototype for a device that can capture letters from images and translate them into speech and braille.

Five groups of teen ambassadors were challenged in a Canada Learning Code hackathon to create a Micro:bit prototype that addresses one of the United Nations’ global goals for sustainable development. Watch the demo below for Braille Assist, the winning project from the hackathon!

Special thanks to Online Kyne, Micro:bit Edu Foundation and Georgian Partners for making this hackathon possible (and so special).

Return to in-person learning

We heard from many learners that they wanted the sense of community that coding together in the same room brings. After two years of adapting to a more digital-centric lifestyle, we relaunched our in-person workshops and were reminded of the energy and sense of community that coding together brings.

Thanks to our incredible Chapter community and supporters, we relaunched in-person workshops in September 2022! Our Edmonton Chapter ran the first in-person workshop since the lockdown began in March 2020 and other chapters began to bring people together in spaces across the country again.

Canada Learning Code Week

In 2022, we took a step back in consideration of what Canada Learning Code Week means to teachers and students around the country. We wondered: if students and teachers all over Canada collaborated to create their own virtual world, what would that impact look like?

It looked like Emoji World: a digital world we created for educators to teach coding lesson plans and then unlock Emoji World for their classes to bring to life!

Over the week, Canada Learning Code Week supported over 4,600 teachers with pre-Canada Learning Code Week workshops and themed lesson plans which resulted in creating 48,845 meaningful learning experiences with students. Emoji World evolved right before our eyes and grew to house over 2,600 emojis. This initiative demonstrated the power of technology –  connecting learners across physical distances and showing us the potential for collaboration that exists to create something truly out-of-this-world.

Camps and Clubs

We get it – kids love tech. And so we always want to make tech an accessible, inspiring and creative space for kids over their school breaks in the spring and summer by hosting free virtual coding camps. These camps were conducted live-online, building upon the enthusiasm we saw in the previous year for continued online learning (especially for kids who are already tech lovers). Within only a few hours of promotion, both spring and summer camps filled up to capacity!

Meanwhile in the “real world”, Canada Learning Code teen ambassadors bridged their digital world learning experiences with physical spaces. For the first time since the pandemic, in-person coding clubs started up again. Empowered by their acquired coding skills from Canada Learning Code’s team and partners in the tech sector, our teen ambassadors became leaders who shared their knowledge with others in their community, collaborated and created together. Throughout 2022, they ran 312 clubs and meetups, flexing their coding skills to teach others!

Teaching Teachers

As advocates for an equitable landscape of computer science education throughout Canada, we’ve embraced evolving curriculums to include coding as part of existing subjects (like 2022 announcements in Ontario and Alberta) and ensure that our lesson plans are curriculum-connected for all grades where mandates exist. The world is changing, and this knowledge is necessary for the future of Canada. But for students to truly be ready with the knowledge they need to prosper in our digital world, teachers need to feel equipped and confident to teach code to their students.

Throughout 2022 we provided ongoing support for teachers to learn code to teach code. We ran our first ever Teachers Learning Code Foundations Course that brought together 67 teachers to practice technology concepts over an 8-week cohort in a collaborative online community. And in August, over 500 teachers joined us virtually at our annual TeacherCon to leave feeling inspired and empowered to teach code when the school year started.

Cool Collaborations

Meaningful partnerships were established to give different communities access to computer science education and spark people’s curiosity in different ways. Notably, two partnerships evolved to bridge the digital and physical worlds with cool, tangible things.

Working with Girl Guides of Canada, sponsored by Blackberry, meant we could boost our shared goal of empowering girls to build a better world and to “POWER ON”. At the end of a special virtual event designed specifically for Girl Guides to learn code, 749 participants were awarded a Canada Learning Code X Girl Guides collaborative crest!

Another partnership emerged through Mattel, where former CEO and Canada Learning Code co-founder, Mel Sariffodeen, was recognized as a Barbie role model and made into an actual Barbie doll! We ran a workshop in collaboration with Barbie Canada to teach kids that “You Can Be Anything” where kids created an animation about their dream job.

What’s Next?

Thinking ahead: the future of coding education in the ChatGPT era

From Rekha Rao-Mayya, Canada Learning Code CEO

In November 2022 there was a technological, transformative event: the release of ChatGPT. Generative AI has sparked conversations, curiosity, anxiety, and a realization that it will impact all walks of life. Educators are reflecting on the consequences of AI on the education system, while businesses are evaluating the evolution of traditional job roles. Governments are investigating long term impact, while individuals are exploring what it might mean to them. I have been asked whether Canada Learning Code’s mission of teaching coding is still relevant, when code can now be generated with a click of the mouse.

To this, I say with the deepest conviction – our mission becomes even more imperative and urgent than ever before. Inclusion is possible only when all people have the equitable pathways to learning and becoming creators of technology, rather than remaining passive consumers. As AI becomes more mainstream and pervasive, we need to ensure that we build these systems with diverse perspectives to drive out systemic biases. We also need to reskill and retool those whose jobs will forever change due to automation. AI and other emerging technologies will shape our future, and we must ensure that everyone has the skills and knowledge to participate in and benefit from these advancements.

The work of Canada Learning Code is crucial in this regard, and we will strive to carry out our work with urgency. In 2023 and beyond, we’re actively contributing to our north star of creating 10 million meaningful learning experiences by 2027 by equipping others to teach youth and developing adult pathways for upskilling, reskilling and job readiness.