Obama jumps in to Hour of Code event with a little JavaScript

In campaign to promote computer programming, the president tells kids: "Don't just consume, create." Later, at a White House-hosted event, he even learns to write a few lines of code himself.

Anyone can learn to code -- even world leaders, who are not often thought of as the most tech-savvy bunch. The president of the US? Yep. The prime minister of the UK. Check.

To promote the idea that anyone can do it, President Obama sat down Monday with middle-school students at a White House-hosted event and learned to write a few lines of JavaScript.

The event was part of the second annual Hour of Code campaign, spearheaded by nonprofit Code.org, whose mission is to make computer science accessible to kids everywhere.

President @BarackObama is learning an #HourOfCode! (He's writing a few lines of JavaScript right now) pic.twitter.com/vGTDb70i6s
— Code.org (@codeorg) December 8, 2014

More than 77,000 Hour of Code events worldwide are scheduled for this week -- dubbed Computer Science Education Week -- at schools, public libraries and coding clubs, among others. Earlier today in London, students taught UK Prime Minister David Cameron a few things about programming.

In a video to champion Hour of Code events this week, Obama has a message for young people: "Don't just consume things, create things. Take an hour to learn more about the technology that touches every part of our lives."

Also this week, Code.org has lined up tech luminaries and celebrities -- from Bill Gates to Jessica Alba to Usher -- to participate in video chats on its YouTube channel with 100 classrooms across the US.

Apple is holding hour-long workshops -- think of them as a sort of Intro to Computer Science class -- Thursday at all 446 of Apple's retail locations. Other companies hosting Hour of Code events include Disney Interactive, Microsoft and Best Buy. Google, Target, Salesforce.com and about three dozen other companies are also encouraging staff to participate in Hour of Code employee programs.

source

Top Keywords

10 best low-cost smartphones 10 of the best Android clock widgets out there 24k Samsung Galaxy Note 4 hits Vietnam 4K 5 best Android racing games Acer Alcatel Amazon Amazon Fire Phone Amazon Fire Phone Review Android Android 5.0 Lollipop Android factory reset Android One Android Wear Angry Birds apple Apple A8 Apple iPad Apple iPad Air 2 Apple iPad mini 3 apple iphone Apple iPhone 5s apple iphone 6 Apple iWatch Apple Pay Apple Store Apple Watch Apple’s iCloud Asus ASUS MeMO Pad 8 ME181C Review Asus ZenFone Asus ZenFone 5 Asus ZenFone 6 Asus ZenWatch best Samsung Galaxy Note 4 cases BlackBerry BlackBerry Classic BlackBerry Passport Bose Products Car and girls cases for iPhone 5s and iPhone 5 CEO Mark Zuckerberg CEO Tim Cook Computer Cortana costs $2000 Cyber Monday Deals 2014 Dell Dropbox Facebook FBI Flappy Bird Galaxy Note 4 Galaxy Note Edge Galaxy S Duos 3 Game Gigabyte Gionee Gionee Elife S5.1 Google Google Maps Google Maps with Apple Maps Google Nexus 6 Google Now Google Play HBO hp HTC HTC Desire 820 HTC Desire Eye HTC One (M8) HTC One M9 Huawei Huawei Ascend P7 Huawei IFA teaser Intel iOS iPad iphone iPhone 6 iPhone 6 Plus iPhone 6s iPhone 8 concept iPod IT iWatch Keyboards Kia Lamborghini Laptops Lenovo Lenovo Vibe X2 LG LG G Watch LG G Watch R LG G3 Linux Liquid Jade S LTE MacBook Air Meizu Meizu Blue Charm Note Meizu K52 Meizu MX 4 Meizu MX 4 Pro Meizu MX4 Pro memory Microsoft Microsoft Lumia 535 Microsoft Office Microsoft’s Quantum Mechanics MOTA SmartRing Moto G Moto X Moto X+1 Motorola Motorola Droid Turbo Motorola Moto 360 Motorola Moto G New Find My iPhone New iPhone 6 New iPhone app Steller mixes photos News Nexus Nexus 10 Nexus 5 Nexus 6 Nexus 7 Nexus 9 Nexus X Nokia Nokia Lumia 1020 Nokia Lumia 920 NoPhones Nubia 5S mini Nvidia Maxwell GPU Benchmarked Obama Office 365 OLED Olloclip for Samsung Galaxy S5 OnePlus Opera Oppo others Phones with the best battery life PlayStation Qualcomm Range Rover Review Samsung Samsung Electronics Samsung Galaxy A3 Samsung Galaxy A5 Samsung Galaxy Alpha Samsung Galaxy Alpha A3 Samsung Galaxy Alpha A5 Samsung Galaxy Alpha review Samsung Galaxy Core Prime Samsung Galaxy Mega 2 Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Samsung Galaxy S5 Samsung Galaxy S5 review Samsung Galaxy S6 Samsung Galaxy Tab Active Samsung Gear Blink Samsung Gear VR Sharp Siri Smartphones SmartWatch softwave Sony Sony Z3 Compact Sony Xperia C3 Sony Xperia C3 hands-on Sony Xperia SP Sony Xperia Z2 Sony Xperia Z3 Sony Xperia Z4 Sony Z3 Compact Sony's Xperia series Steve Jobs Tablets the best battery life The Crew Toshiba Toshiba Encore Toshiba Encore Mini Toshiba TT301 TV Twitter Twitter remembers Windows Phone UFS VAIO Video videos and text Vivo Vivo X5 Max WhatsApp Wikipedia Win one of five new LG G3s Windows Windows 10 Windows 9 Windows Phones WP8 Lumia Xiaomi xperia SP Yahoo ZenWatch ZTE ZTE Nubia Z9