James Crook, Dublin Science Gallery - Tips for running a Dojo


 * Keep it fun.
 * Mentors give up their precious Saturdays for free because they enjoy it. So make it fun for the mentors.  If they are enjoying it, they'll come back, and the children will enjoy the dojo too.


 * Inspire, don't lecture.
 * A 'standard prepared lesson' is hard work to prepare, and does not work. The children are all at different levels.  No single lesson fits all.  Technical mentors tend to overload the children when they lecture.  I've seen a mentor deliver HTML + CSS + Javascript + cross-browser-compatability + particle physics to a class that were still figuring out how to use cut and paste on the text editor.  The only children who 'did well' were the ones who copied verbatim what was up on the projector.  Wasn't fun.  Wasn't much useful learning.  Using a complex example and focusing in on one aspect can work well.


 * Plenty of Mentors.
 * It is so much easier when there are plenty of mentors. It reduces stress on each mentor.  There's time to chat with other mentors and see what is really going on.  You should feel the dojo will go on running just fine, if you are away from it for a couple of weekends.


 * Reduce the need for Adult mentors.
 * Get children asking each other questions and working in teams. Encourage them to mentor.  Show children doing HTML w3schools so that they can start teaching themselves.  Explain to them that they will learn far more and faster if they learn how to teach themselves.  Teach them how to use internet searches effectively to find out answers.  Ask them the questions that lead you to solutions, and encourage them to start doing this themselves.


 * Share Work from the Start
 * Get parents involved in helping sort all the admin things, get children mentoring early on. It is much harder to 'retrofit' to a dojo once it has been up and running for a while.


 * Cater for Beginners.
 * It is most unlikely that you want to run an 'elite' dojo that is only for the high fliers. You want to have activities such as HTML or Scratch where all children can get results right away.  I prefer the route Scratch first, then HTML, then javascript in HTML, then other languages.  I've too often seen going straight to python in a dojo not working, with the same information repeated over and over lecture-style.  The beginners class can and should have demos of quite challenging projects to inspire children to try harder things.


 * Experiment with the format.
 * We've introduced debating on technology topics in the dojo. It works very well.  We invited a speaker from bitsmith games to talk about making games.  Some months later a group of children had self organised to use the Unity SDK (free download) to learn about writing their own games.  We tried using Udacity to build on python.  That didn't work out.  We've tried teamwork in fours after of a very good session at Bridge21 run by their mentors.  It didn't work for us in the lecture theater, and we need to iterate and adapt or drop that format.  We ran robotics, when we had a specialist mentor to run it.  It's too much, for us, to do when he is not here, so we don't.


 * Be Tolerant.
 * You will meet people along the way who have very strong views, and where they don't agree with you, they are obviously wrong. No?  People do CoderDojo because they care.  You'll meet lovely people, and people who are a bit nutty.  Be ready for it.


 * Have Children Show Their Work.
 * Have some children show their work near the end of the dojo. Showing the work to other children can help to inspire other children with new ideas they would not have thought of.


 * Network
 * Make contacts with other dojos. Ideally work with other dojos.

Currently Working on
April 2014 - Working on:


 * Increasing the number of children who mentor.
 * Getting more parents involved in helping.
 * Improving the child protection foundation.