HARLINGEN — Luis Aguilar leaned closely toward the computer.
Bits of code ran down the screen, mute pieces of a page that would soon appear in cyberspace.
“I have always been interested in coding,” said Luis, 18, a senior in Edwin Guardaramma’s class at Harlingen High School.
“I was in this other class and I asked to be in this class,” Luis said. “Right now I am learning how to make a navigation bar, how to navigate pages on this website.”
The course, Exploring Computer Science, is part of Teach for America’s Computer Science Initiative to encourage more interest in the subject.
“It’s a good introduction to web page design,” said Guardaramma, a Teach for America instructor.
“They are building websites,” he said.
Teach For American has started to offer the class Exploring Computer Science, which is distinctly different from digital literacy. More people have digital literacy than computer literacy. They are two very different disciplines, said Jonathan Stevens, managing director of Teach for America for the Rio Grande Valley.
Digital literacy is the ability to use digital devices such as iPads and iPhones to download information, understand it and analyze. Computer science involves web design, program, animation, problem solving and robotics.
The students in Guardaramma’s class were using CSS – Cascading Style Sheets – a tool for adding fonts, colors and spacing to their websites. This is the first year Exploring Computer Science course is being offered as part of Teach For America’s Computer Science Initiative.
Kickboxing, Jiu-Jitsu and MMA graced the computer screen in front of Marissa Perez, 17, a senior. She was learning how to link her web page to this page where users could find updates to the latest activities at Marine Military Academy.
“I am trying to find different links for different things,” said Marissa. “I’m using CSS to do that. I like it. All three of these, they have different links. It’s really easy to learn.”
The course had drawn the interest of a broad range of students. Jose Mares planned to go into law enforcement, but he thought a working knowledge of computer science would come in handy.
“Different types of knowledge will expand my knowledge as well,” he said.
If knowledge is power, then students in Guardaramma’s class, as well as other computer science classes spreading across the
[Source:-Valley Star]