Providing education to help young students learn the ins and outs of computer coding is especially important in an increasingly computer-driven world and, on Tuesday, Dec. 11, Family Code Night was officially launched in Rhode Island at Cranston’s Central Library to help further that very endeavor.

The Family Code Night grant was sponsored by Infosys, and the goal of the grant was to be able to train both school librarians and public library librarians in Family Code Night and host the event in three targeted diverse communities in Rhode Island (Central Falls, Cranston, and Providence), but the long term goal is that the ripple effect would be so great that the entire state would soon be trained and be hosting Family Code Nights.

“I am delighted to be here with so many of my partners today, including first and foremost, John Pearce the Executive Director of Family Code Night,” said Valerie Karno Associate Professor, Director; Graduate School of Library and Information Studies (GSLIS). “John and I are the very lucky recipients of an Infosys Foundation USA grant which has enabled us to partner with three libraries, the Cranston Public Library, the Providence Community Library, and Central Falls Adams Library to bring Family Coding events to underserved diverse populations in Rhode Island in the hope that eventually Rhode Island will become the first state to have every library offer Family Coding events and embed these critical skills for now and the future for successful Rhode Islanders.”

She introduced Cranston’s Public Libraries Director Ed Garcia, who welcomed the guests to the kick-off event and thanked so the many partners, including the URI GSLIS and the Cranston Family Center who helped to gather the group of families for the Family Code Night and who were giving away one book for every child participant.

“Being able to partner with the URI Graduate School of Library Information Studies is something that is very dear to my heart, being an alumnus of the school, and being able to bring this program and pilot the library version of this program to Cranston and be able to be launched throughout the rest of the state is really important for us and I think it’s going to be really fantastic,” Garcia said.

Mayor Allan Fung brought greetings and thanks from the city.

“This is a very innovative partnership and project that is going to help many of the families in our respective communities,” he said.

Fung thanked Garcia, the library system, the many partners around the city and from around the country who traveled to Cranston for the kick-off and for helping to ensure that the students of Cranston are prepared for the next generation.

“This is an honor to kick this off today, and I’m very happy to have you all here in our great city,” he said.

He spoke of the importance of coding and the future generations of students and families who will be using it in their daily lives as well as in the jobs of the future.

“This is something that is timely and much needed, as many of us spend way too much time on our computers and phones and whatever else, but coding is so critically important,” he said.

Karno introduced University of Rhode Island’s President Dr. David M. Dooley, who expressed his delight in the launch of the partnership between the University of Rhode Island, the state of Rhode Island and the Infosys Foundation.

“Thank you so much, Keith, for your vision and foresight to fund an initiative like this,” Dooley said. “We think it’s at the cutting edge of how we help our young people prepare not just to succeed, but to lead in the 21st century, to give them skills that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives and to capitalize on one of the greatest assets the world has ever seen, which is the public library as a source for that kind of learning.”

He described the partnership initiative as being very special and very timely and facilitated by an industry leader, Infosys, pushing people to gain the kind of information literacy they need to succeed in an increasingly hyperconnected 21st-century global society.

“Understanding technology, being able to use technology, as the kids who are going to learn how to do coding, has never been more important. In fact, you can say that understanding and being able to use that technology is going to be equally important to democracy thriving in the 21st century as universities and libraries.”

He also thanked Jeannette Riley, Dean of Arts and Sciences at URI for her contribution to the efforts at URI as well as Adam Roth of the Harrington School of Communication and Media. Both were present at the launch.

“It’s not me who drove this bus, it’s Valerie and Jeannette and Adam and their colleagues and we’re grateful,” he said.

Infosys Sr. Digital Strategist Keith Venkiteswaran spoke of the impact that early experience with coding had on him.

“When I was in elementary school I had the very good fortune, maybe it was luck, but I had access to a computer in our house and a very simple book on computer coding for kids. I remember doing a very simple call and respond so if you said hello it would say hello back and if you said a color name it would say it back. If you asked what time it was, the computer would tell you the time,” he said. “As simple as that was, what it did for me was it sparked that idea that you could train the computer to do things for you, it could amplify your vision, your imagination.”

He explained that Infosys is always looking for ways to bring people together in various disciplines, looking for synergies where things can be created from something that wasn’t there, such as the Family Code Night initiative and partnership.

Karno then introduced Karen Mellor, Chief of Library Services for Rhode Island, who expressed excitement over the office of Library Service’s involvement in the partnership and especially in the aspect of bringing together current librarians with those who are training to become librarians.

“This program is proven to work and it provides engaging and fun ways for families to learn about coding,” she said. “We are really excited because this is going to be the first opportunity to put this program in libraries. It’s been very successful in schools, but Rhode Island is going to be the first state to bring Family Coding to libraries across the state in some of our communities that don’t have these opportunities. We’re looking at this to bring informal learning opportunities to kids in an environment they’re comfortable in that’s not stressful. They can come in, have fun, both boys and girls.”

Mellor noted that 50 librarians were trained that day for Family Code Night from 20 libraries across the state.

“We’re also proud that this aligns with the governor’s priorities for STEM learning an providing Rhode Islanders with the skills they need both in school and when they go out looking for jobs,” she continued. “They’re learning skills that can last a lifetime. The library is such a wonderful place where this can happen.”

A video presentation from Senator Jack Reed followed, where he praised the Family Code Night initiative and recognized all those who made the event possible.

“Libraries today are so much more than books, computers and a place to gather. They must continually evolve with the changing times to provide innovative programming and services, boost learning and STEM education, promote the use of emerging technologies and developing new career pathways,” he said. “In Washington, I remain hard at work supporting libraries and I look forward to seeing this Family Coding project expand as we work together to strengthen library education programs and services to help secure a brighter future for all Rhode Islanders.”

John Pearce wrapped up the launch by stating that the current RI initiative was the best statewide effort Family Code Night has ever seen, as it involved bringing a group of leaders together to make Family Code Night happen at a library system across a state. He called it astounding and emphasized that it has never happened before.

“This is the first time we’ve ever seen a library system come together and a state brings its resources together to utilize this wonderful infrastructure of learning institutions throughout a state,” Pearce said.

He noted that Family Code Night matters and is different because it targets K-8 age groups.

“Those are the formative years when a child’s self-beliefs and competencies are formed and define the whole rest of the learning trajectories of their life, just like it did for you Keith,” he said. “So that age range is vital if we’re ever going to overcome the digital divide. The content for K-5 computer science is really simple and every kid who is addicted to a screen is going to lock into this right away, so there’s no problem to teach it. The last thing that’s important about it is that in this age range parents are magic. As anybody who has middle or high school students knows, we lose our magic power fairly quickly by the time they get older. In these years, the power of a parent joining in a learning experience wtih a child, validating that experience, passing the keyboard back and forth, sharing in the learning, they’re both learning an enormous amount and validating each other’s experience and it opens the door very differently to a child’s self-belief.”

The Cranston Family Code Night inaugural event followed the press conference, lasted for an hour, and included dinner before the event. The families were able to track their progress on program cards and could continue their learning at home by picking up where they left off, using their individual progress cards as a reference. Each family could work at their own pace, stopping periodically for Tip Time, where they would learn more about the computer science they were doing.

“Family Code Night teaches the computer science ideas that are in the Hour of Code activities,” Pearce said.

Families utilized the Family Code Night browser and begin their and the Blockly programming language.