Hack Jam comes to Pittsburgh this weekend, a local manifestation of a national movement for teens that is encouraging the younger generation of web users to become web producers, code writers and developers.
The force behind it, Mozilla, has created cool tools--like Thimble and X-Ray Googles--that not only help teens to learn, but teach digital literacy, says Dustin Stiver, program officer for The Sprout Fund.
Hack Jam will be held this Sunday, Sept. 23rd from 1-3 p.m., at the Carnegie Library in Oakland with computers and local experts available to mentor beginners and advanced youth coders. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday considering the many
local companies hiring in this field.
“It’s promoting web making in Pittsburgh,” says Stiver. “Helping to move us toward a more digitally literate society.”
Hack Jam will teach notions of gaming and webmaking, through mentoring, while raising an awareness that the web actually can be the basis of a viable career, Stiver adds.
Four super cool organizations have come together to make it happen:
Spark;
assemble, a new arts and tech venue in the Penn Avenue Arts District; The Labs @ Carnegie Library Pittsburgh and the Warhol.
Teens will also have a chance to score digital door prizes for showing up and cracking codes.
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Dustin Stiver, The Sprout Fund and Spark