A few hours ago, Facebook announced on its official blog that they are partnering with Sphero, in order to roll out the Facebook CodeFWD, which is a free online education program for educators to help them inspire their students to pursue computer programming. This partnership between the Facebook company and Sphero aims to increase the amount of underrepresented and female students interested in studying computer science.

Facebook says that the Facebook CodeFWD is one of its attempts to widen the pipeline of diverse talent studying computer science so the next generation of tech innovators reflects and incorporates diverse perspectives, building a future that benefits us all.

“Schools and learning communities are among the most important communities that we all belong to. At Facebook, we’re creating the programs, tools, and products to build diverse education communities that bring the world closer together.”

https://www.facebook.com/facebook/videos/295951660998583/

Facebook also points out that the CodeFWD is a three-step program, where educators and organizations introduce computer programming to 4th through 8th-grade students. These three steps are:

• I do: educators learning. CodeFWD prepares educators to introduce the basics of computer programming to their students, even as they may be discovering the concepts themselves.
• We do: educators and students learn together. The next set of online activities is designed for educators to use to introduce students to computer programming.
• You do: students practice their new skills. During this last set of activities, educators support their students as they take what they’ve learned and apply it to block-based coding exercises.

Moreover, Facebook will provide educators who want to continue developing their students’ coding skills using a tangible, hands-on product with a free classroom set of programmable robots from its partners at Sphero. They just need to apply to earn this free program after completing the previous three steps.

This Facebook CodeFWD education program will be available for both English and Spanish speakers, as confirmed by Facebook.