News

Computer science for the rest of us

Teaching fellows and course assistants from CS50 lend a hand to the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement

Sally Martin has taken courses in dance, literature, and science as a student at the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement (HILR). But a computer science class? Martin was dubious about that.

“Truthfully, I asked my son if he thought I’d like it,” she revealed. “And he told me it looked like fun.”

Martin was one of a large group of HILR students who took a seat in a computer lab Tuesday (Aug. 31) to learn Scratch, a basic programming tool created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that allows users to produce interactive stories, animations, games, music, art, and more.

Teaching Scratch was a group of teaching fellows and course assistants from CS50: “Introduction to Computer Science I,” a popular Harvard course taught by David Malan, a lecturer on computer science.

Read the full article in the Harvard Gazette