How to get Involved in Africa Code Week

I recently attended a coding workshop as part of Africa Code Week. No, I’m not the IT guy at a school or on a career path towards becoming a programmer, but I do see that coding has huge potential to teach logic, mathematics and computer literacy. I also believe that Africa’s potential is untapped when it comes to this area of technology.

The course was hosted by the Cape Town Science Centre and run by SAP. It covered a form of coding called Scratch, developed by MIT. Entry to the course was free and geared towards teaching the teacher – no coding experience needed! What I discovered was a short, informative and equipping training session that totally changed my perspective on coding. My experience of Scratch was a lot like building a structure with Lego blocks or following a logical sequence of commands. The end result was a character on screen with personalised sound and backdrop that followed the instructions I’d put in place. I created a man that said ‘hello’ and then started skipping while a cat walked back and forth in the background – whenever they bumped into each other they would both let out a little yell. Considering that I have no coding experience and that we only had 45min – this was a big achievement!

I have since taught my nephew and son to code using Scratch – we made a soccer game with controllable characters. It’s very basic, but a working game nonetheless! With Scratch, gaming is educational rather than just entertaining.

Considering where technology is going, I believe basic coding is an invaluable skill to have. If you consider that Scratch is free and teaches logic, mathematics and language – you’ll wonder what you’re waiting for.

Africa Code Week in partnership with SAP and Scratch are inviting educators to host workshops and activities from October 15-23. Find out how you can get involved here.

John

September 8, 2016 | Categories: Education