Code the lingo of digital age

CODING has been described as a superpower and a literacy of the digital age that all children should learn.

Hudson Park Primary partnered with Fundani to host the very first coding workshop at two schools in Mdantsane this week.

Fundani is a non-profit organisation that teaches children in township schools how to use computers.

Hudson Park introduced the international Africa Code Week programme to the Eastern Cape last year.

A similar programme is also run in Europe known as “Europe Code Week”, which encourages citizens to learn more about computers and aims to bring coding and digital literacy to everybody in a fun and engaging way.

The East London school has been hard at work this year to grow the programme. They hosted two “train the trainer” coding sessions with Theresa Felino from the Cape Town Science Centre to capacitate and empower local teachers.

During the September school holidays, Hudson also trained 17 education students through a “train the trainer” workshop at the University of Fort Hare.

During Africa Code Week, which took place between October 18 and 25, all Hudsonians learnt how to code during their regular computer classes and further hosted afternoon workshop for children from Greensleeves Place of Safety.

Hudson Park teacher and edtech integrator Megan Skelly said Africa Code Week hoped to inspire pupils and the broader community to programme computers. The programme currently runs in 35 countries across Africa and last year reached half a million children.

“Computers are everywhere and are used to do just about everything, so we need people who are able to use them to always develop and make everyday life easier.

“We started Code Week with a couple of schools around East London such as Hudson Park, Clarendon Prep, Lilyfontein and Stirling and this year, together with Fundani, we were able to take the workshop to Gcobani Secondary and Mzimkhulu Senior Primary School in Mdantsane.”

Skelly said that over 500 pupils and teachers from the two schools finally got the chance to use computers that had been donated to the school but never before used. Each pupil spent about an hour in front of the computer learning this skill.

“The school had computers that were donated but were not being used because teachers and pupils did not know how to use them.

“By hosting this workshop we had the opportunity to empower teachers and pupils so they can use the computers,” she said.