awarenet Open Lab learners were treated to an overseas visit from the Center for Information and Communication Technology at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Italy. They were at the Joza Youth Hub to train some of our learners in programming, using Blockly games instead of frontal teaching. Despite heavy rain there was a high turnout of children between the ages of 8 and 14 who were interested in this exciting programme which combines play with serious learning of programming skills.
The two programming sessions were great fun both for the children, the Italian visitors and the awarenet team who were were assisting them. We plan to continue the programming course with the use of Blockly and other tools, hopefully we will then lay the foundation for a future cohort of programmers made in Joza township, Grahamstown!
We have now also introduced Blockly games in our other computer sessions at local township schools and the other learners were just as excited about it.
Here you can have a look at a video we made about the course.
