As part of EU Code Week and Digital Week, the not-for-profit organisation CodeNPlay is offering classes for primary school children in years 3 to 6 to learn programming and coding. It is an opportunity to introduce children to computer thinking and to sensitise their teachers to digital education.
Learn how to control a small robot in 1 hour 40 minutes. This was the challenge taken up by pupils from the school "Les Marronniers" in Anderlecht and School 5 "Ket & Co" in Molenbeek. Supervised by activity leaders and using paper and felt-tip pens, the children learned in a playful and interactive way how to create a code to control a robot themselves. "
We're getting really good feedback from the schools. The children are having fun and are curious to understand how it works. The feedback from teachers and principals is also positive," says Dimitri Krings, co-director of CodeNPlay.
Launched in 2017, CodeNPlay has set itself an ambitious goal: to educate all children in digital literacy, by helping primary schools integrate an introductory coding programme and technology into their curricula.
Throughout the year, the association organises extracurricular activities for children, but also courses and other events. To do so, it works with a team of activity leaders that are trained in its pedagogical tools and methods. Among them are many student teachers, the future baton bearers of this digital dynamic in schools.
Because that is indeed the objective: to perpetuate these actions in the long run. This is why the not-for-profit also and above all proposes to train teachers. "
The workshops in schools are a good opportunity to create a link with the schools and to develop a longer term collaboration. Our aim is to raise awareness, train and support teachers so that technology is given a real place in the school curriculum. We give them examples of concrete tools and activities to carry out in class and we then follow-up to give them confidence," explains Nadine Khouzam, founder and co-director of CodeNPlay.
These workshops are also part of the Digital Inclusion Policy of the Brussels-Capital Region. Indeed, they are mainly aimed at schools with a low socio-economic index, where the risk of a digital divide is higher. Three more schools will benefit from this experience in the coming weeks.
