Think Ahead hosts Everyone Can Code Summit

Think Ahead Education Solution Company hosted 120 school teachers in Braamfontein on 16 March to prepare them for the future of digital coding.

Think Ahead equips various public and private school teachers with cutting edge technology which can be utilised and taught in their respective classrooms.

The summit was held at Wits University’s Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct and over 120 teachers from 40 schools across the country attended.

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Teachers were equipped with coding, also known as programming, skills which they can use to teach in their computer science subjects in schools.

This will help teachers prepare their children for today’s world of technology, said Think Ahead’s managing director, Michelle Lissoos. She said the summit aimed to equip teachers to be digitally literate and to inspire them to use coding as part their curriculum.

“Coding is the new digital language and we want to inspire them to understand it and to be able to teach it in their classrooms,” she said.

“We want to train the teachers to become digitally literate and make them understand how coding works in today’s world.

“This is also to encourage schools to treat this as a priority because coding has become a new digital language which will [equip] children to be employable in the future.”

There were various sessions that focused on coding as a subject which specialists said will benefit them and their schoolchildren in future.

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Mineze Grobler, 21st-century learning coordinator at Think Ahead, talked about a swift-ground application which she explained is a new computer language.

She said the language is, however, used for the Apple Company’s environment, adding that it prepares learners for the future that does not exist yet, and used cellphones as an example of how technology grows.

“Technology is moving very quickly and we don’t know what’s next in the future. Swift-ground is a powerful platform,” she said.

Software developer, Lee Watkins from Glucode Company, said software developers do not work in isolation. He said, “It is important to be able to interact with people. There’s lots of fun, it’s challenging but also rewarding.”

St Mary’s Girls School teacher, Linda Bradfield was encouraged by the summit and said she found it very interesting. “We’ve been doing coding for over four years but I’m still encouraged by the speakers here even though we do similar things in our school. Coding is the subject of the future and I found these sessions very informative.”

Lissoos said this is an ongoing programme and schools that wish to register for it can visit their website on www.thinkahead.co.za.

Details: Michelle Lissoos michelle@thinkahead.co.za

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