Education #WDC405

4th Event: ​Education

Preparing our youth for a future in software 

Join us for a discussion on Teaching Programming at Schools facilitated by Mr. Alen Ribic

This event will include teachers, programmers and policy makers with the aim of contributing to a position paper the IEEE is preparing to put to the Department of Basic Education (DBE).

The Round Table seeks to use the IEEE as an independent authoritative technical body to propose a way forward to the DBE.

Venue: Rhenish Girls' High School, Stellenbosch (directions here)

RSVP: here or here           More Info about #WDC405: here

Date: 15th July 2014

Time: 12h00 for 12h30. Finishes 13h30. There will be coffee afterwards.

Live streaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4LMQrtOhPs

Sponsors:  

IEEE Computer Society  

Rhenish Girls' High School  

Korwe Software

Final agenda:

•    Into IEEE/WDC
•    Intro Alen Ribic
•    Presentation on Teaching Programming at Schools (20 min)
•    Computer literacy in the 21st century
•    Learning to code at a young age
•    The right age to engage
•    Programming languages and basic education
•    Beyond just technology consumers
•    Round Table discussion (20 min)
•    Closing statement (5 min)
 

This is the 4th #WDC405 event (see here for more info on the World Design Capital) 

More About our facilitator:

Alen Ribic

Alen is a programmer, entrepreneur and activist.

He recently engaged the Department of Basic Education with a petition to reconsider their intention to impose the use of Delphi on schools.

http://www.change.org/petitions/re-evaluate-the-implementation-plan-for-...

More information:

petition to re-evaluate the implementation plan for standardising to Delphi over Java was a great initiative and managed to achieve the goal of having the Circular S9 of 2013 withdrawn. However, now as South African programmers and teachers we need to come up with a constructive proposal.

The next step is to hold discussions where stakeholders can give input that will inform the approach going forward. In order to facilitate this, the IEEE have helped organise an event on "Teaching Programming at Schools". The intention is to get together key decision makers and thinkers from the software industry and schools. Suggestions made during this event will contribute towards a green paper that will be presented to the Department of Basic Education.

The provisional agenda is as follows:

* Introduction: Importance of computer literacy in the 21st century
* The importance of learning to code at a young age
* What is the right age to engage
* Elements of a programming language for beginners
* Teaching students to be creators of technology and not just the consumers
* Closing statement

We would like to invite you to take part in this event, either as an observer or to give your input on this topic. Please also forward this invitation to other relevant stakeholders.

Limited seating available.

We would like to invite other organisations to collaborate with Alen Ribic. The tenor of our engagement is as professional programmers and educators collaborating to communicate alternative scenarios to the government. This will ensure that the best decisions can be made on teaching our children.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Download invite.

Conclusion

You can find Alen's presentation here, the introduction here, the presentation is on You Tube and notes to the presentation are still coming.