WITH a goal to bridging the digital divide by introducing coding to learners in a fun and inclusive manner, Tangible Africa has set its sights on Asia, where their team is currently busy conducting workshops on tactile coding with teachers from Indonesia.
Tangible Africa is an engagement project of the Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department and the Leva Foundation.
No stranger to introducing the concept of tactile coding to teachers and learners across the globe, the proudly South African and Gqeberha-headquartered Tangible Africa uses offline tools and online mobile gaming components in a fun and easy-to-understand manner, to introduce coding concepts to the youth.
Indonesia, through the Sukma Foundation, is the first country in Asia to collaborate with Leva Foundation, and one of the Tangible Africa coding games, known as Rangers. It has been translated into Bahasa, which is a language spoken by nearly 180 million people.
In a national television interview, Executive Director of the Sukma Foundation, Ahmad Baidhowi, said that the collaboration with Tangible Africa was a very valuable partnership for his foundation.
“This collaboration will have implications for improving teacher and student quality,” he said.
Leva Foundation CEO Ryan le Roux agreed teachers are instrumental in closing the digital divide.
“The Sukma Foundation has a great network of schools and a history of making a difference over the past 18 years. They also have a huge focus on teacher training. We believe the teacher is the heartbeat of the classroom. If you have strong teachers, they will influence the children and this will have an exponential effect,” said Le Roux.
Tangible Africa Engagement Manager, Jackson Tshabalala, said that after training in Jakarta and Aceh this week, a further three workshops will be conducted at Yogyakarta, Surakarta, and Semarang, and other regions in the Republic of Indonesia.
“These teachers will in turn roll out the programme in their regions. Our project’s adaptability across cultures is truly inspiring. From Africa to Europe to Asia, the power of hands-on, playful coding transcends borders. The excitement from teachers is contagious. They are demystifying coding concepts and eager to bring this transformative experience to their learners,” said Tshabalala.
“This project is the ideal stepping stone before formal coding instruction. We have got three more workshops to go, and the momentum keeps building!” he said.
Sukma Foundation Director for Institutional Partnership, Satia Zen, attended the training in Aceh this week and said the trainers experienced some apprehension before they started the workshops.
“When we started the training initially, we had a lot of fear and anxiety because we don’t know what it is, and it scares us. As we got to know what coding is, I think we realised it is very easy, accessible, and possible. I am looking forward to using the games and fun to teach tangible coding to our students in Indonesia,” said Zen.
To date, Tangible Africa has trained teachers in 13 countries across Europe and Africa.
For more info about Tangible Africa, contact Professor Jean Greyling at Jean.Greyling@mandela.ac.za or Jackson Tshabalala at jackson@levafoundation.org.
