Musson Foundation promotes coding skills with Hour of Code 2018

For the third year running, the Musson Foundation and tech-based social enterprise Halls of Learning have joined forces to offer computer coding workshops for Jamaican students.

The week-long schedule of activities was facilitated in six primary schools around the Corporate Area from December 3-9.

A total of 400 students and eight teachers were guided through the workshops by Marvin Hall and members of the Halls of Learning team, who engaged them in exciting coding activities using the SWIFT Playgrounds app, freely available for iPad tablets.

The students moved through several interactive challenges that taught them fundamental computer-science concepts like commands, sequences, functions, loops and syntax.

The participants comprised grade-five and -six students from Drews Avenue Primary, Seaward Primary, St Patrick's Primary, and St Peter Claver Primary, as well as 72 students from Union Gardens Infant School and Western United Basic School.

Global movement

Hour of Code is a global movement in more than 180 countries designed to introduce children to computer science through hour-long coding sessions and various community activities.

Its aim is to demystify coding to show that anybody can learn the basics and to broaden participation in the field of computer science.

So far, more than 670 million people have participated in the initiative, and in 2018 alone, 205,000 events were registered in participating countries.

The event generally takes place each year during Computer Science Education Week, which this year lasted from December 3-9.

Commenting on the importance of programs like Hour of Code to the overall development of Jamaica's children, Marvin Hall said, "I believe that every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science; it helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity".

Musson Foundation head Melanie Subratie added, "Teaching tech skill from a young age is an important part of preparing our children to be the future leaders, builders, and innovators of Jamaica. All around the world, students are being immersed in computer science, and it is important that we ensure our children are not left behind".

The Musson Foundation supports programmes promoting the development of Jamaica's youth. Other initiatives supported include technology-training workshops for teachers, Outreach Day robotics and coding workshops, and the Jamaican Girls Coding programme.