“So,
these workshops are to keep them interested and to expose them to new
techniques in coding and hopefully, over time, they can develop clubs and
ultimately to get more young ladies coding”
Minister of State in
the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Hon. Julian Robinson
explaining the Girls who Code Workshops held on Saturday November 15th
and Saturday November 22nd 2014
Girls
who Code is on the move with more workshops being held and coming in the future!
During
the workshop, a continuation of the Jamaican Girls Coding 2014 Summer Camp, the
“young ladies” as State Minister in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy
and Mining Julian Robinson calls them are being taught the following Coding
Skills:
1.
Website Programming Languages
2.
Animation
3.
Smartphone App Design
4.
eCard Design
They've
been joined by Halls of Learning, who are the ones providing the
training at the workshops held on Saturday November 15th and
Saturday November 22nd 2014. This training workshop was a follow up
to the month-long Inaugural Jamaican Girls Coding 2014 Summer Camp held in
August 2014 as mentioned in my blog article entitled
“Jamaican
Girls Coding 2014 - How Girls Who Code Club at MICO can earn females JA$100,000
per month as Computer Programmers”.
The
hope is that by exposing females to computer programming, they'll realize that
careers are possible in the soon-to-start ICT (Information Computer Technology)
Sector and start programming clubs called Girls Who Code Clubs.
Support
for this initiative was expressed best by Musson Foundation Deputy Chairman,
Melanie Subratie, quote: “When these girls are in charge of their own coding
clubs, we are hoping that these 10… will mushroom into 250 girls coding. So
we’re looking forward to competitions, curricula, and for it to last long and
be successful in the schools that it rolls out into. If can get these girls and
they set up coding clubs in their schools, we will sponsor as many as we can,
and in five years time, can you imagine the multiplier effect!”
Aged
between 11 to 15 years, they are the first test pilots,
Evangelion Style, for an ambitious drive to get females interested in
high-paying jobs in the ICT Sector, which they might end up building as a pure
Computer Programming and Software Design industry doesn’t really exist in
Jamaica as explained in my blog article
entitled “International
Girls in ICT Day - How Women can jump-Start Jamaican ICT Industry from Call
Centers, Telecom Providers and NDA's”.
So
this is a step in the right direction, as females may be the ones who'll actually
create the ICT Sector in the next five (5) years.
Girls Who Code Clubs
eCard Project - Why females are best suited for Software Coding
Rarely
are females Kinesthetic or Visual, as on the MICO University College I’m yet to see
any female taking an interest in doing the Pure Sciences as well as Electrical
and Mechanical Engineering Courses.
It
seems that the general predisposition of males as evidence by how well the TIS
(Tablet in Schools) Project is working to keep their attention and increasing
their participation in class as argued in my blog article
entitled “TIS
Project a Success with Boys - JA$9000 for Subsidized Tablets as TIS Project
replaces 600,000 Students School Books with e-books come September 2015”.
Hopefully,
being exposed to computer programming at this age will predispose them to
choosing Computer Programming, Information Technology and possibly Networking
as career options in the future. So says Musson Foundation Deputy Chairman,
Melanie Subratie, quote: “The Government has really put Jamaica at the
forefront of technology in education with this project, with the Tablets in
Schools project, and StartUp Jamaica. Jamaicans are incredibly creative and
this can only help the country’s development”.
Developing
a natural love for programming is also easier among females, being as they are
very control-oriented in their view of their environment i.e. they like the idea
that they can program thing to do what they want and how they want it. So says
Founder of Halls of Learning, Marvin Hall, quote: “The level where they can now
write a programme or develop an application that does something, that’s the
level we want to get them to. Coding is what gives you command over the
computer”.
But
the TIS Project might spark their interest in designing content for Tablets in
the future, now that they're getting the exposure to Tablets and they possess
these new found programming skills:
1.
Animation
2.
Robotics
3.
Smartphone App Design
4.
Video Game Design
5.
Website Programming Languages
Of
particular interest to females are the field of Animation, Video Game Design
and Robotics.
All
three are similar, in that Coding is required to instruct the software on how
to manipulate the objects, be they sequential images (Animation), characters in
a game based on feedback from the player (Video Game) or response to external
stimuli through its various Sensors (Robotics).
These
fields hold the potential for fairly large levels of remuneration, often as
high as JA$100,000 per month and the potential for travel abroad. Females make excellent
ambassadors for Jamaica's ICT Sector and gradually by formation of the Girls
who Code clubs, it'll encourage their adoption of Coding as a career thereby
encouraging other females to enter a field that gives them control over their environment,
be it virtual or real.
Girls Who Code Clubs –
Participants already passing on their knowledge
This
year, the State Minister in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and
Mining Julian Robinson will select an eCard from among those being made by the
girls to be sent out electronically as part of the Ministry's traditional. It's
the ultimate expression of faith in the project, to quote the State Minister in
the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Julian Robinson: “We will brand it as a ‘Girls who Code’ project”.
Already
it seems to be taking rot with the females who’ve participated in the program.
Grade seven student at Dunoon Park Technical High school, Aleeka Sherrington
states that they've already started a Girls Who Code club at her high school,
quote: “You can produce your own games and create your own movie. We have
already formed a club at my school and we are now ready to start going through
all the processes".
Her
elder sister Nakeisha Rhoden, was so desirous to enter the program that she
begged to join. She's evidence that females like the idea of manipulating and
controlling their environment, quote: “The whole programme is very interesting
as it shows you how to develop from scratch, movies, cards and other things.
Without this programme an object on the computer can’t move unless you give it
a command, it is so precise”.
But
the real diamond in the rough, a grade seven student at the Merle Grove High
School, Diamond Brown, has already become an evangelist for the Girls Who Code
Project, already teaching her immediate family and may potential be their first
President for the Club, quote: “It makes you learn how to build your own games
and do animation and ecards. When I go back to school, I will teach my friends
how to build their own games and do animation. I’ve already started to teach my
family, my cousins in 8th and 7th grade and they like it”
I
certainly like the sound of that. Hopefully too, there may also be a Girls Who
Code Club being formed at the MICO
University College to teach girls how to code, taking advantage of the
e-Learning Lab that is already on Campus.
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