Stay-at-Home Programming; Artist Employs Youth to Be Actors in the Online Space
During this time of distancing, parents have been thrust into the role of a teacher. It is essential to provide parents with the resources to support students. For many children, now is a unique opportunity to learn new skills, as it is rare to find a significant amount of free time during the school year. Coding is used in our daily lives. Teaching computational literacy and digital hygiene to youth allows them to engage and create within online spaces.
Meghan Jackson, the artist in residence at the City of Port Coquitlam has brought in the instructors at Kids Innovative to teach simple computer hardware and software fundamentals through the Scratch & micro: bit program originally created by the BBC and Microsoft. People can access the free virtual programming from their homes by signing up at on the Kids Innovative website. The virtual programming is for ages 7 - 15-year-old and there is no limit to the number of participants. Scratch & micro: bit has a software made available to the public, and the teachings is made free through Innovative Kids for the duration of the workshops.
“We’re working with community centres who have shown a keen interest in integrating our online programs.” The founder of Kids Innovative, Hillina Ghulam Nabi, has provided the resources for young people to begin their coding journey.
“Social distancing is critical in order to protect each other. However, this has parents feeling anxious about their children’s extracurricular activities. It’s important that we offer interactive sessions to allow students to share ideas, socialize in a safe environment, and bring hope through supporting one another in this uncertain time."
Quick facts
The virtual programming workshop offered by Innovative Kids is free. The purpose for this program is to eliminate barriers to learning to code. The workshops are open to kids in age 7 - 15 years old, and there is no limit to the number of participants who can sign up.
Dates
April, 15th 12:30 - 1:30 pm PDT
April, 22nd 12:30 - 1:30 pm PDT
Contacts
For more information, or media enquiries, please contact:
