A series of digital code camps in the Pacific are aimed at engaging learners in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and coding activities, as Indigenous learners are underrepresented in the technology industry.
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Close to 100 young students from Papua New Guinea and Samoa have been selected to participate in these code camps, to build on their knowledge and awareness of STEM topics and inspire a potential career in digital technology.
The code camps, called "Indigitech: Pacificode," are sponsored by Pacific Cooperation Foundation (PCF) and run by a collaboration of some of New Zealand's top education and technology providers including Code Avengers, Flying Labs PNG, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Education Perfect, who collectively provide educational equipment, technology devices, and teaching resources.
Code Avengers Chief Operations Officer Ray Allen said they sell software programmes to schools to help teachers teach digital technology efficiently to their students.
"Digital technology is a new subject and with a shortage of teachers and a shortage of new teachers coming through, not all teachers have the background knowledge in that field.
"Amazon has been a great collaborator, providing technology and cloud training resources to support Code Camps.
"Their involvement aligns with their commitment to skills. They have a strong belief that a digitally-skilled workforce is critical to accelerating innovation, and they are passionate about investing to build new skills as a means of driving economic growth and job creation," he said.
The first code camp ran at Port Moresby International School in Papua New Guinea with 20 students. There were delivered over three days, the camps blended cross-curricular, and culturally responsive project-based learning to provide students with hands-on experience of creating a digital outcome.
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Students created a health-themed video game and designed their own webpage to showcase their newly acquired coding skills.
"Covid-19 is a big issue in PNG at the moment and so we worked that topic into the programme for the students," Allen said.
An interesting finding Allen and his team found was the survey results of the participating students. Code Avengers looked at the interest growth in digital technology and gender participation.
"The metrics were positive, where majority of the students who took part in the code camps had their interest in subject elevated.
"When it came to gender, over 50% of those students were female, which is great because that's an area that's underrepresented, so Indigenous people are underrepresented in STEM and in particular Indigenous females," he said.
Dr Nathan Ross, Deputy New Zealand High Commissioner, who supports the code camps through Pacific Cooperation Foundation said the initiative brings people together and helps drive the economic prosperity by generating new ideas, new industries, new creative platforms and with it new opportunities for people to connect to the world.
"By teaching skills like coding, we equip the next generation of young Papua New Guinea students with the skills to fully participate in an expanding global sector that will shape future generations to come," Ross said.
The second code camp in Papua New Guinea took place in rural Sabusa primary school, located in Central Province.
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The camps were led by Kevin and Sophia Soli from Flying Labs PNG, who are currently training to become Code Avengers Certified Facilitators.
Kevin Soli said PNG is part of a global village, which is complex, interconnected and rapidly changing due to vast amounts of digital information and that is why these code camps are important.
"Our children, the future workforce needs to be digitally literate for opportunities within the digital ecosystem and economy and most importantly being socially responsible citizens.
"Children need to be educated about the opportunities and especially how to mitigate risks that might endanger them while sharing personal information publicly," he said.
More code camps are planned for Samoa in the coming weeks, which will be led by E3 Rural Trust - a charitable organisation aimed at connecting rural communities and schools to the Internet.
Allen said his team created a programme for their code camp around the interests of the Samoan students.
"We have made the characters in the programme look like them and feel more like home for the students.
"The Samoan teachers informed us that fishing, gardening for the family and the Olympics were the current interests of the children and so we built those topics into the programme.
"We have donated refurbished laptops and Google chrome books for the staff in Samoa to ensure we have ongoing training and support for them as through our initial interaction with them we learnt they had a lack of devices," Allen said.