The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (GI-KACE), has offered free Scratch training for 51 pupils from the Salem Oxford International School in Scratch during their educational visit to the Centre.
During the session, the facilitator, Rick Amoussou, introduced Scratch to the students who were between the ages of 11-16. The demonstration of the Scratch was an opportunity for pupils to have practical and hands-on experience when it comes to Coding.
Just as human languages have their own unique grammar and vocabulary, Scratch is a visual programming language that allows students to create their own interactive stories, games and animations. As these students design Scratch projects, they learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.
It could be recalled that The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT trained a section of kids in their Vacation Coding Class with the aim of impacting onto the next generation the requisite basic knowledge in the digital space. Teaching the youth how to programme, especially from an early age, opens up an entire world of opportunities for them to thrive and succeed.
As the saying goes, Technology is not an event, it is just part of everyday learning; hence the need to offer this free Scratch training to these kids was very crucial. Kids asked important questions and the right answers were provided with practical examples.
Students from the school were also taken through a session on Online Safety and Security to protect them from potentially harmful or inappropriate content and activities when using the internet for schoolwork and homework. We believe that as these kids are starting to be independent online and might go online unsupervised, there are more online safety risks for them. There are many risks if kids use the internet to communicate with others – for example, on social media or through games could encounter.
Kids were taught to be SMART, ‘S’ meaning Stay SAFE Online, ‘M’ means Don’t MEET people you don’t know, ‘A’ means Don’t ACCEPT files/items/friend requests from unknown individuals, ‘R’ means Not everything you see online is RELIABLE, T means Talk to trusted people when you need explanations.
In the end, students were given a comprehensive tour of the centre. Students were very happy and wished to be back for the next Vacation Coding Class in August.
The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE) offers the most fun and effective programme for learning Scratch, Robotics, Python and other IT courses.