Coding Global: A Digital Literacy Partners Forum
Coding Global was the second event of the mEducation Alliance 2020 virtual Symposia series on Play and Technology for Lifelong Learning and held on July 15, 2020. This event featured organizations working on education technology interventions that teach coding and computational thinking, particularly in low-resource settings.
The Alliance co-hosted this event with our partners of the Call for Ed Tech Responses to COVID-19, the EdTech Hub and the Global Innovation Exchange.
The first hour of this event showcased organization representatives who spoke about their specific global and/or national coding initiatives and soliciting input from a panel of respondents. The second hour was a roundtable discussion with representatives of several global organizations focused on global coding efforts. Roundtable topic discussions included: the relevance of such activities in light of COVID-19, highlighting opportunities for collaboration, and how to further democratize global and national coding efforts, particularly for lower-resource country context.
This Symposia event was part of a series of Digital Literacy Partner discussions which the Alliance will feature over the coming year.
Did you also know that July 15, 2020 was World Youth Skills Day? While the mEducation Alliance focused on one aspect of youth skills in Coding Global, the UN hosted an additional event centered around Skills for a Resilient Youth. To learn more, visit their virtual event page!
Agenda and Presenters
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Hour 1: Pitch Presentations
Micro:bit is a pocket-sized computer that inspires every child to create their best digital future. By combining hardware and software technology with creative exploration, children learn through play and discovery. Originally developed in the UK as a computing learning tool for students ages 8-14, the micro:bit is now in 70 countries helping students and teachers learn coding, computational thinking and making.
Presenter: Gareth Stockdale, CEO
Link for Slides
inABLE
utilizes computer assistive technology and training so blind and visually impaired students have opportunity to learn gain digital literacy and coding skills. Their work also includes advocating for the adoption of educational policy that supports the use of computer assistive technology in specials schools for the blind in Africa. They gave a presentation at the 2019 mEducation Alliance Symposium on coding labs for blind learners.
Presenter: Irene Mbari-Kirika, Founder and Executive Director
Link for Slides Video Demonstration
International Education Association
is a global organization that plays a leading role in enabling K-12 education to prepare students to become creative, collaborative, and productive citizens that will lead future economies and societies into a better and more equitable world. They gave a presentation at the 2019 mEducation Alliance Symposium on scaling coder-maker schools for Syrian refugees and host communities.
Presenter: Eliane Metni, President and Director
Link for Slides Video Demonstration
Ghana Code Club is an after-school program that teaches children computer programming skills. Children between ages 5-17 can join any of our Computer Science programs from Schools, Community Centers and Libraries to learn to create computer games, animations, interactive arts, websites and mobile apps.Ghana Code Club has gradually become champions for coding education in Ghana, driving results through program design and delivery, strategic industry and public partnerships, research and advocacy.
Presenter: Ernestina Appiah, Founder and CEO
Link for Slides
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Hour 2: Coding Roundtable
This hour will be a discussion amongst coding partners working in low-resource settings, led by moderators. Below are a list of organizations and the names of their roundtable representative.
Moderators
- Anthony Bloome, Senior Technology for Development Specialist, USAID and Founder, mEducation Alliance
- Scott Isbrandt, Director of Strategic Initiatives, mEducation Alliance
Organizations and Representatives
Click on each roundtable participant’s head shot for a short bio.
Cisco Foundation
Kyle Thornton
Cisco since 2007.
Began career with Accenture in Financial Services with American Experess; Consulting Education Services Sales & Solution Delivery P&L Executive; Corporate Social Responsibility Business Leader.
Proficient at leading distributed engineering teams from Europe, Africa, Latin America and South East Asia, and even working and living for a time in England.
Subject Matter Expert with over 20 years working in distributed global education solution delivery, operating/delivery models; content management and delivery models, proficient in hybrid-cloud architectures and BizDevOps product management; I view myself as complex problem solver.
Fun facts: I enjoy American Baseball, and I am an aspiring arborist.
Kyle Thornton – Portfolio Manager
Code.org
Leonardo Ortiz Villacorta
Leonardo is VP of International Partnerships for Code.org, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools and increasing participation by women and underrepresented minorities. His role is to drive partnerships with organizations from all over the globe, including governments, nonprofits and private entities, to scale Code.org´s mission by equipping students with the skills they need to better understand this new digital world and succeed in it.
Before joining Code.org, Leonardo held various communications, public affairs and corporate social responsibility roles at Microsoft Corp., including most recently Global Field Director for Microsoft Philanthropies. He started his career in Mexico, where he served as Deputy Press Secretary for the Department of Foreign Relations, Deputy Director for International Press at the Office of the President of Mexico, and Account Director for Edelman PR Worldwide. Born in Tijuana (Mexico), Leonardo has a BA in Communications from Universidad Iberoamericana and a postgraduate degree in Political Marketing from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). He is married, has three children, and is fluent in Spanish, English and has conversational skills in Portuguese.
Leonardo Ortiz Villacorta – VP of International Partnerships
IBM
John Matogo
John Matogo is the University Relations Leader for IBM in East Africa. John joined IBM in Sept 2014 bringing with him vast experience from the academic community in East Africa. His role involves leading IBM academic programmes with universities in countries in the Sub Saharan African region. Most recently he is also involved in steering the roll out of IBM’s Digital- Nation Africa platform (http://developer.ibm.com/africa )
John has been instrumental in forging collaborations of IBM with numerous institutions of higher education and ministries of education in the region. The outcome of the programmes initiated so far include having over 1000 certifications and over 5000 trained students and faculty members on the latest technologies including cloud, artificial intelligence, mobile, data science, cyber security and many more.
Prior to joining IBM, John was the founding Manager of @iBizAfrica, the business innovation centre at Strathmore University and a faculty member in the Faculty of Information Technology at the same institution, teaching software engineering and computing courses. He was instrumental in coordinating the first ever e-readiness survey of over 50 universities in East Africa while working with KENET. He is interested in the application of technology in educational environments and developing digital skills among young professionals. His research interests include: ICTs in education, ICT4D, Free & Open source software and Innovation & entrepreneurship.
His contribution to the local technology community was recognized at the iHub Tech Community Award ceremony on 8th March 2015.
John is a former Chair of the IEEE Kenya Section and a former board member of AfriLabs. He previously served as a Council member of the Free and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA). He is currently the IEEE Region 8 Action for Industry Africa Ambassador.
John Matogo – University Relations & Digital-Nation Africa Leader for East Africa
MIT Education Arcade
Scot Osterweil
Scot Osterweil is Creative Director of the Education Arcade and the Game Lab in the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program. He has designed games in both academic and commercial environments. Designs include the acclaimed Zoombinis series (math and logic), Vanished: The MIT/Smithsonian Game (environmental science), Labyrinth (math), Kids Survey Network (data and statistics), Caduceus (medicine), and iCue (history). He is a founder and Creative Director of Learning Games Network (www.learninggamesnetwork.org) where he led the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Language Learning Initiative (ESL), and where he designed Quandary, named Game of the Year at the 2013 Games for Change festival. He co-authored the book Resonant Games (MIT Press) and served as the play consultant on the Emmy Award winning Amazon TV series Tumbleleaf.
Scot Osterweil – Creative Director
Raspberry Pi Foundation
James Aslett
International Programme Manager for Code Club, a global network of free extra curricular coding clubs for young people. There are currently over 13,000 clubs in over 160 countries, supporting over 180,000 young people learning to code each week. I collaborate with NGOs, governments and educational institutions around the world to bring Code Club to more children in low-resource settings, and explore how the wider ecosystem of Raspberry Pi Foundation programmes can support those communities.
James Aslett – International Programme Manager
SAP
Sunil Geness
Sunil Geness is Director of Government Relations & Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP Africa. He has vast experience in private and public organizations. In his various capacities he has also represented the South African Government and SAP on numerous occasions at high level meetings and speaking engagements at the United Nations, European Union, European Commission, World Bank, African Union, BRICS and other multilateral agencies on a variety of topics. Geness has a passion for science, technology and innovation and began his career as a physical science and electronics teacher before he moved on to develop a wide range of experience in Government, Quasi-Government and Private sector organizations. These roles have included a policy and implementation making stint at the South African National Government, various roles in South African Government Provinces, a Government modernization role at the Department of Public Service & Administration, followed by a political advisory role at the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), before he was head-hunted by the German global software giant-SAP. Geness holds a Bachelor of Commerce (UNISA), Bachelor of Commerce Honours Cum Laude (UNISA), Master of Management (Witwatersrand), HED (Springfield College) and has been the recipient of scholarships for executive leadership programmes at leading global business schools in France( INSEAD), the United Kingdom (Birmingham) and the United States (Harvard in partnership with Wits). A keen advocate of sustainability and environmentalism, he received the World Wide Fund (WWF), One Planet Leaders, sustainability scholarship in 2009.
Sunil Geness – Director of Government Relations & CSR
UNESCO YouthMobile
Davide Storti
Davide is a UNESCO Programme Specialist, within the Communication and Information Sector which focuses on building inclusive knowledge societies. As UNESCO’s advocate for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), Davide works towards supporting Member States in developing Information literacy policies. He started UNESCO’s YouthMobile initiative in 2014 with the aim of motivating youth to participate in the digital revolution by changing their perception of technology. Programmer by training, through UNESCO YouthMobile, he oversaw the deployment of projects in over 35 countries around the world training on coding and digital skills for the empowerment of local communities. In addition, UNESCO YouthMobile supports since its early stage SAP in organizing Africa Code Week, one the largest coding event in the continent.
Davide Storti – UNESCO Programme Specialist
Additional Information
For additional information about this year’s Virtual Symposia Events, please contact us at medalliance@meducationalliance.org.
The mEducation Alliance Symposium is hosted annually by the the members of the mEducation Alliance . The Alliance was founded in 2010 and is an international collaborative effort between bilateral and multilateral donors, NGOs, foundations, private sector partners, and academic researchers. Our collective agenda is to: highlight and catalyze promising information and communications technology for education (ICT4E) practices and initiatives, particularly in low-resource and developing country context; to reduce duplicative efforts; to promote collective knowledge-sharing, and to identify and support efforts to evaluate and scale promising ICT4E interventions.
