CodeBus Africa is a mobile programming school that moves through 10 African countries in February–May 2017, organising creative coding workshops for up to 2,000 youth. The CodeBus project is on the road and has already been to Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, with the next stop being Tanzania. The project has had a positive reception in its target countries as well as Finland.
The 1-day coding workshops expose youth to the world of information technology in a fun and playful way. In pairs, the youth create their own songs using Sonic Pi, an open source musical programming environment. The youth receive immediate auditory feedback for each line of code they write, resulting in a motivating and rewarding experience that both builds self-confidence and encourages them to explore technology further. The self-expression based concept breaks stereotypes about technology and extends conceptions of its uses. The workshops are especially targeted at girls and marginalised youth to support equal opportunities in technology.
CodeBus is coordinated by Aalto Global Impact and it is part of the official Finland 100 programme. The initiative has a broad partner network, including the project’s main sponsor Nokia, mehackit, Finnish embassies in the target countries and over 15 African tech hubs, educational institutes, NGOs and private companies. By working closely with local actors, CodeBus aims to boost cooperation between Finnish and African innovators in the long-term.
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This post was written by Roope Kiviranta
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