The City of Johannesburg’s Library and Information Services (LIS) has introduced coding activities in libraries particularly for the youth as part of spreading digital literacy. LIS introduced computer science through coding to children to help them understand the value of technology and ignite interest in studying computer science as adults.

Children in Region G’s Lenasia Ext 3 library were recently exposed to coding and they had fun and games throughout the training.

“We had to beg the children to leave the library in the afternoon. They were so engrossed and one could see the training has lit a spark in their lives. It’s such a joy teaching youngsters because their feedback is pure and unfiltered,” said one of the training facilitators.

Coding is about giving instructions to a computer and telling it what to do with rules that computers can understand. There are many names for people who code: coders, programmers, developers, computer scientists, and software engineers for example.

Lenasia Ext 3 library organised a small group of children from Grades 4 to 6 to train them on coding basics, using laptops, online resources, library books, and the tanks coding app and puzzles-based game.

The training workshop is scheduled to run for six weeks and is held for one hour every Thursday. In week one, the children were introduced to the basics of coding, benefits of coding, and an example of a programme.

From week two to week six, the training will focus on practicals during which children will be given exercises to familiarise themselves with visual programming language using the tanks app coding game.

“The group is very excited to be part of this workshop and it is envisioned that they will share their knowledge with other children, and more of the coding groups will be formed in other nearby libraries. This digital literacy programme demonstrates how libraries are contributing to smart citizenry,” said the training facilitator.

Written by Ayanda Radebe

05/10/2022