The narrative that “doctor, lawyer, bank manager” are the main careers available to Caribbean students after school continues to be a thing of the past as IGT hosted a successful Coding and Robotics Rock! Camp for Level II with Level I participants will start soon.
We’re sure the new batch starting the introductory course in August will leave with an even greater appetite for the next level.
IGT established the regional Virtual Learning Camp in 2021 with an introductory offering through its After School Advantage (ASA) centers in Barbados, Jamaica, St Kitts & Nevis and Trinidad & Tobago. For 2022, this number increased to include Antigua as the newest participating country. IGT Coding and Robotics Rock! The camp engages young participants aged 11 to 18 from IGT After School Advantage Centers in Antigua, Barbados, St Kitts & Nevis, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago.
Youth participants recently completed IGT’s Coding and Robotics Rock Intermediate Level II course! Camp, and anticipation is high for the incoming students of his introductory Level I course in a few weeks.
IGT Regional Director for the Caribbean Brendan Hames said the project had grown tremendously since its inception. “We are delighted to renew this vital exercise and see many of the new participants from the initial cohort move on to new areas of digital knowledge and skills,” he said. “We are confident that the new cohort starting the introductory course in August will leave with an even greater appetite for the next level of the course.”
Dr Ava Maxam, Acting Chief Executive of the Mona Geoinformatics Institute (MGI) at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, said the institute was positive that the Level II intermediate training had helped instill in young people a assessment of potential. for them to start careers in the fields of coding and robotics.
“We have been able to provide students with a strong sense of the opportunities that are now available given the evolution of technology,” she commented. “And we know this will be an inspiration to them.”
Education specialist Nalini Ramsawak-Jodha from UWI, St Augustine campus, who provided curriculum development guidance to the MGI team, noted that the right mix of fun and learning was incorporated into the curriculum design to engage students in discussion and action regarding the region. growth and sustainability in line with the camp’s theme, ‘Coding Youth for a Sustainable Caribbean’.
“This year’s course design was carefully structured to meet the program objective and cater for all participants with different learning styles and interests. The topic of regional sustainability related to coding and robotics is a very broad one. We had to ensure that the lessons were of a friendly size that would make the students eager to learn and actively engaged in all aspects of the training,” she said.
While it included the HTML, CSS and JavaScript tools of the Level I course, the Level II course, delivered in two modules, took students into more complex web development and design functions, and also provided them with an introduction to intelligence artificial intelligence (AI). , including a brief history of the technology and moving into some of the most prevalent current applications, including voice, speech recognition, and autonomous vehicles. Students were required to complete a written exam and a practical assessment for each of the modules. Among the areas of testing were: basic terms in AI; real-world applications of AI; and applications of AI in the electronics industry.
In the practical assessment, students were asked to create a website; to introduce themselves and/or their area of interest on the site; to break down the different sections of the website and create a website for one or more of each of the categories in the previously created page. A group project focused on the development of intercultural sites (historical sites, sports facilities, etc.) as well as a CSS-centered exercise was also assigned and evaluated.
IGT, through its ASA program, has consistently played a leading role in increasing access to technology and Internet connectivity for youth in underserved communities. Since 2011, IGT and its subsidiaries have opened approximately 39 ASA computer labs throughout the English-speaking Caribbean. Through this and other initiatives, IGT aims to continuously raise the technological awareness of students and thereby prepare them to contribute to the social and infrastructural development of the Caribbean.
