Technology demands in Uganda are changing. 30% of students who join university for ICT courses have less or no knowledge of technical experience regards to programming. Schools in the city have tremendously benefited from the technology and ICT boom that is sky rocketing leaving rural areas of Uganda untapped and unexposed to the demand of ICT skills and training.
Imagine students dreaming to become computer geeks and programmers but are shadowed by the environment characterized by inadequate resources and human capital to expound this knowledge. The education curriculum exist in a world radically secluded from information, knowledge production and dissemination, and learning as it exists town schools.
ILICIT Africa zooms you to the rural school of Lango College, in Lira district – Northern Uganda. ILICIT Africa in partnership with Hack School Uganda and Arduino will be carrying out the first technology camp in Lira at Lango College.
Students with a passion to interact and build their capacity in ICT and Embedded system development will gain skills in the 3 days camp starting 17th August 2015.
Ever wondered about the technology behind computing chips embedded in devices like computers, smartphones, cars and pacemakers? The new computing experience is tailored to hands on programming experience for all participating students and puts coding at the heart of Information Technology education to prepare students in rural areas to become smart professionals.
We believe that once the young generation knows how to code, they can create virtual worlds within the computer where the only limit on what is possible is their imagination. We at ILICIT Africa wants to put this power into the hands of children in Uganda.
We focus on the creating and introducing the young generation to the concepts of building new things with digital tools through basic programming building blocks.
Students shall have training sessions and discussions for three consecutive days to allow them grasp the programming fundamentals for those who are new to the world of computer programming.
Programming materials like e-books and tutorials shall be provided so that students get familiar with the various algorithms and concepts to be applied during problem solving.
Objectives of ILICIT-Africa – Lango College and Hack School Uganda Partnership.
- The major objective of this partnership is to enhance enthusiasm among students for growing technology to think about the world in a new way.
- To promote creativity, innovativeness and capability for self-directed lifelong learning in students to a strong flavor of constructivist learning, rather than one of teacher-dominated declarative learning.
- To encourage interest in programming among students interested in problem solving and programming.
- To promote computational thinking a way how engineers solve problems. It combines mathematics, logic and algorithms, and teaches you a new way to think about the world.
- To enable students pick up the basic skills that will enable them build useful applications and websites.
- To enable the young generation to understand and master technology of all sorts and solve problems in almost any discipline.
In the future, the amount of technology and our reliance on it will only increase. The students of today need to be able to not only consume this technology, but to understand and control it.
Once the rural areas are provided with gateways to new learning experiences that are not bound by their classroom walls, the boundary lines of their towns, the seemingly unobtainable goal shall be achieved. ILICIT-Africa recommends that the cultivation of such qualities needs to be infused through the entire educational process.
The campaign is still on, we are investing in Uganda’s future. Will you join us?