“Every child has talent. Also, the hundreds of thousands of Dutch children who grow up in an environment with a lot of unemployment and fewer role models. That is why the Dutch organization JINC fights for a society in which your background does not determine your future. Where every child gets a chance.”
Digital Learning Day celebrates the use of learning about digital technology and in particular the innovative and progressive technology for classroom learning. Toomba is happy to contribute to this cause.
The JINC organization helps children aged 8 to 16 to get a good start on the labor market. Through the JINC program with various projects, children become acquainted with all kinds of professions, discover which work suits their talents and learn how to apply for jobs. Not entirely unimportant, you might say. In this way, thanks to JINC, more than 63,000 primary and secondary vocational education students are given the opportunity to grow every year.
JINC works together with education and business partners. The partners get something valuable in return: the chance to make a difference in the lives of children.
Toomba teaches Digital Skills to students
Last month, Patrick Berends gave the first lesson on Digital Skills from Toomba about “the design of an app with a search algorithm” to the students of a Dutch school (CBS Driestromenland).
“It is great fun to explain to these teenagers, who already know a lot about apps and how they work, how an algorithm works.”
During the lesson, the topics that we discussed were: what is an algorithm, what can you use it for, what problem does the Shazam app solve, and how do you design an app with a search algorithm? Then the assignment was: come up with an app that can solve a problem with a search algorithm.
The whole class did well. And such fun and innovative ideas were thought of by the class! Who knows, a foundation has been laid here for the next programmer, developer or designer.
Children learn how to program
After the last lesson of Digital Skills to the students, we received a lot of positive feedback, the kids really enjoyed themselves!
During this lesson, the students had to create a maze in Scratch, which is the largest coding community for children. It uses a coding language with a simple visual interface that allows young people to create digital stories, games and animations. Scratch was developed by the Scratch Foundation, a non-profit organization. The program promotes logical thinking and develops problem-solving skills in children.
The assignment during the last lesson was to make an avatar walk through a self-made maze. The students had to create their own maze and program the instructions (step-by-step plan, algorithm) via the Scratch program.
The students set to work with enthusiasm. Soon most of them were done with the basic assignments and even went to work on their additional ideas. “I like it when the doll runs into a wall and says ‘Ouch!’; I will program that”. This was also programmed in no time, it’s fun to see how handy and smart these kids already are.
Through LessonUp, the FutureNL foundation produces and offers various teaching materials. As a volunteer, you make the material your own. This way you can contribute and make a difference for these children. This was also apparent from the evaluations, everyone enjoyed it a lot and was very grateful.
