A couple of generations ago, programming computers was done almost exclusively by white-coated scientists, who prepared their code by making sets of numbered punch-cards that they fed into minivan-sized mainframes.
Today, kids as young as nine are learning
to code. Having been surrounded by personal computers, smartphones and tablet
computers practically since birth, programming is becoming an everyday activity
for the youngest generation.
And with Ukraine’s tech-sector booming,
selling $2.5 billion worth of IT services in 2015, encouraging kids to learn to
code looks like a smart investment. As a result, clubs to teach kids coding are
springing up all over the country.
Maksym Makarov, the head of Codeclub UA, a
nationwide network of programming workshops for kids, said that recruiting children
for study is the simplest part of their program. The most complicated tasks for
workshop organizers are to find a suitable place with computers and people ready
to teach children for free.
“In our modern world, learning a
programming language is as important as learning how to write and read, so I’m
very pleased that parents understand this, and bring their children to us,”
Makarov said.
In Codeclub UA, volunteers teach children
aged 9-11 the visual programming tool Scratch, creating animations and games.
Then the kids gradually learn the basics of HTML, CSS, and the Python
programming language. As the teachers are volunteers, the lessons are free of
charge for students. The whole course takes at least two academic years, and
after graduation a student will be able to create a website or a game.
Codeclub UA is itself part of a network of
coding clubs first introduced in Britain by UX Designer Clare Sutcliffe and
developer Linda Sandvik in 2012. Today, the not-for-profit international network
has over 6,000 clubs in 80 countries, with the ones launched in Ukraine being
based on the original ones in Britain, Makarov said.
The first Ukrainian clubs started in 2013,
and as of now, there are around 50 of them running in schools, community
venues, and libraries in Ukraine. Makarov expects another 100 to open this
academic year, spread over 17 oblasts.
Ukraine’s national school curriculum
includes only up to a half of academic hour (45 minutes) of information technology
studies per week, which is not enough time to teach coding, Makarov said. He
doesn’t expect all of the students to become programmers, but says that coding
skills are useful in many fields, from medicine, to management, to teaching,
and beyond.
To set up a club, the organizers start by
looking for a suitable place for teaching – one either already equipped with
computers or with enough space to install them. Then they have to find a
programmer with several free hours on weekdays or weekends who is willing to
teach.
“It’s difficult to find teachers, because sometimes
schools agree (to host a club)… but everyone there is already working full
time,” Makarov said.
Evening hours aren’t suitable for holding
classes, as that would mean children spent the whole day behind a desk. Instead,
some kids study on weekends. Despite the challenges, Codeclub has already
recruited as teachers a number of developers from leading Ukrainian tech
companies such as Depositphotos, Looksery Inc., Luxoft, Epam, and Sigma Software.
In smaller cities, where it is hard to find
top-rank developers, Codeclub recruits teachers of informatics, giving them free
teaching materials. One such teacher of informatics teaches pupils in a school
in Toretsk, located some 10 kilometers from the front line in Donetsk Oblast.
The organization’s study materials were
developed by the original Codeclub in Britain and translated into Ukrainian. The
UK network also sometimes helps with computer equipment. And while Codeclub
works as a non-profit organization, it is supported by the Ukrainian venture
capital firm TA Ventures, Taskombank, and IT companies.
For instance, tech companies donate used computers
that are no long suitable for professional developers, but are fine for
teaching kids. Artem Tarashkevych, a teacher at a Codeclub in Kyiv, obtained
such computers for the library in which he teaches his group.
Tarashkevych, a project manager at tech
company Betinvest, was already teaching kids programming before joining Codeclub.
He first learned visual programming language Scratch, and then started to
teach it to four to five kids, including his son, at a local library on
weekends.
According to Tarashkevych, Scratch is an
easy tool for kids to understand – they operate with visual blocks of various
colors that correspond to their function. For example, blue indicates an
animation function, while violet is used for playing audio files. “This is a
visual language, but using it you can develop decent projects,” Tarashkevych
said.
While this simple coding is fun for
children, Tarashkevych says these lessons are the first steps towards
professional programming. He says that after
learning a visual language, it’s easy for the kids to move on to Python, a
high-level, multi-purpose programming language that was used create YouTube and
apps for computers and tablets.
Scratch is “a direct path to adult
programming,” Tarashkevych says.
The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by Beetroot, Ciklum and SoftServe. The content is independent of the donors.
