A beacon of hope to many young girls

Nomusa Keninda

The girl above has been fighting prejudices that define girls and women across color lines and geographical limits as belonging in the kitchen and not being capable of studying mathematics, science, and technology. She launched a DigiGirlz Initiative aiming at empowering young girls in STEM. 'Although I did not complete my Matric with Mathematics and Science, I did receive good results in Geography, Life Science, and English 2nd language as a result of my extreme hard work" 

My good results came from my second matriculation try(1989).  Thanks to my parents who encouraged me to return to the classroom after spending two years at home looking for a nursing college admission (1987&88)...

Today, I received a prestigious award as a symbol of hope to many young girls who are still shaping their dream careers.

The girl above, far right is Nomusa Keninda with her siblings. 

DigiGirlz Initiative aim to empower young girls into digital skills through coding, gives career guidance towards STEM careers and again connects the girls to high profile successful young female professionals. The DigiGirlz initiatives encourages girls to build their positive personal branding and gives cybersecurity awareness.

The initiative made the club to reach more than 180 girls per year and these girls come from grade 7, 8 and 9. It has gain popularity in many schools in Mpumalanga and Limpopo attracting schools to adopt the initiative as part of the schools' career days events.

In 2020, Ms. Keninda won an inspiring fifty for being a role model of young girls in STEM. The Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) also recognized the DigiGirlz initiative as an innovative initiative. Ms. Nomusa Keninda won a Trail Blazer Award in 2021. Recently, Ms. Keninda, spent five weeks as a Techwomen Emerging Leader in San Francisco and Washington DC. 

Nancy Shiba Primary School joined Microsoft Minecraft Hour of Code

While many students were anticipating the last day of final exams on November 22, 2023, Nancy Shiba Primary School grade 5 and 6 students virtually participated in the Microsoft Africa Minecraft Hour of Code event to learn about Artificial Intelligence(AI) through the Minecraft Coding game and Scratch Coding.

Ms. Nomusa Keninda, eLearning Specialist and Founder of the Mpumalanga ICT Club, and Ms Samukelisiwe Hlomuka from J Kananda Primary School, an award winner for the ICT in Education with Ms Beyanca Struwig of Microsoft South Africa, carefully arranged the event. This event is part of the global celebration of the Hour of Code, in which learners are exposed to computer science education through the use of code.org resources to teach Coding and Robotics in schools.

“We were learning too, because AI is a new technology that is starting to affect all of us” according to Keninda. We discovered that AI still has many biases. In one of the exercises given, the AI robot did not recognize the diversity of learners who were receiving food from the AI robot, which was supposed to serve learners, because some learners were shorter and had darker complexion than what the AI was programmed to detect. During the exercises, students observed how to debug the AI software to accept diversity and inclusiveness.

 Samukelisiwe Hlomuka

When Ms Hlomuka inquired if they were familiar with the coding game, one child replied, “I know about Minecraft because I play it on my phone.” What was most intriguing about Minecraft in this session was that the learners were given the option to create their own game by coding it from start rather than consuming computer games.

Following the Minecraft AI class, learners had fun creating their own game using the Scratch Coding environment. The pleasure of having a tablet on their desks was demonstrated by their brave listening during the coding sessions as they followed instructions led by Keninda and Hlomuka. Other classes were taught by Glenda Maselesele and Duduzile Mashinini who are Tangible Africa coding evangelists.

Nomusa Keninda

“Since I came from America on a leadership and Mentorship program, I can see there is a lot of demand for learners to learn computer science, I can relate from what I learnt from San Francisco.” Keninda stated.

 Published by Witbank News on  01 December 2023

 

 

 

Lume DEI School of Autism is now my family

"On August 29, 2023, we had a great time with these kids at Lume DEI School of Autism in Middleburg." These children, like those in our mainstream schools, need to be fluent in coding. What a fantastic experience with BOATS and TANKS coding." I spoke these things with joy and great honor since Ms Angel encouraged me to come and explain Coding to her school Lume DEI School of Autism.

"I've been watching your coding posts on social media until I got your contact information so that I can invite you to our school,"Ms Lethabo Ntsoane remarked during our WhatsApp conversation.

I'm thrilled to have begun this adventure of influencing this community through coding and robots. I had an incredible experience with these kids; I expected it to be challenging, but they were enthusiastic and engaged during the two sessions of Boats and Tanks Coding lessons.

On April 2nd, Autism Awareness Month chose a very hopeful theme: "Transforming the narrative: Contributions at home, at work, in the arts, and in policymaking." I must admit that I was unaware of it due to my lack of knowledge regarding the disease. Despite the fact that we only have a few Special Schools in our department, I have always wanted to work with and have considered resources that appear to be limited.

Now I know that Coding Apps for Boats, Rangers, and Tanks are a great place to start for any child, regardless of their condition. Tangible Africa made it possible for us to not leave any child behind because they deserve to be fluent in coding.

Teachers in all of our special needs schools will be prioritized as I prepare my next steps in coding courses. I now have the confidence and experience to achieve more. 

I was particularly pleased to plant the first tree with the Principal Leilanie Rossouw , who is also the Founder of Lume DEI School of Autism, as a sign of our children's protection against climate change. The tree will subsequently be replanted on the site where the school will soon be erected.

Today's girls are tomorrow's techwomen mentors

We shall assess our success when today's girls become tomorrow's techwomen mentors. Since the DigiGirlz Initiative was founded in the Mpumalanga ICT Club in 2018, this has been our journey. Ms Nomusa Keninda, the club's founder, is sharing a stage today with the five members of the African Girls Can Code Initiative at Mapala Combined School in Phake Village, Dr. JS Moroka Municipality. 

"We couldn't miss August 8th to celebrate Women's Day with 60 girls attending the DigiGirlz workshop here at Phake Village," Ms Keninda said.

This year marks the 5th year of the DigiGirlz Initiative, and the Mpumalanga ICT Club decided to share the date with Mapala Combined School, however other girls came from adjacent schools to participate in the session. The purpose of conducting the workshop here is to provide a platform for AGCCI members who just completed the AGCCI Coding Bootcamp in Polokwane to share their experiences and lessons learnt from the two-week bootcamp with other girls.

"I am overjoyed to hear and see the level of empowerment displayed by these young girls as they share their stories."

Each of them chose a topic from the list that they learned during the bootcamp, and with passion, enthusiasm, and confidence, they ensured that they carried us back to the coding bootcamp with imagination. Climate change, project time management, and programming languages were all freely discussed. 

"We want to be like them, and we promise this is just the beginning," Bianca Maraka said shortly after her presentation, referring to the ladies who came to coach and advise them during the Polokwane bootcamp. 

This event is also a wake-up call for the girls who joined today. They learned about having a positive personal brand and how to cultivate it beyond school and into the workplace. The majority of these girls are in grades 8 and 9, and we hope they will make the correct decisions for their future education and training.

Scratch Coding PLC Launched

The Mpumalanga ICT Club and the University of Johannesburg Creative Coding collaborated to launch the Scratch Coding PLC on August 2nd at the Villa Roma Hotel in Witbank with the theme: Strengthening our Indigenous Knowledge Systems through Coding.

Thirty teachers from the Nkangala Education District attended the event, with some traveling from Pankop village in the Dr.JS Moroka Municipality. "The main goal of this Professional Learning Community is to demystify coding and ensure that teachers build confidence when teaching coding and robotics in their classrooms, as well as to facilitate the establishment of coding and robotics clubs in their schools," said Nomusa Keninda, the founder of the Mpumalanga ICT Club and the project's initiator.

The University of Johannesburg also sponsored the event with three presenters who presented their experiences with scratch coding, as the faculty has built a creative coding that teaches teachers to Scratch coding ideas in a fun and pleasant approach, referring to their participants as "Buddies."

"At UJ, we believe in teamwork, and creative coding is driven by four pillars: Passion, Projects, Peers, and Play; teachers are encouraged to use their creativity when teaching coding," stated Kiyara Bellochun.

The PLC will promote Indigenous Knowledge Systems that are anchored in our cultural values through coding. The majority of the scratch projects, such as games, animations, and narrative telling, should highlight South Africa's cultural variety, including Africa. "We have our own unique stories and games in Africa that have gone untold because development begins somewhere and we simply copy what other nations have already started, but in this session we want to cultivate critical thinking and creativity that take into account our indigenous knowledge systems, which is why we chose this theme." Ms Keninda claimed. 

With Scratch projects, teachers produced, shared, and learned from one another.  "We created a game of scoring penalties in a soccer game using the Scratch platform, we knew very well how spectators in South Africa do and shout during penalties and our game showed that cultural aspect of the game." Ms Betty Mpina explained the project. 

These projects were distributed to participants in order for them to be replicated in their schools. The PLC will meet soon to check on their progress, as they have committed to hosting various Coding seminars in respective circuits. 

Girls need more Coding Bootcamps

I sat in the back row, paying close attention to the presentations of young girls chosen to attend the two-week African Girls Can Code bootcamp at Northern Academy in Limpopo Province, Polokwane.

The 40 girls were identified throughout South Africa's four inland provinces (Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North West). These girls were getting hands-on experience with coding, robotics, artificial intelligence, and other digital tools that would help them advance to STEM careers. 

"STEM jobs are the economic future." During her robotics lesson presentation, Emmah Mphahlele, Managing Director and Founder of Kids Innovate, encouraged the girls to pursue STEM subjects.

The focus of the bootcamp was "Re-imagining and re-thinking STEM education in the Fourth Industrial Revolution."  The United Nations Women South Africa Multi-Country Office, in collaboration with the Departments of Basic Education and Science and Innovation, is supporting the African Girls Can Code Initiative (AGCCI).  Siemens and the Belgian government are sponsors and supporters of the AGCCI.

My job in the bootcamp was to present on several Coding platforms that these young ladies can take back to others in their schools, as asked by the National Research Forum - South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (NRF-SAASTA). They also learn about Unplugged Coding by utilizing the Tanks app. I saw their inquisitive movements as they touched each token in preparation for the Tanks coding assignments. The Tanks App is designed in such a way that it teaches a variety of abilities. Tanks Coding players quickly improve their teamwork, leadership, analytical, and problem-solving abilities. Ms. Mphahlele also taught the girls how to create their own narrative projects using the Scratch coding platform.

"I've never experienced cyberbullying in my life, but now I know how to respond to it when it happens," most of the girls said after one of the Techwomen Mentors from the United States delivered a presentation on Cyber Security through Zoom. The girls were undoubtedly exposed to life-changing talents in the digital industry.

We have organized a meetup event in August with the four girls from Mpumalanga to provide a platform for these AGCCI girls to share and continue their path into STEM Career sectors. 

Our Scratch Day 2023

A wonderful timing, a great team, and excellent kids leave a lasting impression on all of us who were involved in making it happen at Loding Primary School on May 12, 2023. Kids were excited to see us arrive to their school unexpectedly, but we were well prepared to engage in our Scratch activities.

Scratch Day is observed as part of Scratch Week,

which runs from May 8th to May 13th. In our club, the 12th of May is our Scratch Day, on which we simultaneously celebrate the birth of the Mpumalanga ICT Club and the anniversary of our DigiGirlz Initiative. "This day is especially significant to me as the club's founder because it is also my mother's birthday." It's a fantastic day to bring her love memory of her on this day. We used to celebrate her birthday with her after we had celebrated Scratch Day. 

This year, we integrated grade R -3 in our program. Our Mpumalanga ICT Club team treated our grade R to grade 2 students to Face Paintings. Their miniature faces were stamped with lovely motifs of animal prints, which children adored; some chose flowers, while others resembled the Scratch itself. 

We chose to give the grade 3 kids more hands-on exposure in the computer lab.

They were taught unplugged coding by making artifacts out of items such as paper plates, dough, pairs of scissors, sticks, stickers, and others to construct masks that reflect their own sprites in Scratch. 

Our final group was grade six learners who got a

taste of touching iPads and coding their own Scratch games. We first introduced them to the "Hide and Seek" game. They meticulously followed the game programming instructions to the latter. It was fantastic to see teachers and the school's principal joining the learners to observe the activities. Our Scratch Day party was a success.

Coding Evangelists are a pillar of Coding & Robotics Curriculum

This image depicts a group of coding enthusiasts led by Duduzile Mashinini, a coach and friend to many young people in Mpumalanga Province. Duduzile Mashinini joined the Mpumalanga ICT organization as a volunteer to help with various coding projects that the organization has accepted and launched.

She travels with the Founder of the Mpumalanga ICT Club, Ms Nomusa Keninda, to assist schools in implementing Coding and Robotics Curriculum. Her journey as an Unplugged Coding Evengelist has influenced many changes in the mentality of the children she has touched. Coding, as we all know, develops critical thinking abilities, problem solving skills, and all the other amazing skills required in today's changing environment.

Her participation in these coding exercises has also given her the confidence to stand in front of a full-size classroom with more than 60 students and deliver a dynamic coding lecture, just like a licensed instructor. I was quite fortunate to have heard her polite voice pierce through the classroom. 

"When I joined the club, I had no idea what was going on when you teach coding, it was really hard but I learned because I was determined," Dudu said. "There were no financial benefits, but I felt fulfilled to be part of the team that changes lives."

She was lucky to be assigned a role in the club to educate other Coding evangelists who had recently joined the club as Tangible Africa interns. They visit schools with other interns from the eMalahleni and Steve Tshwete Municipalities to explain unplugged Coding using cellphones and puzzle pieces produced by Nelson Mandela University. These interns are currently training teams of students in schools to compete in the Mandela Day Coding Tournament 2023. Last year, this competition was held at Witbank High School, and over 160 children participated in teams. We hope to see more schools celebrate Mandela Day with coding activities.

Maboi Primary School spotted a potential hub for Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts.

I drove through the gates of Maboi Primary School for the first time at 08:30 a.m. I traveled all the way from Mpumalanga Province to share my experience as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert with the teachers who were scheduled to attend the three-day digital literacy training sessions hosted by the Bellamatrix Foundation. 

Maboi Primary School is located in Kromhoek,

Limpopo, in the settlement of Ga-Makgato. What struck me the most about the school's location is the grandeur of the Blouberg mountain range, which can be viewed as one drives from town to hamlet as one approaches Kromhoek. It was amazing to have finally arrived to Maboi Primary School.

I was excited and never imagined that one day I would be stepping foot in this region of South Africa, but I did because when the noble call of becoming a ChangeMaker knocks on your door, you can't say no. I was particularly pleased to see that teachers were eager to learn. As Mr. Dakalo Maswanganyi puts it, "knowledge is not power, but knowledge applied is power." Maswanganyi attended the workshops as a project leader to support the teachers.

In grappling with technology in the classroom, I saw the excitement and drive demonstrated by instructors who are surrounded by multiple contextual elements. During the training sessions, they were unquestionably determined and actively engaged in all areas of the curriculum. They also packed their own internet connection and other types of equipments to ensure that they understand all of the abilities that will allow them to be inventive in their classrooms.

Every teacher can embark on the adventure of becoming a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert. It provides many advantages for students, instructors, and the entire school community because we have already taken the 4IR road in education. Traditional ways of doing things are rapidly disappearing in all aspects of our life, and teachers who keep up with the times provide satisfying experiences in their classrooms. 

Teachers in these courses learned how to conduct assessments with students using a technique known as flipped classroom. Covid-19 has taught us that teaching and learning can be flipped and blended using various online digital platforms such as Testmoz, WhatsApp, Microsoft Excel, Word, Teams, and others. These tools must be learned and used on a daily basis by both teachers and students since they give active participation and fast feedback to both students and teachers, including parents. 

Microsoft Education has created the Microsoft Educator Centre, an online Educator Community platform where teachers can start on a self-paced training journey to become  Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts. Teachers were guided through the process of determining how to best use Microsoft Educator Centre to continue their lifetime learning.

As a member of the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert network, one can meet other teachers who are doing amazing things in their classrooms. During the session, I mentioned Mrs Phuthi Rakgophala, who will receive the Order of the Boabab Silver from the President of South Africa for her continued involvement in education after retiring as a principal. She continues to engage students by providing them with digital literacy skills through a variety of online digital tools and programs, including hosting Skype in the Classroom with international classroom collaboration, coding and robotics, and various AI tools in the classroom. 

When the 2023-24 cohort opens in May of this year, I hope to see many teachers, particularly those who completed the third level of the training session, join the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert group. The Microsoft Educator Centre will be open for self-nominations in May.  

Pi Day Celebration at Makhathini Primary School

 

Mr.Mantengu & Ms Keninda 

On March 23, 2023, Makhathini Primary School celebrated Pi Day with a variety of engaging mathematics and coding activities. Reatlegile Primary, Future Achievers School, and Bright Star School also participated.

 

Pi Day is all about celebrating math and science in a fun and creative way.

To celebrate Pi Day, people often engage in activities that involve pi, such as reciting pi to as many decimal places as possible, making and eating circular foods (such as pies or pizza), participating in math-related activities or games, and attending or hosting Pi Day parties or events.

 

If I were an AI system, I would declare, "I lack the ability to select themes that are "fun or not, because I lack emotions and personal preferences." "But, I can assure you that Mathematics and Coding are undeniably important disciplines with many practical applications in modern life," Ms Keninda remarked, remarking on the celebration of Mathematics Day shortly after presenting Coding to a group of grade 3 and 6 kids.

 

 

Learners were exposed to new mental maths skills, and it was fascinating to watch them tackle some Arithmetic tasks in a timed manner. The grade 3s followed in the footsteps of the grade 6s by being calm and confident during the final competition.

 

These children were also allowed to play the Tanks Coding game, which was developed by the Nelson Mandela University School of Computer Science. Students were able to interact with the Tangible Africa Coding Ambassadors who presented them with the coding session.

When asked to remark on her experience, one learner stated, "It was exciting to learn to code, and I was able to teach my team from the stages of the game."

Her remarks were in reference to the Tanks Coding game, which is played with a tablet and 31 puzzle pieces. These children are learning programming for the first time, and their abilities require a more supportive setting, such as Makhathini Primary School.

 

Teachers are God's free human resources, and they should be innovative in making Mathematics interesting and easy to understand for the students in these grades. Mr. Masingi demonstrated how children might develop a love of maths. Youngsters enjoy stories, and he utilized a Biscuit Man narrative to capture their attention, as he highlighted distinct forms of biscuits in the story, allowing the students to identify these shapes in their surroundings. Undoubtedly, the day was well spent, and we thank Mr. Mantengu for his efforts in organizing the occasion.