To encourage programming in a fun way among high school and college students, Oracle Academy organized "Code Together", a mega event, last week. The event was held at BGS National Public School. A special guest Lecture was held on the topic "IT and Society" by Amit Prakash ,Consulting Faculty and Convener, Centre for IT and Public Policy (CITAPP), International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B).
During the event, students were taught programming with the help of "Greenfoot". Greenfoot is a free platform from the University of Kent and funded by Oracle. It is an integrated development environment (IDE) suitable for students ages 14-25 and the only tool available today that teaches standard Java in a visual manner. Students write standard Java code to create games, simulations, and applications, while visualization tools allow them to see their programs executed graphically so they can immediately confirm that their code works. Although Greenfoot includes all the tools professional developers use, its interface is designed for beginners. Computer science students who use it early in their CS learning are able to advance more easily to professional IDEs such as NetBeans and Eclipse.
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"Code Together" was conceptualized to encourage programming in a fun way among students. Participating students learnt to design their first interactive game as a team project and connected with peers who share a common passion and interest in technology. The idea is to spark the ambition in young minds to build applications that consumers can use. In the light of the proliferating influence of information and computation technology on business augmentation across sectors, coders are being looked at as the lifeblood of innovation – they help build technology platforms to solve challenges in the areas such as energy, health, banking, finance, retail, environmental protection, national security, etc.
There is a growing focus in India to impart STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education. This initiative will give a fillip to students to influence their interest in coding. Learners use practical analytical techniques, develop a range of ideas, possible solutions, assemble and evaluate information, implement solution, check results, rethink problem and take steps towards a better code, if necessary. The process of learning to code also helps students with problem-solving skills and the ability to think and act computationally.
