Creative TechFest @ The Foundry 2016-91

Digital and STEM Stars Rising: 300 Young People celebrated at Creative Tech Fest national showcase and awards

by CamaraICTYouth Skills & Development

Creative TechFest @ The Foundry 2016-91National showcase and awards with over 300 young people recognised for their achievements in STEM and Digital Media with a performance by Delorentos.

Creative Tech Fest will play host to 300 young people from youth clubs and schools from all over Ireland as they gather in Google’s state of the art venue, The Foundry, to celebrate their passion for creative and STEM technologies.

Now in it’s fifth year, Creative Tech Fest showcases young people’s achievements in digital media, music, 3D Design, na méain Gaeilge as well as inventive Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) activities.Young people will be at the heart of all the action as they exhibit their own work and take part in interactive workshops – all while being inspired by guest speakers and live performances.

The line up this year includes Eleanor Mannion, multimedia journalist, on the advances in mobile journalism, Sue McGrath from Science2Life and an intimate live performance by Delorentos. A diverse selection of workshops from Google, the Science Gallery and Fíbín, to name but a few, offer young people the opportunity to experience the creative industries first hand.

Eleanor Mannion, speaking ahead of the event said; “I am so excited to speak at Creative Tech Fest especially because I get to meet the next generation of creators, inventors and innovators. Our young people are so inspiring and I know I will learn as much, if not more from them, then they will from me.”

Ciara Beth, a youth participant and one of this year’s co-hosts from Foróige Galway City Youth Café says “TechSpace is a safe space, where I’m free to create media that represents my thoughts and opinions. I’m thrilled to be one of the co-hosts for this years Creative Tech Fest. I’ve attended Tech Test before and the standard of work is always amazing. I can’t wait to see what this year has in store for us!!

For the first time this year, young people who are involved in the ambitious new ‘STEM in Youth Work Maker Project’ will have the opportunity to celebrate and showcase their STEM skills at the Creative Tech Fest. The STEM in Youth Work Maker Project, a joining of forces between the National Youth Council of Ireland and Camara Education Ireland, funded by the Science Foundation of Ireland will feature prominently as part of the Creative Tech Fest programme by inspiring the young people to create and invent with confidence and curiosity, and increase engagement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).

Clár TechSpace, continuing its success and now in it’s second year, will have a strong presence at the event this year with opportunities for young people to take part in Irish language workshops and exhibitions. Young people’s creative technology projects in the Irish language will also feature with support from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Dr. Ruth Freeman, Director of Strategy and Communications, Science Foundation Ireland, said:

“Science Foundation Ireland is pleased to support Creative Tech Fest, as it is great event to showcase young people’s passion, creativity and achievements in digital media, music, 3D design and many more areas of technology. It is through events like this that we introduce young people to the wide-ranging opportunities in the Tech sector and encourage them to consider future careers in STEM.  I want to congratulate all of the young people who participated and the organisers on a fantastic event.”

Mary Cunningham, Director, National Youth Council of Ireland, said:

“The National Youth Council of Ireland is delighted to be involved in this exciting celebration of youth workers and young people who have been taking part in the STEM in Youth Work Maker project. Through the project 112 youth workers have been trained and an estimated 2,000 young people have now had the chance to learn STEM in new and really fun ways, outside of school! We are particularly pleased that young people who previously may have been considered as being less likely to engage with STEM or take up further education and careers in STEM are being reached through this project.”

Pat O’Doherty, Head of ESB, said:

“ESB is delighted to support TechSpace. Here at the Creative Tech Fest, we see the next generation of creators, innovators and problem solvers in action, showcasing the skills that will drive Ireland’s future economy and society. This is a day to celebrate their achievements and fire their imaginations.”

The Importance of Teaching Coding

by CamaraCodingYouth Skills & Development

With the advent of the upcoming Africa Code Week (ACW) which is going to be rolling out across the African continent, we wanted to give you a glimpse of the reasons why Camara Education Ethiopia is keen on its implementation within Ethiopia and how it‘s partnering with ACW to make that a reality and impactful within the learners community in Ethiopia.

According to ACW, the movement to teach coding to young learners started with the idea to bridge the digital skill gap that will be present in the next 25 years within the African continent. This means that as the population growth booms, the digital technical knowhow that these generations have will feature a large gap between those who have access and those who don’t.  This movement thus partnered up with leading technology companies to teach coding to young learners across the African continent on a yearly basis. This is done through the use of open source visual coding software called Scratch that young learners can use to have an understanding of coding and build small applications through it.

As Camara Education Ethiopia is working to improve access to more streamlined education through the use of technology, it was the perfect initiative to be part of.  We, as an organisation, are working on building better stocked and efficient e-learning centers across schools in Ethiopia. Until now, 460,790 learners in 1054 schools across 5 regions were able to take advantage of the integration of technology into the classroom. Overall, 7242 educators and school leaders were able to take part in our capacity building training as part of delivering 25,918 computers into these schools.

Our partnership with ACW started 3 years ago when we were an organising partner for East Africa. We have organised Africa Code Week events in Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania and Ethiopia. In the last two years, Camara Education was able to train over 25,000 learners across Ethiopia.

This year we are also gearing up to reach more schools and engage more learners across the country and thus expose young learners to coding. Over the next 2 weeks, we will be conducting Teach-the-Trainer sessions for 28 educators from 11 schools in Robe, Bale Zone (Oromia), for 15 educators from 4 schools in Fitche Zone (Oromia), 23 educators from 10 schools in Oromia Special Zone, 21 trainees in 6 schools  in Ensaro Zone (Amhara), 44 educators from 20 schools in Addis Ababa, 43 educators in 20 schools in Silte Zone (SNNPR), 43 educators in 20 schools in Gurage Zone (SNNPR), and 43 educators in 20 schools in Wolayta Zone (SNNPR). In total, we will train 260 trainees in 111 schools.

These trained educators will be conducting their own coding sessions in their respective schools during the actual live continent wide Coding session from October 17 – October 25. During this week, we expect 333 coding sessions in 111 schools through which 50,000 learners will be training in basic coding.

Our activities are already rolling out with our work in training educators across the regions in preparation for the actual Africa Code Week event which will be from October 17 – October 25.

For more information on our related activities within this month check out our social media platforms on Twitter, Vimeo, Instagram and Facebook. For more information on the Africa Code Week check their website here. To check out the software that’s used for teaching coding you can check out their website here which comes bundled with all the computers that Camara Education Ethiopia provides to schools within its intervention areas.      

Kisuani Youth Polytechnic educating thousands with the help of Camara Education Kenya

by CamaraYouth Skills & Development

Kisuani Youth Polytechnic (K.Y.P) was established in 1968 in Majengo, Kenya. K.Y.P has delightedly grown from strength to strength over time and in 1990 it was one of 64 Polytechnics across the country upgraded to offer Artisan courses. Through consistent improvements of its services and skill up-gradation courses, the institute has evolved into a thriving establishment; a statement which would be difficult to utter if it were not for the help of Camara Education Kenya.

As an institute whose vision statement is “To Consistently Offer Better, Relevant, Affordable and Quality Vocational Skills Training to the Community”, K.Y.P has been a grateful receiver of both Camara Kenya’s computers and assistance. Camara has not only been supplying K.Y.P with computers since 2008, the technical team have also been there to offer support and guidance throughout. Ambrose Mwachibua, the ICT instructor at Kisuani Youth Polytechnic, is more than appreciative of Camara’s support; “Camara Kenya have been providing the computers at an affordable rate, so that ICT and E-learning can reach as many people as possible. We are glad that we have good partnership with the Camara organisation”.

A grateful glimpse into Kisuani Youth Polytechnic’s eLearning centre.

At present, K.Y.P have both Kenya National Examination Council Artisan courses and National Industrial Training Authority on offer. With courses such as CCTV Camera Installation and Maintenance, Computer Maintenance and Repair and Computer Studies at hand, Camara’s computers have continuously supported students of K.Y.P on their journey to education.

Kisuani Youth Polytechnic has assisted in helping thousands of students to discover and achieve their aspirations by providing a pathway for them to gain employment. As well as educating young individuals, K.Y.P strives to change the lives of adults looking to engross themselves in education in order to change their current circumstances. With continued guidance from Camara Education Kenya, Kisuani Youth Polytechnic has the opportunity to provide individuals with the chance to better their present and create a promising future through technology enhanced education.

 

K.Y.P blog post image 2
Student’s hard at work in the eLearning centre.