All the greatest and evolutionary inventions and advances in technology certainly weren’t developed from simple “set-ups” but the founders had access to infrastructure early enough before they even knew what they wanted. All greats like Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were exposed early to technology before they built things.
LakeHub, an Innovation Hub based in Kisumu County in Western Kenya has launched the Village Code to take code to the larger community outside its walls.
The Village Code is a project that aims to basically ensure that people out there without bias of where you come from or what you really posses can really get their hands on a computer and not only learn basic computing skills but advance them to become very good and efficient coders at early stage.
How possible and realistic is this goal?
Raspberry Pi Foundation comes to the picture “We recently received an offer from Raspberry Pi asking us to identify ways in which we can use the Pi to solve the problems we face in Western Kenya. One of those ways is using the pi to teach programming to kids. There are endless possibilities in this pending deal even though talks are in their early stages,” Chandi Tome the Deputy Director of the Programme tells TechMoran.
The Raspberry Pi is a series of credit card-sized single board computers developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic Computer Science in schools but this project wants to promote more than basic computing.
So the question will be Why Raspberry Pi?.The computer with dimensions 85.60 mm x 56mm x 21 mm literally the size of a pie is definitely portable and with impressive capabilities packed in the small device being taken to every village to teach anyone interested basic computer skills as well as code to those who have the basics.
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With the Pi you can modify to a project you want, but brainstorming with Boniface from the team made me realize you can use an RCA Cable or HDMI to actually connect it to a television and use it as a normal computer and your TV acts as a monitor. Try imagine if there can be as enough computers as televisions in rural setups and what’s more the Pi provides tools for use of Python as the main coding language but supports other languages such as C, C++, Java, Perl and Ruby.
With the necessary skill and infrastructure laid down, the targeted beneficiaries are really expected to benefit from the project. Bringing up children with a solid foundation in Information Technology (not just basic) but enough to solve problems is really the phase any sustainable startup should take.
And this being the Internet age and with the revolution of the Internet of Things codename IoT (which is certainly real) programming will certainly become a key tool not only for those who want to take up careers in Information Technology but also other sectors and the long notion that IT is a support arm in the structure will change to change as its soon becoming a tool.
With key structures being prepared right now, the project is set to roll out. LakeHub own its own is setting up platforms to ensure first each and every student and child is aware of what programming is and what it can do and secondly how important it can be to them not only at a career level but also as a problem solving tool.
With the roll out of various startups in Africa, do you think projects like this help the people born with the ability to see through problems get a chance to stand out of the pack. Recently, we wrote about Lake Hub’s City Rides-a Task Rabbit for Kisumu City.
Kindly share your thoughts on in the comment box.
