Learning to code with Ghana Code Club

Focus and collaboration. These two words sum up what we see at the coding clubs that we piloted last year at La Wireless School and this year at the Mateheko School.

The ever enthusiastic Mr. Sefakor Ankrah, one of our teacher-facilitators, caught the coding bug early and spread the enthusiasm to his students. Using the computer lab at the Wireless Schools that Airtel (now AirtelTigo) had donated, Mr. Sefakor piloted a club last May, teaching them about Scratch. This year, they’ve also started to code in HTML. Students were so excited to learn and create that clubs were held almost every day after school. Sefakor himself proposed and wrote an app to help us take attendance, and is also now a volunteer facilitator with the Ghana Code Club!

3 students looking intently at a laptop, engaged in Scratch coding — Students at the Mateheko School during one of the Scratch coding sessions

Using the tablets we acquired through a grant from the Australian High Commission in West Africa, Mr. Offei and Mr. Eben, both ICT teachers at the Mateheko and Abossey Okai schools, stepped up to learn Scratch and HTML, and with the help of Ghana Code Club and Sefakor, piloted their own clubs in Kaneshie on the west side of Accra.

Coding Collaboratively

Yes, we do not have enough devices for each student to have their own. However, we see this as a learning opportunity, instead of a deficit. Students take turns “driving” or actually moving the blocks or writing the code/, while others assist, point out any mistakes, and think ahead. They’re also organically learning with and from each other, asking questions and coming up with their own answers instead of waiting for the facilitator. While we would love to have more tablets to allow true programming, this works for now. (If you’d like to contribute, please go to our donation page!)

Watch this video below to learn the why and how of pair/team programming benefits students.