From Gqeberha to the UK.
The home-grown Tangible Africa project, which has propelled thousands of pupils from across Africa into the coding era, is exhibiting at Bett Expo in London from January 24 to 26.
The expo is known as the biggest educational technology event in the world with more than 123 countries being represented by about 30,000 people to showcase the latest trends and developments to a global education community.
The awards also recognise global excellence and innovation in education technology.
Tangible Africa, in partnership with CreativeHUT, is one of the few African organisations invited to the expo and is represented by Tangible Africa engagement manager Jackson Tshabalala and Leva Foundation CEO Ryan le Roux.
Tangible Africa is an engagement project of the Nelson Mandela University computing sciences department and the Leva Foundation, which introduces coding and robotics concepts to schoolchildren with few online resources required to play tangible coding games through Tangible Africa’s flagship applications, RANGERS and BOATS.
The coding games develop pupils' 21st-century skills and are played across Africa as well as selected European countries where they were successfully introduced recently.
“We are proud of our African solution, which is not only making an impact in Africa, but it is also now being used in Europe as a solution for European schools,” Le Roux said.
Tangible Africa founder and NMU computing sciences associate professor Prof Jean Greyling was excited by the prospect of a greater global audience being reached with the tangible coding project.
“Attending this expo is a great culmination of our work after 2023 when we increased our footprint in Europe through teacher training, participation in the EU Code Week as well as hosting the Coding-4-Mandela World Championships in December.
"Teams from countries such as Ireland, Germany, Cyprus, Estonia and Finland participated in the championships,” Greyling said.
Tangible Africa’s exhibition partner, CreativeHUT, provides support for educational initiatives spanning the globe.
With a head office in the UK, the company reach extends to pupils of every age, nurturing the growth of vital skills such as creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking in all things STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics), music and esports.
CreativeHUT co-founder and CEO Gareth Boldsworth said they were excited about partnering with Tangible Africa for the expo.
“Every now and then you come across a resource that impacts education globally. Tangible Africa is one of them,” Boldsworth said.
Last year, CreativeHUT won the Company of the Year Bett Award and has again been shortlisted for the award this year.
HeraldLIVE
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