Indian teen uses MIT's tool to teach coding to orphans
17-year-old Jay Jaganaath simply wowed everyone when he started teaching coding to orphaned children in SOS Children's Village, an NGO in Faridabad. Interestingly, Jay taught these orphaned kids using a technology called MIT Scratch, which is a visual intensive programming language. Jay spent four hours a day for 3 months continuously to teach these kids.
Knowing 17-year-old tech-savvy enthusiast
A 17-year-old, class 12 student of Delhi's Vasant Valley School, Jay Jaganaath got introduced to coding in Class 11th wherein he learned C++. He wanted to create programs and got inspired after he visited Finland and Japan as part of a student exchange programme in 2016. After intensive search, he came across MIT Scratch, which appealed to him because of its visual story telling.
MIT Scratch: What is it?
MIT Scratch is a project of Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab which is free of charge. Scratch helps program desktop-based games and animated movies, to name a few. It helps young minds to think creatively and share one's creations with online community.
How did Jay get started with his teaching mission?
Jay always wanted to teach programming and kept approaching schools in and around Delhi but could not get to teach. His search ended with an NGO in Faridabad which allowed him to teach young students. He used an offline version of MIT Scratch as there was no internet available. Jay wants to create a programming proposal for NCERT in future.
Coding to help kids think analytically: Teenpreneur Jay Jaganaath
According to teen entrepreneur Jay, the education system in India must be re-modelled and kids must be taught coding to help them think analytically. He also believes that with the help of coding, kids could be exposed to a wide range of skills, that is thinking creatively, reasoning ably and working collaboratively.
