The Program “Literature in Programming” an initiative developed by the Ayrton Senna Institute in partnership with municipal education departments of Sao Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul, was one of the highlights of the 11th edition of Campus Party, the country’s main technology, innovation and entrepreneurship festival, which took place between the 30th of January and the 4th of February. The program was presented by student Thomaz Ortiz Neto, student of the municipal network of Itatiba (SP), and by Luci Mara Gotardo, teacher and program coordinator in the network. In a presentation at the Education of the Future space, dedicated especially to experimentation and debate on the theme, they told how the initiative contributed to the routine of the city’s schools.
Thomaz, who is currently 14 years old, has been participating in the program since 2015 and at Campus Party he had the opportunity to tell about his project developed in partnership with other students during the Programming Letters activities in 2017. “Last year, I learned to program a cap with an arduino system that assists the visually impaired to move around without obstructing obstacles “, he said to the public who visited the space. In 2017, the Thomaz project was one of the winners of Tech Oscar 2017, an annual award recognizing the projects made by students participating in the program.
According to Luci Mara, the expansion of the program in Itatiba has been gradual over the years, impacting hundreds of students in 2017. “Initially, the program was conducted only in the school counterpart. By 2018, the goal is that at least 50% of the 4th and 5th grade classes in Elementary School also have access to the Teaching in Programming during the class hours, “he says. After the two presentations, the event also had a round table on the importance of teaching concepts of computer programming in public schools, with the presence of Adelmo Eloy, coordinator of the Board of Articulation and Innovation of the Ayrton Senna Institute, Anderson Sanfins, municipal secretary of Education of Itatiba, André Luiz Francesco, municipal secretary of Education of Limeira, and Marcos Borges, director of LIAG (Laboratory of Informatics, Learning and Management) of Unicamp.
According to Adelmo Eloy, although the theme is growing in Brazil, schools are still adapting to a reality in which the student has more access to cell phones and smartphones. “Projects like this are important because we help public networks in this transition, not just by giving access but by teaching students how to produce and program their own projects.”
According to the director of the LIAG, a group that also carried out literacy projects with public school students, young people have the need to get in touch with the subject and that is why the subject is increasingly demanded in schools. the opportunity, they respond very quickly. Third-year students who did not know how to program, for example, are able to develop their initial projects after a few hours of practice, “he says.
Ayrton Senna Institute
