Enthusiastic Duncan Village teens received high praise for their grasp of computer coding this week at the ICT Summit in East London.
Nelson Mandela University lecturer Professor Jean Greyling said the quick first-time understanding by Mzokhanyo High School pupils was remarkable.
Mzokhanyo High was among only a few schools invited to participate in a programme called Tanks, which is a joint venture between Greyling and program developer Byron Batterson.
Batterson was a student at Nelson Mandela University when the programme was launched at last year’s ICT summit.
Tanks is funded by the State Information Technology Agency and has already hosted several workshops around the country.
“The children learn while they are playing the game – it is coding simplified,” Greyling said.
“The concepts they’ve mastered here are equivalent to what I teach to our first-year computer science students and they are just running with it with ease.”
“To date we've taught more than 2,000 pupils in different schools in the country and we've also ventured into Zambia,” he added.
They are also working closely with Hudson Park High School, which has already started using the programme, and are busy rolling out lesson plans in coding, using Tanks, for other schools.
“Our next project aims to discuss issues of game poaching and we also want to see how that will make an impact, but the concept is more or less the same.”
Avela Gusha, 17, said she was hooked on the game.
“At first I thought it was just a puzzle but then with the app, it's just so different.
“You get to learn so much about tech, robotics and programming – and we've only had a one-hour session.”..