Starting the Young Programming Tutors Project
Visioning the teaching of computing in elementary schools in Brazil, the initiative Computação na Escola is training Young Tutors (elementary students) and Voluntary Mentors (IT professionals) to program mobile applications. These young tutors and volunteer mentors will be supporting elementary school teachers in teaching computing in public schools with the objective to reach a larger number of students. The project also contributes to the education of young tutors in the area of computing, providing learning and contact with professionals in the area, bringing practical experience to the young people and children involved.
The project is being coordinated by the initiative Computação na Escola/INCoD/INE/UFSC dedicated to provide to all elementary school students the opportunity to learn computing. Currently the pilot of the project is being held at the public elementary school Prof.ª Herondina Medeiros Zeferino in Florianópolis.
This project is being sponsored by Involves Tecnologia e Inovação, a software company based in Florianópolis/SC that develops systems aimed at increasing the visibility and availability of products at sale points and improving the execution of field teams in retail.
Beginning this project, 25 students from the elementary school Prof.ª Herondina Medeiros Zeferino visited the headquarters of the sponsoring company Involves and got to know a bit about the day-to-day of a technology company, visiting each of the sectors and talking to a representative each function.
During this project young tutors, volunteers and school students will learn how to make applications with App Inventor. App Inventor 2 is an open-source web application originally developed by Google, and now maintained by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). To create your app, you only need a browser (eg. Chrome , Firefox, Safari , etc. – not Internet Explorer), a free Google account and an internet connection to download your apps to an Android device (phone or tablet) using a wireless network. You can share your app in the gallery for free or upload to Google Play (in this case there is a fee to register as a developer).
Companies/organizations interested in sponsoring other Young Tutor projects may contact the initiative:
Telefone: +55 (48) 3721-7380 /+55 (48) 3721-4715 or via email: computacaonaescola@incod.ufsc.br
