“Coding Tomorrow” Project Has Reached Over 100 Thousand Children

“Coding Tomorrow” project, which was started 4 years ago with the cooperation of the Vodafone Turkey Foundation and Habitat Association to bring together the children with the coding that is the language of the digital world, is thriving non-stop. Until today through the project, coding tutorials have been given to over 100 thousand children in 81 provinces with the participation of 512 voluntary teachers and 38 teachers of the Ministry of National Education from different branches. It is aimed to reach 10 thousand children until the end of summer with the project.

Operating with the aim of being the leader of social change and development, Vodafone Turkey Foundation continues to develop and spread the “Coding Tomorrow” project that was conducted in cooperation Habitat Association to bring up generations ready for digital future. Since August 2016, over 100 thousand children have been reached in 81 provinces within the project scope. 512 voluntary teachers and 38 teachers of the Ministry of National Education from different branches participated in this project. The number of girls who received training has reached 52 thousand, and the number of boys who received training has reached 50 thousand. It is aimed to reach 10 thousand children until the end of summer with the project via online tutorials.

Vodafone Turkey Foundation Chairman, Hasan Süel, who calls attention to that for a better future we should support the education of children, said:

“We, as Vodafone Turkey Foundation, want a generation that is productive, not depletive. We aim the children to be the technology producers of the future by encouraging them to code through our project. In order to produce technology, it is a must to learn the coding that is being accepted as the language of the digital world. Through our coding tutorials, children started to have an opinion on coding, they are able to conduct studies that reveal their creativity, shape their imaginations and develop their own games. Our project, today, has evolved into a coding mobilization. We spread our project to every part of Turkey step by step. Until today, we have taught over 100 thousand children how to code in 81 provinces. Under the roof of the Vodafone Turkey Foundation, we will continue to prepare our children for the digital future.”

Habitat Association Chairman, Sezai Hazır stated:

“Started with Vodafone Turkey Foundation with the aim to contribute to the digital transformation of Turkey and to bring up generations who are not solely the users but, at the same time, the producers of technology, we are happy to provide coding tutorials to 100 thousand children in 81 provinces. Within the scope of the “Coding Tomorrow” project that has evolved into a coding movement in Turkey, we contribute to our children not only in coding but also in developing their analytical thinking and problem-solving abilities. We feel very proud about contributing to bringing up individuals who come up with solutions to the problems and have abilities that will make them employed in future jobs thanks to this project.”

Children in disadvantaged areas were reached

With the “Coding Tomorrow” project, coding tutorials are being given to the children between the age of 7-14 all across Turkey. Within project theoretical and applied trainings such as introduction to coding, algorithm logic, developing an application, creating stories and developing games are provided under the supervision of the voluntary teachers; and in the first year of the project, approximately 2000 children were reached in the 6 provinces with 35 teachers, in the second year, over 10 thousand children were reached in 30 provinces with 135 teachers and in the third year, over 30 thousand children were reached in 60 provinces. Moreover, over 1000 children participated in 9 hackathons organized within the scope of the project. With the Coding Tomorrow Training Minibus that travel around Turkey to provide the children in the socioeconomically disadvantaged areas with the chance to learn to code, we reached over 3 thousand children in 13 provinces by covering over 6 thousand kilometer distance, within the project, through which 1000 Syrian children get coding tutorials in Şanlıurfa, Kilis and İstanbul. In the project, in which boys constitute 49% of the participants and girls constitute 51% of the participants, 56% of the children are between the ages of 7-10 and 44% of the children are between the ages of 11-14.

Artificial Intelligence tutorials will be given

In the “Coding Tomorrow” project, we put our signature under important successes in the last four years. With animal food machines that are developed by our participants Serhat Seval and Sudenaz Kınık and that operate on tweets under the tag #BuMamaBenden, hundreds of thousands of street animals have been fed until today. Onur Ata Özyiğit and Deniz Gündeşlioğlu, who are students of Adana Vakıfbank Elementary School and participated in the coding tutorials and hackathon in Adana within the scope of the project, won the world title in the category of “Intermediate” (12-16 ages) in 2019 MakeX Robotics Contest. Besides, with the economic income that is obtained by the recycling of the electronic wastes within the scope of the “From Waste to Code” project that was realized last year by Vodafone Turkey, coding classes were opened in Mardin, Samsun, Gaziantep ve Adana. New training modules were also added within the scope of the “Coding Tomorrow” project at the beginning of the year. Through the cooperation with The Clubhouse Network, one of the biggest education platforms in the world, it is aimed to provide Artificial Intelligence education to 1000 young people between the ages of 14-17 in İstanbul, Ankara and Trabzon. First ‘The Clubhouse Network’ class in Turkey is opened in the ITU Ayazağa campus.

Due to the pandemic, training is shifted to online education.

The biggest change that has been made this year in the “Coding Tomorrow” project is shifting to online education due to the pandemic. While providing coding tutorials over digital platforms within the scope of “Coding Tomorrow Online Educations”, it is aimed to reach 10 thousand children until the end of the summer. Within the scope of struggle with the outbreak, an online ideathon was held. Students were asked to develop a technological idea that will minimise the negative effect of the pandemic on the public. 129 team and 339 young people from Turkey and TRNC participated in “Coding Tomorrow Online Covideathon”. Finally in the “Coding Tomorrow” project, special education contents were prepared for Vodafone Tv and children were provided to have access to the coding tutorials through this channel.