Asociatia Edusoft AFJ
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Mission Statement
"Programing with patience" is an initiative of the EduSoft Association (president Dr. Bogdan Pătruț, Faculty of Informatics from Iasi), which promotes STEM education among children and young people. The project started on November 17, 2018 and for one year was carried out by the EduSoft Association in collaboration with the "Gheorghe Vrănceanu" National College from Bacău (pilot center) and with various organizations that support IT education. The aim of the project is to attract more middle school and high school students to the study of informatics, by approaching interesting topics, in an interdisciplinary and less formal way. Starting from September 2019, until the Covid 19 Pandemic time, the project was expanded nationally, taking place in several local centers (Bucharest, Iasi, Timisoara, Galați, Brăila, Râmnicu Vâlcea, Zalău, Chernivtsi (Ukraine), Spoleto (Italy), Pașcani, Tg. Secuiesc, Tg. Ocna, Adjud, Tecuci). During the last 2 years we moved online, developing an online learning platform, with artificial intelligence elements, called PRINFO.RO In November 2022, we restarted our activities in several centres, like Bacău, Timișoara, Iași, Târgu Secuiesc etc. We started this endeavor based on the identification of some problems related to IT education in the country: - informatics is one of the most attractive fields on the labor market, but IT companies are concentrated in large cities, where they find skilled labor; - the number of IT hours in school is insufficient in the context of the evolution of the IT field in all fields of activity; - students are different and may be attracted to different fields of computer science (algorithmic, graphics, complex projects, game creation, web-design, etc.), so some are oriented to Olympiads and other school competitions, others to developing applications and working in teams on complex projects, others on the applied mathematics side, and others simply want to clarify some notions from the school curriculum or even other topics.
About This Cause
Coding with Patience is a computer science club initiated by the EduSoft NGO in Bacau, a small city in Romania in 2018. Initially, children from all over the Bacau county attended the club, but there were difficulties related to the lack of adequate transport. Hence, the initiator, prof. Bogdan Patrut, decided to open a second Coding with Patience club in the Bacau county, in order to be closer to the interested students. The initiative was welcome and soon, volunteer teachers and specialists from all over the country joined the program and created the Coding with Patience network. The Coding with Patience initiative provides ICT education at a faster pace than the national educational curricula, promoting digital literacy and inclusion of the future adults. Trained volunteers are in charge with increasing the digital inclusion among young students, contributing to a continuous expansion of the phenomenon. Students attending local centers have different backgrounds, varying from high performance-oriented students to absolute beginners in coding and ICT. The solution has proven to increase digital literacy among young people, including disabled young people and students with special educational needs. The staff (coordinators, local coordinators, student representatives) and invited speakers are all volunteers, working to improve the digital inclusion among the young. Young students from disadvantaged categories (students living in rural areas, students with special educational needs like Asperger syndrome, girls, students belonging to ethnic minorities in their countries) are encouraged and prompted to express themselves through digital means. Local centers are free to choose their own curricula and to adapt the educational process according to the background of the attending students: age, level of understanding, disabilities, special educational needs, interests, aptitudes. Within the Coding with Patience courses the students learn mostly C/C++, but also Python, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Web-design, Algorithms and Computer graphics. Very few learn Scratch, Alice, MySQL and BASH and Pascal. No matter how decentralized the local centers are, there are some common traits that mark the Coding with Patience initiative as unique: ● a common goal – to promote ICT and STEM education among children and young people ● the local centers are hosted by local schools and the coordinators are certified teachers (thus possessing the know-how of teaching) and the infrastructure is the existing scholar infrastructure ● there is no attendance fee for the students, the coordinators and invited speakers being all volunteers ● the quality of the non-formal, supervised learning is granted by certified local coordinators and highly trained professionals acting as guest speakers ● the curricula are designed to meet the demands of students and ICT industry actors ● young people become acquainted with ICT and increase their digital literacy, keeping up with the advances of the 4th industrial revolution ● the initiative promotes digital inclusion for students with special educational needs, thus enhancing their chances to adapt to the demands of the 3rd and 4th industrial revolution ● the initiative promotes social inclusion, gender inclusion, inclusion of young people with disabilities, providing a friendly environment in which the common language is related to ICT literacy ● the activities are held both online and onsite, connecting young people and promoting inclusion and cooperation among them Local centers are classified annually, in 4 categories, as follows. Careful! Promoting inclusive education, the EduSoft Association believes that these 4 categories of centers (including students and their teachers) should not necessarily be considered in a hierarchical order. ● category A – students are mainly taught algorithmic elements, using normal programming languages (such as C, C++, Pascal, Python, Basic, Java, including the Visual Studio environment, etc.) and students overcome the subject of in the classroom, being interested in performance (whether it's Olympiads and school competitions, whether it's app development or team work on more complex projects); category A circles can also have beginner and intermediate level students, but the focus is on achieving performance quickly; in general, high school students study in these centers, but they can also be secondary school students, who are preparing for the computer science olympiads, ● category B - students are mainly taught algorithmic elements, using normal programming languages (such as C, C++, Pascal, Python) and students are interested in understanding the notions of school programs, as well as preparing for baccalaureate and admission to performance faculty; category B circles can have both beginner and advanced level students, but the focus is on solving problems from the school curriculum and at a slower pace than category A; in general, high school students, regardless of profile, study in these centers. ● category C – students are mainly taught introductory elements of programming, using visual programming languages or programmable platforms (such as Scratch, Alice, Blockly, Microbit, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc.) and students are interested to understand the basics of programming, by making animated stories or graphic games; category C circles may also have intermediate and advanced level students, but the focus is on initiation into the field of programming, at a slower pace than that of categories A and B; in general, secondary school students study in these centers, but they can also be high school students from other profiles than mathematics-informatics. ● category D – in these centers, students are not really taught programming concepts, but elements of information technology, which can tangentially approach programming elements; for example, in these centers elements of web design can be taught (HTML, CSS, with small notions of PHP or JavaScript, the use of content management systems (WordPress, Joomla, etc.), possibly introductory elements of robotics (using micro -controllers such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi, but with an emphasis on ICT, not programming), computer graphics (whether it is about photo-video processing, whether it is about CAD (computer-aided design) or animation; the circles from category D can also have middle school and high school students. In addition, students in all centers have the opportunity to meet teachers with outstanding results, university professors, as well as young people who have succeeded in the IT field, through their participation as employees or as fellows at companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Adobe, Palantir, Bitdefender, etc. or who have special academic activity. They tell them about their encounter with computer science and their current concerns in the field of IT, and also teach them some more advanced topics less covered in school curricula. A simple enumeration of those who passed and gave lessons at "Coding with patience" can tell us about the dimension of the phenomenon: • professors Adrian Panaete (Botoşani), Marius Nicoli (Craiova), who prepare the Romanian team present at the International Informatics Olympiad; • Professor Paul Diac, former software developer at Twitter, Facebook and Amazon, who prepares students for international IT competitions; • university professors Andrei Ştefan, head of the computer science department at Lamar University in Texas, Simina Brânzei (Purdue University, USA), Tiberiu Socaciu ("Ştefan cel Mare" University in Suceava) and Simona Vârlan (Faculty of Computer Science in Iasi), • Cristian Dascălu, programmer and vlogger, known to young IT enthusiasts, for his videos in which he describes his success with internships at Google and Facebook and gives advice to all those learning algorithms and programming; • Tamio Nakajima-Vesa (from Beiuş, former international Olympian, gold medalist in Tehran, Iran, in 2017, currently eminent student at Oxford), • Irina Bejan, Bianca Tăzlăuanu, Carmen Popa and Ioana Moraru (scholarships at Google); • Andrei Netedu, who had an internship at Catalyst, Vienna and an Erasmus scholarship at the Faculty of Innsbruck, Austria. • Oriana Oniciuc, who in 2017 was a Women Techmakers Scholar "Programare cu rabdare" ("Coding with patience") received an international award for excellence in IT in Penang (Malaysia). The award was given by WITSA (World Information Technology and Services Alliance). • Ioana Rădulescu, project manager at Tremend Software Consulting, Bucharest, The club was nominated in the "Opportunity / Digital Inclusion" category and received the "Merit Award" in recognition of the success of the activities carried out in the last two years. Several press appearances Peticila, M. (2019, September 21). [The free computer science center "Coding with Patience" students introduces blockchain and cryptocurrency courses]. Edupedu. https://www.edupedu.ro/cercul-de-informatica-gratis-pentru-elevi-programare-cu-rabdare-introduce-cursuri-de-blockchain-si-criptomonede/ Programare cu răbdare. Cercul de informatică fenomen, gândit pentru 20 de copii, are acum 300 de elevi [Coding with Patience. The phenomenon computer science center designed for 20 children, now has 300 students]. (2019a, January 27). G4media.ro. https://www.g4media.ro/programare-cu-rabdare-cercul-de-informatica-fenomen-gandit-pentru-20-de-copii-are-acum-300-de-elevi.html https://ziaruldebacau.ro/cercul-de-informatica-programare-cu-rabdare-a-fost-premiat-in-malaezia-pentru-excelenta-in-it/ https://adevarul.ro/stiri-locale/bacau/cercul-de-informatica-programare-cu-rabdare-2060369.html https://adevarul.ro/stiri-locale/bacau/cercul-de-informatica-programare-cu-rabdare-1968938.html https://adevarul.ro/stiri-locale/bacau/foto-un-profesor-care-inspira-face-educatie-pe-1928708.html TV and other media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbkAZz9bec8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBbt_I6jKRg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-SKqjNeu-o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK5pMKQ4VEo