Coding Class
Story by Johanne Maria Holt
With the continuous developments within digitalization and technology, learning how to use it effectively and responsibly is becoming more important every day. Dreamtown teamed up with young students in a collaboration with Coding Class, to explore how one can use technology to inform, engage and make an impact.
Over the course of the last couple of months, Dreamtown participated in the national project called Coding Class. This project focuses on how Danish students can use their theoretical knowledge within technology and IT in practice through innovative and creative solutions. In doing so, they team up with organizations and businesses to help them with various case problems. Through the project, both the students and the organizations get more insight into how technology can be applied in a useful way.
Meeting with the Class
During Dreamtown’s first meeting with the class, the students were introduced to our projects and partners. Following this presentation, they conducted a small workshop where they reflected upon Dreamtown’s work, questioned their own assumptions and discussed the power of storytelling and narratives through media representations. The students were very impressed by the artistic and creative work of our partners and additionally expressed their interest in the field of non-profit organizations.
‘’I like how Dreamtown works for the well-being of young people and that they want to help them realize their dreams’’. - One of the students explaining what they found the most interesting.
Ultimately, the students were asked to emphasize the importance of cultural sensitivity and reflect upon stereotypical representations in their up-coming projects.
Feedback Sessions
The following week, we came back to the class and the students presented us various outlines with project ideas and their brainstorming. They had dived more into the stories about some of the impactful individuals and were inspired by these in the plans for their coding projects. Subsequently, they were given feedback both from Coding Class and Dreamtown and received more clarity on how to communicate what they wanted to achieve with their projects. Afterwards they then combined innovative exercises, modelling, design and coding in order to create their final products.
Engaging and informing through Virtual Games
Ultimately, the students visited Demokratigarage, where Dreamtown is located. The students had a tour where they were introduced to the other organizations that also have their offices at Demokratigarage, and their important democracy or climate work. Afterwards, they presented the different products they had created through CoSpaces, which were all visualizations of what they found the most exciting and useful to show other young people about Dreamtown’s work.
While some students had coded games where one could play football, listen to music or make graffiti art, others had created various quizzes with questions regarding Dreamtown’s work and that of our partners in Uganda or Kenya. The evident reflection and work that had been put into their final coding products was highly impressive.
Many students emphasized the importance of showing the variation of young people’s dreams in their coding projects.
Coding for a Better Future
In an ever-changing world with constantly new digital developments, the skill of handling work related to digitalization is more crucial than ever. However, the potential impact one can make through these tools is high and thus follows the importance of using them responsibly. Consequently, it was very encouraging and promising to witness the students learning how to critically assess their projects in addition to reflecting upon what and how they wanted to communicate their messages.
We are very happy to have been part of the Coding Class project and look forward to following how youth in the future will use their skills and their creativity in work towards a more just, sustainable world.
