Initiative in Favorites: The children had their first programming experiences

The aim of the Europe-wide funding initiative “Meet and Code” is to prepare children to face the challenges of a digital society. A free workshop on this topic was recently held at Favoritner Wendstattgasse.

Vienna / Favorites. Every year a special workshop is held on my favorites: “Meet and Code”. This year, the non-profit organization of the same name came to Daumegasse 5, where the Future Learning Lab is located. The goal is to teach programming basics to 12-year-olds for free in workshops.

The association, which works closely with the 10th Education University, visited the Amazon Web Services office near the main train station with a class from Wendstattgasse middle school. There, programming professionals talked about how they got their jobs and what they find special about the work.

artificial intelligence

Before the actual workshop started, there was a short shift to AI with the slogan “Bringing stories to life with AI”. Experts discussed with children what would make a good story for them. For example, it should be exciting or contain a lot of humor.

Then it went straight to the point: there was information about artificial intelligence, that is, artificial intelligence. Children learned how to use this knowledge to bring stories to life: all you need are a few keywords and a computer can bring the story to life. However, it is important that the right keywords are chosen. Of course, you then have to take another look at the first result and correct it, because errors may have crept in.

Children help parents

When the story was finally on the table, it was time to illustrate it with a computer. The computer experts then explained how you could have this story read to you, which the children thought was great.

“I really enjoyed the workshop,” said 12-year-old Hannah. “I learned more about artificial intelligence and what you can do with it. But also that you can’t always trust it.” She was particularly excited that the AI ​​could write, read and draw.

Role reversal

After that, there was a turn-taking, so to speak: the children came to their parents to introduce them to what they had learned, and even helped them get the AI ​​to tell a story or two. “The aim of these ‘Meet and Code’ campaigns is to make digital media and new technologies more focused in schools,” says Chairman of the Board Helmut Stemmer.

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