Kids2IT: Programming As the Second Literacy of Ukrainian High School Students

27 October 2015 y.

Kharkiv IT Cluster is proud to announce the start of the first course in programming for high school students in Kharkiv. The Kids2IT project is a unique program of five lectures, special rating system that shows effectiveness, and 140 interested listeners.

The first lesson took place on October 18^th in V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University at the Faculty of Computer Science. The system is simple: lectures on Sundays, then seven days for homework. The course is aimed to train teachers of computer science, to involve children in the life of the Kharkiv IT-community, to give them basic knowledge which will be useful at the championships.

Our partner, Kharkov Academy of Continuing Education, was engaged in the selection of participants for the project by choosing the best of teacher’s requests all over the city and region. The course program was created by Nikolai Arzubov, an Honored teacher of Ukraine.

Alexander Kuznetsov, Head of the Department of Cybersecurity and Deputy Dean for admission of students on the Faculty of Computer Science, presented the University. He motivated students to become IT-specialists by studying in V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.

In addition, Natalia Vinogradkaya, executive director of the Kharkiv IT Cluster, was also present at the course opening. She shared the history of the organization and job prospects in the IT industry. From the cluster, schoolchildren got the Kharkiv IT Map with useful information about the IT-infrastructure of the city: the courses, universities and companies.

After the introduction, Nicholas Arzubov started the main lecture about linear algorithmic structure. All students can find lecture material, literature and homework on a special website, where they will see ratings based on their achievements.

Good luck to our first Kids2IT course! Follow the news on our project here https://www.facebook.com/itkharkov.