Disney launches Hour of Code campaign to teach computer programming to school kids

‘Hour of Code’: Disney’s campaign in India to teach computer programming to school students

To help kids imbibe technical skills at an early age, Disney has launched its ‘Hour of Code’ campaign in India. Under the campaign, the entertainment firm will teach computer programming to school children through its free online tutorial featuring characters from its film Moana.

Presently, Disney is teaching coding to school students in different states of India like Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Disney came to India with this campaign in its third global edition. Facts of the campaign

• It will teach the basics of coding to students aged 8 years and above

• It is being taken in over 700 private and Public schools of these three states.

• The programme that aims to reach out to a million students in India is being carried under the partnership with Next Education.

What the tutorial will offer?

• It will offer an introduction to the basics of computer science.

• It will also provide the basics of coding, featuring characters from Moana, the Disney animated film.

• The tutorial revolves around the characters of the movie, namely Moana and Maui, who sails across the Ocean. During this period, students will learn the coding commands to steer the boat.

• Later, an attack on the two characters by the Kakamora – coconut-clad warriors will allow students to use a visual programming language with blocks, which can be dragged and dropped to write code.

• Meanwhile, the two sequences, the students will be introduced to conditions, loops and sequences while they master the art of navigation.

Benefits of the tutorial: The students will learn the basic principles of coding, which is a long run will lay the foundation for text-based programming for them.

Disney India Vice President Abhishek Maheshwari in a statement said that Hour of Code will help students to bring their stories to life. He also said that storytelling, when combined with technology, turns up to be one of the most powerful tools, which can be accessed by a child.

Hour of Code campaign

• The campaign was first started in 2013 by Code.org.

• Presently, the campaign has seen the participation of more than million students globally.

• Partners of the campaign include big names like Google and Microsoft.

• The previous two Hour of Code tutorial featured characters from movies like Star Wars and Frozen. Under these tutorials, about 40 million students learnt the basics of coding.

This year, ‘Moana: Wayfinding with Code’ tutorial created in collaboration with Code.org will be available in available in 23 languages in more than 180 countries.