Programming and Coding Lab for Children and Youth Opens in Tirana

TIRANA, October 22

Tirana has now its first innovative center dedicated only to children and young people. Bonevet, an Albanian word that translates into Do it yourself, was inaugurated on Monday as a creative space designed to stimulate children’s imagination, curiosity, and creativity. The center was first founded in Pristina and Gjakova in Kosovo, and after four successful years, Vllaznin Xhiha and Gaz Haxhia decided to expand their initiative even in Albania. Youth and children can now gain skills in the tech domain and improve their knowledge by learning programming languages and how to code.
Children are encouraged to actively play, make their own games, work together with other children, program robots, make prototypes with 3D-printers and CNC’s, solve riddles and puzzles, design and make puppet theatre’s, understand the importance of values, develop their communication skills, read books and learn languages.
The project learning approach applied by Bonevet enables youth to gain team-working, management skills, and self-confidence. The long-term goal of this initiative is to provide young people the adequate context and circumstances for developing their skills and talents. Therefore, the young generations will be equipped with the knowledge and experience needed to cope with the technological challenges and changes while building their future careers. The center also welcomes children from different social backgrounds and needs.
Classes are divided based on age. The youngest start at seven-years-old with little bits, Lego robotics, arts, English language, science, mathematics. The second age group 9-10-year-old children learn droid, scratch+mBot, German Language, cheese and technology. In the meantime, the 11-14-year-old groups gain knowledge about the basics of electronics, Arduino, Ruby, Python. WordPress, internet of things, app development, 3D printing, and DIY classes. The 15+ group classes focus on engineering and entrepreneurial skills and youth gain real-world skills in 2D and 3D design, STEM, and arts.
Such an initiative will help to promote a model of young social entrepreneurs that are community-driven and focused on bringing positive change rather than instant profit.

News Source: Bonevet

Photo Credit: pixabay.com