In February, the MVP blog is looking at those helping diverse communities around the world.
As we wrap up this month’s celebration of MVPs who champion global diversity, let’s turn to Asia. In China, for example, 10 MVPs and regional directors (RDs) helped to bring Hour of Code to seven different cities with both online and offline events.
Developer Technologies MVP Zhenwei Su says it was heartening to see more than 3,000 primary and middle school students broaden their tech know-how across multiple events.
“With 13 volunteers and 48 schoolteachers aiding thousands of students across 66 classes in 15 schools, we have been able to foster new learning initiatives that have been well received by students, teachers, and the local government,” Zhenwei said.
A lifelong programmer, Zhenwei says he fully understands the benefits of nurturing programming skills and logical thinking at an early age. Hour of Code, he thinks, provides a good opportunity to introduce more children to the world of programming.
“This year, we were even able to expand our initiative to include a special school for deaf and blind children in order to provide an opportunity to allow them to acquire advanced skills,” he adds.
“Before the pandemic, we could organize numerous students to study together for half a day, but now we can only study during one class. However, thanks to our elaborate preparation and timely adjustment on site, students can enjoy the pleasure of solving problems in practice through coding,” Zhenwei said.
In addition, Office Development MVP Kun Zhang has been active in sharing his experience with others, especially those not familiar with programming.
“It’s a bit more difficult when the audiences are children,” says Kun. “I must think harder to use proper language to explain abstract concepts and terms to them.”
This year marks the second time Kun has been selected to speak at and instruct students at Hour of Code, so he came prepared with ways to share his coding knowledge with children by playing games.
“I shared the main ideas and concepts of programming by writing some simple code snippets to primary school students,” he says. “Programming can make students feel happy and have a sense of achievement, even though they just completed a simple task. Among the cheers from students, I also felt satisfied.”
For more, check out the Hour of Code website.
