eco supports computer coding competition for school students
The CodingCup, part of the Microsoft initiative Code your Life, is taking place for the second time in 2018. In North Rhine Westfalen, the competition is being supported for the first time by eco – Association of the Internet Industry. To kick-start this year’s competition, on 22 January, Code Your Life and eco hosted an information event in eco’s Cologne offices.
Alexander Rabe, Managing Director at eco, explains eco’s motivation in getting involved in the CodingCup. “Digital education is the basic prerequisite for securing and further developing Germany’s position as an industry location. In order to offset a digital divide, both at work and at home, we need broad-ranging basic digital education. The Coding Cup awakens and stimulates the curiosity of children and young people concerning the digital technologies on which we are absolutely dependent.”
The eco Association, which has more than 1000 members from the Internet industry, has a particular interest in supporting young people and developing their IT skills. “Unfortunately, not every school leaver is currently a digital expert,” says Alexander Rabe. “Media and digital literacy must be accorded a far higher priority in German schools. We can regard a number of the Scandinavian countries as models; there, the digital infrastructure in schools is already exemplary.”
In interview, Rabe expands on where he sees coding fitting into a broader strategy of digital literacy: “For me, programming and coding are not necessarily the language of the twenty-first century, but they are the basic prerequisites for participation in digital transformation. If we get an understanding of what’s behind a smartphone, what’s behind a like-button – if we understand how data analysis takes place, how we can create database profiles, then we can take a completely different critical approach to these media or products. But we can also design – and I believe that this is the great challenge. Coding offers an entry-point to understanding the logic that we will all need in the future. I believe it doesn’t matter whether you end up as a programmer or simply a competent user: This is important in order to be able to be part of and shape digital transformation in Germany, Europe, and worldwide.” You can watch the interview with Alexander Rabe here in the German language.
