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Tangible Africa off to South Korea

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Tangible Africa is one of 20 ventures, selected out of an original cohort of 160 from across the continent, to visit South Korea to showcase the exceptional tech innovations emerging from Africa.

Tangible Africa Global Engagement Manager, Jackson Tshabalala, left on Monday [2 December] for the 2-week workshop in South Korea. During this period, he will be given various opportunities to promote Tangible Africa to potential partners, hosted by the African Tech Startup Forum.

This forum is a Market Access and Acceleration Programme designed to prepare, train, expose, and connect tech ventures with opportunities. The programme aims to showcase the exceptional tech innovations emerging from Africa and provide them with the platform to thrive. Collaborating with experts from around the globe, has the potential to create an ecosystem that nurtures and boosts tech ventures.

The programme is funded by the Korea Africa Economic Cooperation (KOAFEC) Trust Fund through the African Development Bank (AfDB)'s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab. For Tangible Africa, this is another highlight to end off a year in which they have been very successful in expanding their global footprint.

Across Africa, tangible coding has been accepted in countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda. Especially libraries in many of these countries have proven to be very effective partners in introducing Tangible Africa’s coding applications in their communities. Earlier this year an official MOU was signed between Nelson Mandela University and the Midlands State University, which focuses on the training of Education students at the Zimbabwean university.

“Our vision is that this will have a national impact as the country is also preparing for the rollout of Coding and Robotics curricula. Along with my colleagues at Leva Foundation, we have been pleasantly surprised with the way in which countries on other continents have embraced the tangible coding movement. Leva Foundation CEO, Ryan le Roux, and Global Engagement Manager, Jackson Tshabalala, visited Indonesia in May this year, where tangible coding was welcomed as an effective tool to enhance computational thinking skills,” said Tangible Africa Founder and Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Head of the Department, Prof Jean Greyling.

In April Ireland launched a nationwide research project (incorporating Tangible Africa’s Rangers game and the Micro:Bit device) investigating the impact it has on teacher confidence in teaching coding. During a visit to the USA in August, various role players showed a keen interest in rolling tangible coding out in their local schools. For American teachers and parents, the “tangible” aspect of the games, which encourages group work away from devices, is very attractive.

Another highlight this year, was showcasing Speed Stars (a Grand Prix-themed coding game) at the Silverstone British Grand Prix in July, as well as introducing major football clubs in the UK to Code Cup (a football-themed coding game). This follows the deployment of a new Progressive Web Application which allows Tangible Africa to create new games as new partners need to focus on certain domain areas.

Tangible Africa’s virtual unplugged coding World Champs takes place on Thursday, 5 December and promises to be a showcase of its global footprint. Teams from 4 continents will participate, and this year Tshabalala will host the event from Seoul.

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