The news that in the Community of Madrid programming will be taught High school children do not stop generating news and more information that shows that the objectives are clear and the way to carry it out seems very thoughtful and thoughtful. And is that the Madrid's community and the company Telefonica will offer to 1,500 Madrid teachers that the next course will teach the new subject of Programming, the more advanced training thanks to the program Code Madrid. It is a new online training technology platform that will allow teachers to acquire the necessary knowledge to teach this subject. In the image you can see the President of the Community of Madrid with that of the Telefónica company with a Code Madrid technician and some typical tools. In the foreground you can see a 3D printer with which it is expected that children can learn to use it and take advantage of it.
We remember that the new programming subject is already taught from this 2014-2015 academic year in 15 Technological Institutes and that from the next course they will have to study all the students of Secondary. That's why on the platform of Telefónica Learning Services teachers can find three modules online or MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses), which will allow you to get the necessary training to teach the subject, use the tools and provide students with the basic knowledge about programming. In order to elaborate the contents the engineer has been counted David Cuartielles, one of the inventors of the system of Arduino.
For Telefonica Preparing this program must have been relatively simple. And its focus on STEM has been applied for several years and they have generated content and services that have surely been easily adapted to the needs of the Community of Madrid. For several years I have been able to attend numerous dissemination initiatives of this great company to teach families tools to program and I believe that many millennials have already been able to try them.
In any case now the challenge is for teachers for which the first course (level 0) will be launched in October 2014, the intermediate course in February 2015 and the advanced course in April 2015. The first MOOC will consist of an introduction to Use of new technologies in the classroom. The goal is for teachers to have an overview of tools, perform programming practices with Scratch and learn how to create mobile applications. He second course puts the focus on Programming and practical applications that can be made with them as well as learn to design a page on the Internet. He third course will offer training in digital electronics and robotics. In addition, teachers will have to learn in specific Training Centers for them. The Code Madrid project requires passing a final assessment test in addition to having all the necessary material for the classes: teacher's guide and good practice guides.
In the following video you can see, although it is basically a extract of the speech of the President of the Community, some details of the agreement with Telefónica:
The implementation schedule will be carried out by waves in the next three years. This 2014-2015 course is taught in the 15 Institutes of Technological Innovation in the region. The 2015-2016 academic year will be extended to all public, concerted and private centers in 1st and 3rd ESO and in the 2016-2017 academic year it will be implemented in 2nd and 4th ESO also in all private public centers and agreements of the Community of Madrid.
We had already commented that the planned investment is 16 million euros during the next four years to update the equipment of the educational centers with 3D printers, robotics kits or simulators. Also in September 2015, all institutes will have ultrafast access of at least 100 mega bits per second. The budget includes teacher training, calls for technological innovation projects for schools, robotics competitions, entrepreneurship and application development. The objective is to boost this initiative and provide it with a set of attractions to make it sustainable over time.
We hope to continue being able to tell news about this interesting initiative that insurance that will force other Spanish Autonomous Communities to join her by increasing competition and encouraging Spanish children to ride this technological train.
