40 children take part in IT training programme Kid's Innovation Theatre

Energy Thursday 17/August/2017 15:39 PM
By: Times News Service
40 children take part in IT training programme Kid's Innovation Theatre

Muscat: Kid’s innovation Theatre held its closing ceremony today, where children between 11 and 14 years old showcased newfound technological skills.
‘Kid’s Innovation Theatre’ is a programme that had been run by the Information Technology Authority (ITA), under which 40 children aged 11 to 14 were trained for a month in one of four IT areas: digital media, application development, hardware, and innovation.
According to a spokesperson, “The closing ceremony in Middle East College just finished, although the children’s exhibition is still taking place. In the exhibition, innovations produced by the children are being showcased.”
The programme took place between the 17th of July and the 17th of August and included workshops, project planning, project displays, and soft skills enhancement.
The spokesperson added, “In the exhibition, I was drawn to the small robots made by the children, including Ibrahim. He’d been very excited about learning how to make a robot which shoots rockets.
Ibrahim Muhanna, who at 11 was part of the innovation zone, said, “One of the best things I learned was the robotics. I learned so many things, like how many batteries you need to shoot a rocket.”
Tasneem Muhammed al Balushi, another participant, said, “I joined that hardware zone, where I learned how one can set up a network and protect it, and about what goes inside a CPU. We opened one up under supervision.”
The spokesperson added, “The ceremony was under the patronage of Dr. Yaqoob el Durr al Balushi, Deputy CEO for infrastructure and e-services at the ITA. This is similar to the programme itself, which went on daily from 8 am to 12 pm.
“Much of the ceremony had been presented by the children themselves, to their parents as well as representatives from our partners and public and private organisations.
“The children also produced a few mobile applications and games. They learned many skills which were put together to produce innovations.”
Of the partners, most prominent were, “Cisco, which took the children to their company for two days for on-site training and experience. There were sponsors and partners, such as Microsoft Oman, the IT Society, Oman LNG, Oman Sail, Ministry of Education, Innovation Factory, Cisco, Al Marsa, Khimji, Raining Institute, Momkin, Samara Training, Injaz Oman, Sultan Qaboos University, Maharat, SME development fund, Engineering Village, Waljat College, and Rouzana.”