Bringing humanity to virtual learning - ReDI School goes Cyberspace
What do Post-it notes and our latest program, ReDI School in Cyberspace, have in common?
Both innovations came about by accident: while Post-it notes are the result of trying to invent a super glue that ended up just strong enough to hold a little paper square, the concept of ReDI School in Cyberspace was meant to help us weather the pandemic when we had to move all our in-person teaching to the virtual classroom. Instead, our community of students, volunteer teachers and the ReDI team have developed countless new ways of learning together online, while maintaining the ReDI community spirit that is vital to fulfilling our mission of digital integration. Through trial, error and adaptation, we have managed to keep engagement high and course completion rates at pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, we experienced a sharp increase in the number of students applying to ReDI from all across Germany – and even around the world.
So - much like the inventor of Post-it notes, we made a virtue of necessity and decided to open our latest addition to the ReDI School network in the Cyberspace.
ReDI School in Cyberspace and Post-it notes have a few things in common: Both were invented by accident.
A virtual learning experience - regardless of where our learners are based
With ReDI School in Cyberspace, we’re designing a virtual learning experience that gives learners access to free, high-quality coding education – regardless of their location. We’ve already reached our first milestone: students from Nigeria, Ukraine, Ghana, Afghanistan and 6 other countries came together to learn how to code Python in an 8-week pilot bootcamp. ReDI School in Cyberspace is open to students from all over Germany: Our first cohort saw participation from 6 Bundesländer (German states) and we are very proud to see 55% of them identify as female.
With our new program, we remain committed to what we have focused on since the beginning of ReDI School: Harnessing the power of tech education to create community for newcomers, people who have experienced forced migration and other forms of displacement, and people without access to digital education.
“ReDI is absolutely the right place for beginners. I don’t have a background in Python”, says one of our bootcamp students, Wariebi. “But the team and the teachers are very encouraging and patient. They made me feel confident learning Python.”
After the Python course, Wariebi applied for a traineeship she came across in the ReDI community and has now been invited for an interview. Fingers crossed – we’re rooting for you, Wariebi!
“Students and especially women from Germany and across the world gain access to excellent coding education”
Stories like Wariebi’s are possible thanks to the support of our funding partners. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection co-funds the program with its Innovation Program for Business Models and Pioneering Solutions. Together with them and our partners Cognizant Foundation, Microsoft Germany and Accenture, we will reach at least 150 learners in our pilot year 2022 and lay the foundation for the future of the program.
“We believe that it is crucial to prepare students for the digital challenges of the 21st century”, says Dr. Franziska Brantner, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. “With ReDI School in Cyberspace, students and especially women from Germany and across the world gain access to excellent coding education, an important step into our digital future”.
We will grow our course offering significantly for the fall semester and start courses in front-end and back-end development, data analytics, UX/UI design and cybersecurity.
At ReDI School, no ideation workshop runs without a set of good old sticky notes. It is fair to say that some of our greatest ideas have started on a Post-it note. And so, like its older born-out-of-necessity sibling, we hope to see ReDI School in Cyberspace create as much impact as the Post-it note.
If you are interested in joining the Cyberspace as a student, register your interest for our fall semester here.
And if you want to share your coding and IT knowledge and impact our students’ lives as a volunteer teacher, you can get in touch here.
Written by Josef
Josef is our Head of Cyberspace Partnerships.