Mannapperuma, 24, heads a team of
“Using a keyboard to type in code is not interesting for kids,” says Mannapperuma, an IT professional and self-styled tech-evangelist. Microbit’s more appealing block-based programming designed to familiarise youngsters with coding and interconnectivity spurred Mannapperuma to introduce it in his country.
He approached the UK-based Microbit Education Foundation a year ago with his idea of encouraging school children outside the more privileged urban areas to learn coding skills.
With the foundation’s backing, he created an online group to enlist like-minded people who would go to distant villages and towns carrying the Microbit developed by Microsoft and the BBC.
The volunteers instruct children aged 11 to 18 in using the Microbit website to write simple commands for the device enabling it to act as a motion detector, sound sensor or as a message flasher among other things.
