Lusanda Maqungo grew up in the dusty areas of Luthuli Location in Tsomo. I grew up with low self-esteem and anxiety. Looking up to the educated family and community around me made me the person I am today. My appetite has been on striving and successful people. I wanted to do like them! I wanted to be like them! Cape Town gave me life! That’s where my dreams came alive.
Lusanda Maqungo is a Tsomo born educator, who still resides in Tsomo - a rural area in the Eastern Cape. She did her lower grades in her hometown and Mthatha before her tertiary journey began at Almega College. From 1999 to 2002 she studied at Border Technikon, currently known as Walter Sisulu University in East London - a university that gave her the ticket to become an educator.
“Between 2002 and January 2007, I was working as a waitress in the hotels of Cape Town. The main goal was to improve my English vocabulary”.
“In February 2007 I was employed as an Educator at Westbank High School; teaching English and Tourism. In 2010, I enrolled with Cape Peninsula University of Technology; that’s where I, in 2012, obtained an ACE: specializing in Computer Applications Technology. I found my passion! For the first time I understood the word “passion”. My passion is in Information Communication and Technology. The hunger grew for this career of ICT’s. Thank you to Western Cape Education Department for all the skills and knowledge I have acquired. I resigned at Westbank High following my dream of helping rural learners to become computer literate. I am on that journey!”
Please tell us about your journey with Tangible Africa, when did it start and what inspired you to begin with? “It started when I met Professor Jean Greyling in July 2020. He introduced the virtual BOATS Coding Tournament to me. I enrolled my learners – at this time I was volunteering at Gobinamba SSS in Tsomo; I was teaching Digital Technology to the grade 8 learners. About 5 of my learners finished with all the levels of the tournament and 3 of them won some incentives. That helped Tsomo a lot because for the first time the town of Tsomo was on the map of social media; Lusanda as well was on the social media platforms”, she smiled.
“During the time I met Prof, my company was registered – it’s objective is solely to help rural learners in schools to acquire ICT skills. Coding fitted very well. The full inspiration came after Tangible Africa trained me in unplugged coding at a workshop. The word coding was a scary creature for me, but now I can train teachers, education stakeholders and learners with pride; I can code everywhere, anytime with anyone without limits! We are now coding evangelists; using the equipment from Tangible Africa. I have 2 employees that I work with in schools doing coding“.
How has it been since you started introducing coding to your learners? Also, what are your plans to grow this skill in your community? “It has been fun and exciting. The best highlight is the fact that coding divides two different kinds of characters i.e. lazy and those who will persevere until the end of the 35 levels. Another aspect that needs to be acknowledged is the fact that coding is relevant to everyone – introducing them to the 4 C’s (Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity). I code daily with the learners in the foundation phase (grade 1-3); I code daily with the leaners in grade 6 and 7; I code every weekend with the matric learners. Watching the learners’ excitement, especially when they crack the code motivates me because I could see they like what they do and learning is happening while having fun”.
“My plans to grow this skill is to register an NPO and reach to the District of Chris Hani and beyond. The municipality of Intsika Yethu housed me with their boardroom. I am using the space to code with learners after school while another team is visiting schools during the day. The NPO is not only going to focus on coding, but I am in the process of learning robotics with I-SET at Unisa and coding is marrying very well with robotics. Also, I would like to expand and introduce a mobile library; kids in rural schools need to be introduced to the culture of reading whilst they are young”.
Have you had coding background before working with Tangible Africa? if not, what have you learned about the coding concept thus far? “I didn’t have a coding background, I learned on the go! I remember the day I had received the coding kit – I was everywhere in the streets of Merriman Lusithi in Mthatha; looking for any IT person who can help me to unpack what was in the box and be willing to teach me. That’s how I learned the TANKS Apps; thank you to Prof as well as he organized some IT students as well to help. Now, I am confident to code Everywhere!”
“I was also introduced to the C# - programming language - which I equate to Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, Critical thinking and Problem solving - the core basic skills that are very important both in coding and in our daily lives”.
Lastly, what can you advise other educators about coding in their schools? “We are teaching the generation of the 21st century in the Fourth Industrial Revolution World. Technology is here to stay! Let’s incorporate our teaching with technology. Maths learners, as they code their mathematics results are improving because they are learning new methods of dealing with the problem. Computers replaces humans; that means career choices must be aligned with computers to avoid the increasing statistics of unemployment. As educators our role is to help our learners to be the best they could be. If the learner is not computer literate, that learner has been denied the rights for a decent living because that child will struggle to make it in the world of technology. Let us be willing to stand up and stand out; take a stand and learn ICT, Coding and Robotics to help the generation of today. We can’t keep on waiting on the government. Tangible Africa took the stand – I invite other educators to come and be willing to be trained and acquire more skills and knowledge, to equip our generation!”