Learning by hacking

Last month, TechEducators hosted HackEd at the University of the Arts in Norwich, an experiential learning experience created to positively impact participants’ employability, entrepreneurial skills and appreciation of the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration. Over 3 days, a mix of students from local schools, universities and colleges were given laptops, Raspberry Pi’s, mentors and expert training to power them through a unique, hands-on experience, building their practical skills, confidence, and creativity, ready for the workplace.

The students threw themselves into the challenge, learning fast and picking up not only coding and app development skills, but also project management, team management, presentation, business strategy, and troubleshooting.

Quadmark were invited to facilitate our ‘Presenting like a Boss’ workshop to help build the students’ confidence to pitch their work in front of the judging panel and an audience of their peers. Not only that, our CEO Helen Earl, and Learning Experience Lead, Simone Brickham, were invited to be part of the judging panels.

*Using the Social Value Themes, Outcomes, Measures (TOM’s) framework

But those 3 days were just the tip of the iceberg. In the run up to the event, the students took part in a 10 week learning journey, investing an hour a week, covering topics such as prompt engineering, an introduction to Raspberry Pi and SenseHat, and a customised lesson from Google’s Zack Akil on Teachable Machine (Google’s free Machine Learning EdTech solution). And after, they were invited to a session on how to reflect their experience in their CV.

HackEd wasn’t just about building apps and prototypes — it was about preparing students for the world of work. For many, it was their first taste of working under pressure, building something from scratch and pitching to industry experts. The energy, determination and ingenuity they showed was a powerful reminder that, given the right environment, those who are willing to learn are ready to shape the future.