“Me!!! I want to try!!!”
On April 21 and 28, the 10th floor of the CJ OliveNetworks headquarters was filled with the sound of children speaking out loud and holding their hands high up.

Who were these energetic children who never got tired? They were the fifth- and sixth-grade students of Seoul Joongmok Elementary School participating in the “CJ SW Creative Camp,” a software coding educational program of CJ OliveNetworks.

This special activity involved CJ OliveNetworks employees teaching the students to become software programmers. It is now in its fourth year, thanks to the unfailing support and interest of participants.

As this was the first class held this year, it was a deeply meaningful time filled with the expectations of both the volunteering employees and the school’s students.

△Students of Seoul Joongmok Elementary School freely sharing their opinions and answering to the questions posed by the lecturer

The class on this day was especially filled with energy because a large number of the 15 students participating in the camp were computer-gifted students who had a certificate of Microsoft Excel or Word, or that of “Scratch” which was developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for coding education.

The children used Scratch to personally create games, confidently presented the games before their friends, and passionately engaged themselves in the class.

 △A student explaining a game he personally made using coding. Can you feel his passion?

“The students participated more actively in this class than in other general classes, and they had fun,” said Koh Yeong-sun, a teacher at the school who joined the class. “I am particularly grateful to the staff lecturers of CJ OliveNetworks for the close guidance they provided to the students throughout the class.”

△Children absorbed in the coding class and CJ OliveNetworks volunteers

The 2018 CJ SW Creative Camp integrated the previous Basic and Advanced classes to offer deep contents that arouse intellectual curiosity in children. In addition, it was a class of the participatory type with children personally making and presenting their creative works instead of lecturers unilaterally teaching based on text, for students to learn coding more easily.

The company plans to use App Inventor, a program developed by MIT, during the second half of the year to add a mobile class so that more children would develop the ability to think creatively and logically.

The challenge-taking by the 2018 CJ SW Creative Camp did not stop here.

Last April, CJ OliveNetworks signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Seoul Metropolitan Government to vitalize the urban restoration of the Yongsan Electronics Market area. According to the MOU, the company will hold SW creative camps two to three times a month from May until November this year, targeting the youth living in the Yongsan area, at the IT Creative Training Center on the third floor of Y-Valley Center.

We ask for your unfailing support for the 2018 CJ SW Creative Camp’s new start and leap forward to offer coding education based on knowledge accumulated over numerous years in order to promote children’s intellectual growth and socially contribute to the local society.