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This year marks ten years since she started to teach kids how to code. For the past 10 years, she have been blessed with opportunities to influence young people to join the tech space
From talks to grade 9 students to choose their subjects wisely and showing them the world of tech that exists out there to managing and mentoring post graduate student as they advance their studies and solidify their space in tech.
Xoliswa has been instrumental in writing curriculum that gets our foundation phase students to start flexing their computational thinking muscle and create tech products and prototypes that can be useful to their peers and the society at large.
She had been the privilege to test and refine our curriculum and to that has led to opportunities to even influence other African departments of education to adopt the curriculum she designed and modify it for their location.
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Xoliswa's Biography
Xoli is a Computing Curriculum Developer and Technology Integration Specialist at Future Nation Schools. A self-proclaimed Tech Fairy and technophile, whose mission is to demystify tech and make it more fun and accessible to kids of all ages. She accidently fell in love with Computer Science and her passion has grown. She began her career as a business analyst and later become an IT project manager.
She has mentored a number of young people and was influential in the subject choices and career development. She is a strong professional with a Master of Engineering with a focus in software engineering from Wits. In her current role she is pioneering the development of a curriculum for information technology with elements of computational thinking, robotics, programming, design thinking and content creation from grade R to grade 11.
Her students are amazed by her love for fun and learning, her crazy experiments, how she is excited by challenges how generous and friendly she is, and how she seems to be constantly playing with some new gadgets.
Favourite Quote
Everything is figureoutable - Marie Forleo
Dear South African Geeks,
Do it afraid, take the leap and start. You don't have to be amazing to start, you don't have to be the smartest to make a meaningful contribution, you don't need to have all the resources to be innovative. You are amazing, your mind has the solutions to Africa's and world's problems. They are just waiting for you to step out of your comfort zone, don't make them wait too long ( ideas ain't loyal, and they expire quickly)
- Xoliswa Mahlangu