Community Day 2015 Highlights

MSDC Team with the School Children

What could be more enjoyable than teaching technology to the young generation?

Children are our greatest treasure. They are our future. – Nelson Mandela

On the occasion of “Community Day 2015 (Sep 19, 2015)”, the “Digital Citizenship” program kickstarted in India. This program is initiated by the “India Microsoft MVP Community” with the help of MVPs all over the country.

Why this? ⬇️

We in the community, do realize that our young guns are still very far from getting basic facilities to explore the internet and computer science. We have seen many videos on Vision 2020 and how the world surrounding us going to change, but are we going to even understand how this is going to happen? 🙎‍♂️

If our young minds are not getting a chance to touch and feel computers or gadgets, then how come we see something that would change our lives? 😲

Don’t even think, the children are not interested to learn. I will bet on this. We have already seen the passion, enthusiasm and eagerness to learn computer science and its applications among those youth, who are always ignored. 🚀

The Driving Force ⛹️

I have started my techie career in Mindfire Solutions and in these four years, I have learned a lot about how to give my best in office as well as to share my knowledge and give that back to society. Every Mindfirean is encouraged to work for technical communities, which defines, Mindfire as a unique work culture and ethics.

Planning 📐

So, “Microsoft Dev Community (MSDC) Odisha“ took this initiative very seriously to educate and spread awareness on computers and technology to the citizens of Odisha. This is why this community was started in December 2014.

MSDC Presents Community Day 2015

A group of MSDCians including me planned to visit two schools in one day that is 19th Sept 2015. The schools are situated in my district, “Nayagarh“. One is “NAC High School” and the other one is “Sri Aurobindo Integral High School”. 🧑‍🏫👩‍🏫👨‍🏫

Visit to Schools before the Event Day 🏫

Before few days of the event, I visited the schools and interacted with children from different classes (7th to 10th) to check their interest on the event. I was overwhelmed with joy, when I found that they are so delighted to see someone who talks to them on computers or gadgets or robots. They asked me many question. Even I hijacked one class that day, after they pulled me to the classroom again to tell them something on computers and how it operates.

I was moved by the fact that my parents have made me so able, for which today I am standing tall and explaining computers to small kids, where I studied for five years. My teachers gave me immense support to conduct this workshop on 19th.

The Event Day 🌆

Alright, now everything is set up, children are ready, teachers are ready, and so are the MSDC guys. 💪

First School – NAC High School Nayagarh 🏫

The day has finally come. We (ten guys) travelled from Bhubaneswar to Nayagarh, which is almost 2 hours journey. After reaching, we could not believe our eyes, when we saw the attendance of 100 instead of the expected count of 50 in NAC High School. 🧑‍🎓👩‍🎓

My friends from Nayagarh worked hard to set up everything from arranging tables, and chairs to setting up the projectors and electricity in that conference hall. 💻

Importance of Education 🎒

We are all set now. Before some tech talks, Suvendu Giri*(Co-Founder MSDC Odisha and Software Engineer, ESSPL)* motivated the gathering with some inspirational videos thereby illustrating the importance of education and computers. I helped him a bit here. 💪

Suvendu Giri and Tadit Dash | Importance of Education

Computer Basics 🖥️

Okay, let’s talk about some technology. Of course, we have to start from the basics that is “Computer Funda !!! How Computer Works?”. Mr. Durga Charan Ojha, who is a System Administrator in Mindfire started teaching this and got many questions in return. He was able to answer every question.

One interesting question was “Why this computer took birth?” Now ask this to yourself, if you want to answer, please feel free to comment below this post !!!

Durga Ojha and Prayash Mohapatra | Computer Fundamentals

Durga showed motherboards to the students and Prayash Mohapatra*(3rd year, B.Tech, CET)* also helped him by showing a microcomputer and explaining to them about its usage. 💽💾

Internet 🕸️

Sohel Wahid (B.Tech, KIIT) then started his session by giving a brief idea of the internet and how it is so powerful in today’s world. Students explored the power of the internet and how that can be helpful in their studies.

Virus 🦠

The next session was on Viruses, which was delivered by Ariz Eqbal (B.Tech, KIIT), which, every student found interesting, learned a few basic things about Viruses and clarified doubts.

Robotics 🤖

Last, but not least, the most interesting topic “Robotics” was presented by Rajesh Kumar Sahoo (B.Tech, KIIT). He was not only able to grab the attention of the children but also amazed by the fact that most of them wanted to build robots after learning from him. 😲

Left – Sohel Wahid | Internet, Right Top – Ariz Eqbal | Virus, Right Down Rajesh Sahoo | Robotics

Goodies 🎁

Now this is the prize distribution time. We have listed a few students who answered the questions we asked in between sessions. Professor Dr Gobinda Chandra Dash (Nayagarh Autonomous College) and Mr Pradip Kumar Dakua (Teacher of Geography, NAC High School) were the dignitaries who distributed the prizes and congratulated them for their passion.

Prize Distribution | NAC High School

We are finally hungry…😋🍓

Afternoon time and the whole team is hungry!!! We headed to a restaurant nearby to have some lunch.

Lunch

Second School – Sri Aurobindo Integral High School, Nayagarh 🎒

Then we continued our journey of knowledge to the second school “Sri Aurobindo Integral High School”.

These guys are more excited than we imagined. Suvendu and I again started with our motivation talks and gave them a hint about what was going to happen, next.

Prayash Mohapatra (B.Tech, CET) sat in between the students and started playing a game. Before the students could make something in their minds, Prayash very cleverly introduced them to the world of computer programming. And, that through a game!!! 🏐 Yes, you heard that right.

Prayash Mohapatra | Game with Programming

Rajesh again operated a small robot in front of them. He showed how our lifestyle would be in a smart house after a few years through a video. That was interesting. 🤖

Rajesh | Robotics in Sri Aurobindo School

Goodies 📦

Goodies were distributed to the students who answered questions during sessions.

Prize Distribution | Sri Aurobindo Integral High School

Effect 💹

More schools taking an interest in conducting this kind of event.
Students asked us to organize this kind of event at least once every month in their school.
We are continuously getting calls from students who have doubts about computers.
Sasaka Prasasaka on Monday, 28th September, published one news on our event.

Community Day 2015 News on Sasaka Prasasaka 28th September

Roadmap 🛣️

We are already planning to take this to as many schools as we can in Odisha. Not only schools, but we will also educate the citizens of every edge at least how to operate a smartphone.

Time to Think!!! ⌚

The response inspired us and opened our eyes. We should not just sit for 8-10 hours in the office and work and come back home with a good salary, rather we should share our knowledge with the society which once fed and educated us.

Don’t be selfish after getting all the help from your surroundings. If you work for yourself and your family, then you are giving back to your motherland. Serving to the people is serving God, I believe. 🙏

Isn’t this a matter to think!!!

If every one of us is determined to go to our school at least and teach them something we have learned over the years, then illiteracy will only be a word in the dictionary.

Possible, right!!!

If you want to contribute, please start. If you want to join us, please feel free to contact us and tell us how you can bring the change in Odisha.

Sharing is caring.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” ‪- Mahatma Gandhi‬

Vote of Thanks 🙏

I would, personally, like to thank everyone, who was a part of this event and contributed their time and knowledge towards the community.

My teachers, without whose guidance, this event was not possible. They gave us confidence, which boosted us up.
Microsoft and India Mentor supported us in planning and executing the event successfully.
Thanks to Mr. Biplab Paul*(Audience Evangelism Manager, India Communities) and Mr. Gandharv Rawat(Community Support Lead, India Communities)* for initiating this program in India.
It would be my mistake if I didn’t congratulate the MSDC Team, who did all the hard work and executed, this program. Team members include all the speakers and Pravasini Sahoo, Rojalin Sahoo, Suraj Sahoo, Nirmal Hota, Atul Das, Alok Bhanja, Manash Pritam, Dillip Das, Rakesh Pradhan, Biswajit Nayak.

Team MSDC in Community Day 2015

Tadit Dash