Satya Nadella, while concluding his Future Decoded summit in Bengaluru, spoke about a 13-year old girl who is changing the way a game can be used to not just help kids in academics, but also help them drive the interest into computer science as a field, especially young girls. Meet Namya Joshi.
Studying in 7th grade at a school in Ludhiana, Punjab, Namya Joshi has created course materials for academics using the dynamic building game Minecraft. To the uninitiated, Minecraft is a massive open-world builder where you can create worlds as per your liking -- imagine lego, but with unlimited blocks on your computer.
Namya got introduced to Minecraft when she borrowed her mother¡¯s laptop. She initially played games to pass time, but with time she understood the potential it has. She created the entire Egyptian civilisation on Minecraft for one of her history lessons, since she knew history otherwise was a subject that bored many students.
What started as a regular gaming experience turned into something that would not only change her life but the life of hundreds of kids in her school, especially girls, to take interest in computer science as a study path. She has also explained concepts of STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) as well as cyber-security through Minecraft creations.
Today she mentors several students in her school, has even trained teachers and educators into adopting Minecraft and other intuitive ways of learning in their curriculum, not just in India but across the globe in countries like Finland, Russia, Thailand Vietnam etc.?
She has also won several accolades, including UNESCO Worldwide Multimedia competition.