Anatoly Nikiforov, a resident of the Arctic Innovation Center, a fifth-year student of the Law Faculty of North-Eastern Federal University, opened the IT-school "CODDY" under an international franchise. There are NEFU students and graduates among the teachers, teaching children and adults to code using Microsoft, Yandex, Mail programs.

The opening of the IT school coincided with the start of the pandemic. “We were able to switch to the online format in a week, including lessons via Zoom platform. The training is focused on project work. Training programs last from three to six months. Children create different projects: web services, sites, games in different programming languages,” said the founder of the school, Anatoly Nikiforov.

Up to 100 people study in the IT school: children from 7 years old, as well as adults. The geography of listeners is expanding: Yakutsk, Vladivostok, Kazakhstan, Moscow, Czech Republic. The school works in four directions. Minecraft programming is one of the most popular. It allows you to teach children to code through gaming: the child understands that you can work not manually, but program the robot for the necessary actions.

Director of the IT school, an off-campus student of the Institute of Teacher Training, Mikhail Potapov teaches the basics of programming using Minecraft to children from 7 to 9 years old and the basics of creating games in Unity 3D for students from 12 years old. “The problem with most distance schools is that they need technical support. We have technicians who will not only send instructions for installing programs, but also explain everything, and if necessary, they can install everything remotely,” the director emphasized.

Distance learning in programming is specific, says Mikhail Potapov. “All study guides become outdated very quickly. Educational programs must be relevant, interesting and implementable. We have a demo lesson where we show how we will teach, so that the child can decide whether he will master the subject or not,” concluded Mikhail Potapov.