It has been amazing to have the opportunity to work with these students. As young people are growing up amidst rapid digital transformations, their insights and perspectives offer us, as educators, a unique view into the importance of understanding the digital world. At the same time, they are educating us about the kinds of values and relationships that matter most to themselves, both as young people today and as future leaders.
Dr Michael Marcinowski, Director of Education, Digital Futures Institute
24 July 2024
School pupils from across London engage in Success for Digital Futures workshops
The Success for Digital Futures programme is a collaboration between the Digital Futures Institute and the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences.
116 secondary school pupils from across London attended a series of workshops at King’s aimed to help students navigate an increasingly digital world. Year 10 school pupils from London attended the interactive Success for Digital Futures programme at King’s – where they learnt about topics such as digital humanities, coding, and bias in technology.
The workshops were delivered by PhD students and researchers who are specialists in these areas from the Department of Digital Humanities, Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries and School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences at King’s.
Students learnt how online data about them is being used, became familiar with the Python programming language and gained insight into AI and how it impacts fairness and bias in society. Pupils also found out how to get into study programmes and careers in digital humanities and related fields.
A number of students on the experience:
“I liked learning about the development of technology and the potential it has in the future.”
“I liked how it was interactive as I was able to try different Python codes.”
“I liked learning about archives and how companies can target you in order to show you their products. I also liked when I learnt that shop checkouts could be a lot easier with new digital programmes and I would love to learn more another time.”
“Was very educational and also entertaining.”
“It allowed [us] to see how we need representation.”
Success for Digital Futures is an outreach programme aimed at reducing the underrepresentation of Black students in study programmes and subsequently careers such as STEM and digital humanities. The programme ran from April to July 2024. Eight schools and 116 school pupils participated in the workshop series.
Success for Digital Futures is based on Success for Black Engineers and is generously supported by the Buttinghill Foundation.
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Senior Lecturer in Professional Education