Meet the 13-year-old girl who impressed Microsoft’s Satya Nadella with her innovation

Namya Joshi, a Class 7 student from Sat Paul Mittal School, Ludhiana, has changed the way students learn in her school with Minecraft, a popular video game. The innovation gave Joshi the chance to meet Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who was on a three-day visit to India recently, at the Young Innovators’ Summit. Nadella was absolutely fascinated by her “transformative” idea.

“We need to reformulate the relationship between technology and learning. It is very interesting to witness the way young innovators think today,” Nadella told the gathering, according to a Zee News report.

While reading textbooks can become tedious, Namya believes Minecraft, an online multiplayer game, can pique an interest towards learning.

“Minecraft is a great platform. If a child does not like reading books, you can make those lessons in Minecraft and get the child interested,” she said.

Through the game, the 13-year-old is helping teachers convert class lessons into interactive sessions across the world.

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It all started two years ago when Namya’s mother, Monica Joshi, the IT head at the school, signed up to become a Minecraft mentor. Monica says, she was shocked to learn that a game could be integrated into the school’s curriculum.

Namya says: “I had seen Minecraft installed on my mother’s laptop and started trying it on my own. After understanding the basics, I watched some tutorials and got myself familiar with it,” she told Microsoft News.

Soon, Namya’s mother asked her to create few lessons on Minecraft. Namya wrote about her recent trip to the hills and created different elements in the game, and had written descriptions to everything. Seeing the results, Monika was convinced to introduce this in her school.

Soon, the mother-daughter duo started creating more lessons on Minecraft and other students and teachers in the school joined them.

Namya has so far trained more than 100 teachers in her school and around the world. She also regularly collaborates with educators and learners from across the world, reports Microsoft News.

In December 2018, she won the National Minecraft Competition. She has also spoken at KEOS2019, a global education conference in Finland, where she conducted a workshop for teachers.

(Edited by Megha Reddy)

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