Educator. Journalist. Certified Geek.

Meet Andrew Tomec, the brains behind Atomec Studios and a man on a mission to change technology education in classrooms and beyond.

Mr. Tomec is a former journalist, veteran elementary school educator and lifelong computer geek who has taught coding and multimedia skills to thousands of students in his former hometown of Ottawa, Canada. 

When COVID-19 shuttered schools worldwide in March 2020, Mr. T immediately grasped the need provide structure and routine into the lives of students stuck at home in quarantine. While school officials were still debating contingency plans, Mr. T’s virtual classroom was up and running within a week of the shutdown, providing free daily computer classes to fans on three continents.   His original YouTube channel, Chromeworks Technology, was feted alongside the BBC as a leading online resource for cutting-edge e-learning during the pandemic. In March 2021, his groundbreaking work was lauded in a cover story on online educators in Professionally Speaking, the official magazine of the Ontario College of Teachers. 

In January 2023, Mr. T was joined by his wife, artist Lynne Anderson, in launching a new YouTube channel, Atomec Studios, which has already amassed more than 500,000 views. His signature video series, Scratch Hacks, is collection of byte-sized Scratch tutorials designed to be shown in classrooms to buttress coding lessons. 

Mr. Tomec began his career as a journalist in the 1980s, working as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Ontario and British Columbia, including the Ottawa Sun and the Ottawa Citizen. An award-winning writer with a gift for simplifying complex subjects, his career was transformed in 1992 when the first Mac computer landed in his newsroom. While exasperated colleagues wondered what to do with this mystifying new technology, Mr. Tomec, a lifelong technology enthusiast, rolled up his sleeves and taught himself the intricacies of desktop publishing, digital image editing, graphics and web design — technologies that were transforming his industry.

Since taking up teaching in 2010, Mr. Tomec has become a passionate advocate for coding in the classroom, teaching hundreds of young children the elements of computer programming via in-class workshops and lunchtime computer clubs. Through his work with the Ottawa Carleton District School Board and running after-school and summer camp programs, he’s taught countless youngsters video editing, computer game design, robotics, digital photo editing, stop-motion animation, 3D modeling and printing and other cutting-edge technologies.

“We live in a fast-changing world where many of our children will end up in careers that haven’t yet been invented,” Mr. Tomec observes. “To thrive in this increasingly digital world, kids are going to have to learn to be creators of digital content, rather than mere consumers. The good news is that most of them are eager to embrace the future. With the proper tools and a little guidance to get them started, there’s no limit to what they can accomplish.”