Apple's Swift Playgrounds is an app that teaches kids how to code
It's made for iPad.
Apple introduced an iPad app that teaches kids how to code in its Swift programming language. It's called Swift Playgrounds, and in it, you're tasked with guiding a character called Byte in collecting gems. To do so, you essentially give the character directions using Swift code. A demo at the company's WWDC keynote showed an app with bright colors and big photos designed to make coding child's play.
Instructions are on the left, and the interactive world is on the right. Coding is as simple as dragging a command from the bottom -- think of it as a QuickType keyboard but for Swift code -- and dropping it in the coding area on the left. You can also select which lessons you want as a Learn to Code drop-down. Some of the lessons have preprepped code to help you get started. This is interesting because it teaches kids actual code, so when they become more comfortable with it, they can experiment with entering code manually.
Swift Playgrounds is available in the developer preview starting today, and it'll be in the App Store when iOS 10 ships in the fall.
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