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Apple's Swift Playgrounds will let kids code for AR
At Apple's educational event in Chicago today, the company announced that Swift Playgrounds -- Apple's coding app for kids -- is getting an AR module. Though not much has been said about it, it looks like an extension of an Augmented Reality challenge that Apple implemented last year using ARKit (which basically overlaid the Swift Playground world onto the real one). Seeing as Apple is pushing augmented reality to be part of the overall educational experience, it's not surprising to see AR being integrated on the coding level as well. That way, you won't get just AR apps, but also the next generation of coders creating AR apps as well. No word on when the AR module will be in the app, but we expect it to be soon. Catch up on all of the news from Apple's education event right here!
Apple expands its free coding curriculum to schools outside of the US
Apple's free coding curriculum, which launched for high schools and community colleges in May, has been growing in popularity over the last few months. It had six community college systems on board at launch and in August, the company announced that over 30 had worked the curriculum into their course offerings for the 2017-2018 school year. Now, Apple has gone global with its coding instruction and over 20 colleges and universities outside of the US have now adopted the App Development with Swift Curriculum.
The best learning apps
By Courtney Schley This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter, reviews for the real world. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here. We spent over 25 hours researching and testing more than 35 educational and learning apps recommended by educators, experts, parents, and kids. We also studied research from child developmental psychologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics about children's app use and the pedagogical principles for creating learning apps. If your family has a tablet and you want it to be more than a game-playing and video-watching device, or if you're trying to find apps for your smartphone that will do more than keep your kids occupied in a pinch, we have some great suggestions.
Apple's kid-friendly coding app can now bring toys to life
In 2014, Apple introduced a programming language called Swift that made waves in the developer community -- not just for its power and flexibility, but for how easy it is to learn. So easy, in fact, that Apple believes it could be anyone's first programming language. That's why it went ahead and created Swift Playgrounds, a free iPad app designed to teach kids how to code. Now, a year after its release, Apple is ready to expand its educational repertoire. With the June 5th release of Swift Playgrounds 1.5, Apple's app will also teach kids to program robots and drones.
Apple's kid-friendly iPad coding app arrives tomorrow
There are lots of initiatives to teach kids how to code, including ventures from Google, Minecraft and even the Star Wars franchise. However, with Swift Playground, Apple is actually prepping kids for a potential career at, well, Apple. The company has announced that the app, based on the Swift language used for iOS, OS X, WatchOS, tvOS and Linux, will arrive alongside iOS 10 tomorrow (September 13th).
Apple's kid-friendly Swift Playgrounds taught me to code
In 2014, Apple introduced a new programming language called Swift. Though that might not seem like much to everyday users like you and me, this announcement was actually a pretty big deal for the developer community. One of the reasons for that is that it's a lot simpler than Objective C, the lingo that Apple had been using for over 20 years. So simple, in fact, that Apple believes that Swift could be anyone's first programming language. That's why at this year's WWDC, the company introduced Swift Playgrounds, an iPad app designed to teach kids how to code. After a few days playing around with it, I can safely say that it also managed to teach me -- a clueless grownup -- a few Swift programming basics as well.
Apple's Swift Playgrounds is an app that teaches kids how to code
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.
