Apple — like every major tech company out of the valley — is of the opinion that everyone around the world should have the opportunity to learn to code. Thus, it had unveiled ‘Swift Playgrounds’, a fun and easy to use programming application for kids and beginners at the WWDC this year. The app, is now live on the App store
Swift Playgrounds makes learning to code easy for everyone by bringing real coding concepts to life with an interactive interface. It helps students explore Apple’s home-brewed programming language Swift with a complete set of specifically designed lessons.
For example, in the first level ‘Fundamentals of Swift’, you need to guide one of the three available characters through an immersive 3D world using real life code. You will stumble upon goals and challenges that professional developers face every day. Achieve victory and continually build on your knowledge to unlock more complex and advanced coding concepts with each level.
Apple has designed the educational app in a way which is approachable enough by students(as young as 8 or 9) with no prior programming experience. They can use the app to learn core coding concepts, like issuing commands, creating functions, performing loops and using conditional code and variables. The app is also said to be powerful enough for skilled programmers to experiment and express their creativity using Swift. Apple will also be adding more standalone challenges to help you better hone your skills.
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Swift Playgrounds features built-in templates that users can modify and build to create their own programs with graphics and touch/gesture interactions. The lessons progress over time, ultimately allowing users to import and export code directly between Swift Playground on iOS, or macOS Sierra.
During the keynote event at WWDC’16, Apple’s senior VP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi took the stage to highlight the key elements of Swift Playgrounds, and what the company aims to achieve with this launch.
Everyone should have the opportunity to learn coding, and we are excited to bring Swift Playgrounds to the next generation of programmers looking for a fun and easy way to explore key coding concepts using real code. More than 100 schools around the world have already committed to adding Swift Playgrounds to their fall curriculum, and we can’t wait to see what students create with it,
he said in a statement.
This initiative also falls in line with Apple’s latest effort ‘Everyone Can Code’, where the company is planning to empower students with its technologies. The Cupertino giant will be building the necessary infrastructure in schools to help students learn computers, and start coding their way through school. It is, thus, planning to disburse over 4,500 Macs to teachers and about 50k+ iPads to students in over 100 schools across America.
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Swift Playgrounds is now available to download for free from the App Store. It is compatible with all iPad Air, iPad Pro and iPad mini™ 2(and later) models running iOS 10.
