Apple boosts Swift and Everyone Can Code curricula

Apple has improved its collection of tools and resources to help educators teach coding to students from grade school to college.

It has introduced new curricula refinements and a new professional learning course for teachers, while ramping up its home learning resources.

What has Apple improved?

The company has improved its Develop in Swift and Everyone Can Code curricula. Apple is also adding resources for educators and parents to help boost remote learning of these courses.

• Develop in Swift is geared toward high school and higher education students, and teaches both Swift and Xcode on Mac to new and experienced coders.
• Everyone Can Code introduces coding to students in grades 4 through 8, and uses puzzles and games to help teach the building blocks of Swift through the Swift Playgrounds app.
• Apple launched Everyone Can Code in 2016 and introduced Develop in Swift three years later in 2019. Today, over 9,000 K-12 and higher education institutions worldwide are using these.

A new Swift course book

What improvements have been made?

• The new Develop in Swift curriculum series includes four books: “Develop in Swift Explorations,” “Develop in Swift AP CS Principles,” and “Develop in Swift Fundamentals,” which are all live today. The “Develop in Swift Data Collections,” which will be available in fall (which is interesting as that’s when new OS ships).
• The new Everyone Can Code curriculum also includes new titles. “Everyone Can Code Adventures” is designed for students who have already completed “Everyone Can Code Puzzles” and offers more advanced opportunities to build with Swift code. It aims to help students go further than they did before.

What has Apple introduced that is new?

Apple will soon begin offering a new, free online professional learning course for educators. Taught by Apple experts, it’s designed to help instructors at all levels of ability acquire the skills they need to teach Swift and Xcode. Interested educators can sign up today to participate in the course, which will be available July 13 through the Canvas Learning Management System.

A young girl using Swift to code on an iPad..

What did Apple say?

Apple VP Markets, Apps and Services, Susan Prescott, said:

“Apple has worked alongside educators for 40 years, and we’re especially proud to see how Develop in Swift and Everyone Can Code have been instrumental in helping teachers and students make an impact in their communities.

“We’ve seen community college students build food security apps for their campus and watched middle school educators host virtual coding clubs over summer break.

As part of our commitment to help expand access to computer science education, we are thrilled to be adding a new professional learning course to help more educators, regardless of their experience, have the opportunity to learn coding and teach the next generation of developers and designers.”

What are educators saying?

“Coding gives my middle school students the opportunity to build computational thinking skills and allows them to develop creative solutions for issues they care about most,” said Jessica Bibbs-Fox, who teaches eighth grade science and math at Kelly Elementary School in the Compton Unified School District in California.

“Many of them are working through trauma in their communities, and these skills are essential in helping them grow into effective problem solvers both in and out of school.”

Children learning to code smart machines

“The new Develop in Swift curriculum helps our students develop the technical and soft skills employers are looking for,” said Bill Skrzypczak, who teaches a two-year associate degree program in mobile app design and development at McHenry County College in Illinois.

“I’m proud that 100 percent of our graduates have gained employment with an average salary of $70,000 to $100,000, including both our returning adult and traditional students.”

Where can I get this stuff?

The Develop In Swift curriculum is available free in Apple Books. The “Everyone Can Code Adventures” student and teacher guides are also available for free at Apple Books.

Why does this stuff matter?

The Computer Science Teachers Association notes that fewer than 50 percent of all American high schools offer computer science classes and many college students aren’t able to get into the computer science courses needed to graduate, partly due to an ongoing shortage of educators available to instruct them.

Xcode for the people.

What’s available for parents?

To support parents with kids learning to code at home, Apple is adding a new guide to its set of remote learning resources: “A Quick Start to Code” is available now.

The new guide features 10 coding challenges designed for learners ages 10 and up, on iPad or Mac.

What else is there for home learning?

Apple introduced its new Learning from Home website this spring. The site offers resources to help boost home learning, including on-demand videos, virtual conferences and free one-on-one virtual coaching sessions.

New videos are frequently being added to the Apple Education Learning Series, including videos that explain how to get the most out of Apple’s built-in accessibility features across its systems.

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