“Apple is using all of its worldwide network of stores as temporary classrooms this week to teach coding,” Sean Coughlan reports for BBC News. “The technology firm is using its 468 stores as bases for tutorials in the annual ‘Hour of Code’ project.”
“Craig Federighi, one of Apple’s top executives, says he wants to ‘set off a spark’ in young learners. He also wants to dispel the geeky image of ‘solitar’ computer programmers, saying ‘it’s an incredibly creative medium, not unlike music,'” Coughlan reports. “The Hour of Code is an international project giving people an introductory lesson in computer coding. It runs in about 180 countries, backed by technology firms and national governments, and last year claimed to have reached more than 100 million people.”
“This year Apple is supporting the outreach project with coding workshops, talks from developers and tutorials from software engineers,” Coughlan reports. “Mr Federighi says he wants Apple’s global chain of showrooms to be used more often as bases for training and education.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple Retail Stores offer free workshops for people of all experience levels, along with youth programs like Apple Camp and Field Trip. Find out more here: http://www.apple.com/retail/learn/
Supposedly they are getting rid of one to one. Guess they like this format better.
Apple describes the classes as:
The Hour of Code Youth Workshop
Join us for a special Hour of Code workshop during Computer Science Education Week. Students will learn to code through fun tutorials from Code.org.
Finding the ‘Hour of Code’ Youth Workshops schedule is not exactly easy. 🙁 IOW: Too many steps IMHO.
Start here:
http://www.apple.com/retail/learn/
Do NOT (inexplicably) use the ‘Youth Programs’ web page. (o_0)
1) On the general ‘Workshops’ page, scroll down to the “Find a workshop” search box to find your most local Apple Store.
2) The resulting page will provide a list of Apple Stores sorted by distance from your searched location. Click the most convenient Apple Store in the list if it is not already first on the list.
3) In the map box on the right, a sub-box appears with the name of the Apple Store you chose. Below its address and phone number is a small blue link you must click, entitled ‘See available workshops’
4) The resulting page for your chosen store will have a list below the title ‘Chose a workshop:’. You want to click on the box link entitled “The Hour of Code Youth Workshop”. This will drop down a schedule box listing all the related workshops coming up during the next two weeks.
5) Click one of the upcoming workshops listed. This will activate the button ‘Sign In to Reserve’, if you have not already signed in. Once you’ve signed in, your reservation is approved and verified!
At that point you can ‘Add to calendar’ your reservation. You can also ‘Manage my reservations’ if you need to cancel. (Keep in mind that these classes fill up. Not showing up means someone else loses out!).
It would be nice if:
1. These workshops were also for adults
2. There was an Apple Store near me (the closest one is an hour away)