What you need to know
- Apple has released a newsroom feature highlighting its Teacher Coding Academies.
- Educators from nearly 70 institutions attended academies over the summer.
- The goal is for the teachers to learn coding and then pass their knowledge on to their students.
Apple on Wednesday released a new feature that spotlights its Teacher Coding Academies. The initiative, as the name implies, is designed to help children of all ages learn how to code.
According to Apple, educators from nearly 70 education institutions attended these academies over the summer, where app prototypes were created.
They all shared one new and very important responsibility: shepherding their students into a world where coding as a common language. The teachers are determined to not only teach their student about coding, but to show them how they can channel that knowledge to make the world a better place, starting with their communities.
Apple highlights apps that were created in Boise, Austin, and Columbus, all of which give back in some way to the community. The app in Boise, for example, helps the police department better serve and communicate with the city's homeless population.
According to Tara Bordeaux, 2018's Teacher of the Year, Apple's academies have been incredibly helpful. Bordeaux admits she isn't tech-savvy, but she was still able to learn something at Teacher Coding Academies.
"By the time the week is over you feel confident enough to go back to your classrooms and pass the skills on to your students," Bordeaux said.
Apple also highlights what these academies mean for diversity, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
"For the HBCUs, it's another door to success," said Dennis Sigur, Dillard University computer science instructor. "Most of our students come from backgrounds where in high school there are no computer science classes offered, so that first taste of technology aside from their cell phone and the internet is on their college campus. So this has a major impact for our universities."
You can learn more about Apple's Teacher Coding Academies right here.
