Apple Is Teaching Kids To Code In Store This Thursday

All 22 of Australia’s Apple Stores will be hosting Hour of Code workshops this Thursday, inviting kids in to teach them about coding as part of Computer Science Education Week. What’s more, Apple will be opening a room on the App Store today called Hour of Code 2015. This room will provide resources including apps and iTunes U courses for anyone who can’t make it into a store.

The Hour of Code is a Code.org campaign that aims to get students across the world to participate in an hour-long introduction to coding. “Anybody can learn” claims the organisation’s website, and with computer technology constantly becoming a larger part of our lives, it’s now more important than ever to know how to code. The Hour of Code workshops held at the Apple Store will be designed to demystify code and prove that anyone can learn how to do it, being designed for kids as young as six years old. Kids can register for the workshops starting today at Apple’s Hour of Code homepage. Each store will have a workshop at 4:30pm, one at 6pm and the last at 7:30pm on Thursday December 10.

Even if they can’t make it in store, Apple has put a whole heap of resources on the App Store to help teach kids to code. These include a number of free apps, along with iTunes U courses. The apps, all aimed at kids, show the huge range of resources now available to introduce kids as young as five to computer science. I just wish I’d had these as a kid instead of all the games meant to teach me to touch type. Some of the apps on offer include:


Swifty for free

For beginners of all ages. “Learn how to code in Swift, funnified and wherever you are: With 200+ bite-size, interactive tutorials, getting started has never been so easy!”

Code School for free

For beginners of all ages. “Code School is an online learning destination that helps more than one million existing and aspiring developers learn through entertaining content.”

Hopscotch for free

For ages 9-11. “This award-winning app lets you make your own games and publish them instantly for anyone to play! Use our super easy-to-follow videos to make games like Angry Birds, create pixel art, or build something brand new.”

Tynker for free

For ages 9-11. “Tynker is the easiest way for kids to learn programming. Play fun puzzles to learn the basics and then create your own amazing games using our step-by-step coding tutorials. 100+ tutorials included for games, apps, drawing, music, physics, and more.”

Code Warriors: Hakitzu Battles for free

For ages 9 and up. “Become the ultimate code warrior and battle your friends with Code Warriors: Hakitzu Battles, an epic multiplayer robot combat game, where you learn the basics of coding while battling in both single and multiplayer missions.”

ScratchJr for free

For ages 5-7. “With ScratchJr, young children (ages 5-7) learn important new skills as they program their own interactive stories and games.”

Move The Turtle for $5.99

For ages 5-11. “Move the Turtle teaches children (ages 5+) the basics of programming (yes, we do mean coding!) Programming is about more than completing tasks, it is also about implementing your own ideas using your imagination. With this in mind we give you the opportunity to create your own programs from scratch or based on our inspiring examples.


For kids of all ages and yes, even adults, the App Store’s Hour of Code portal also contains a bunch of iTunes U Courses that will teach you everything you want to know about code, at any level. Computer Science Education Week begins today and goes until Sunday December 13, so now’s the best time to get cracking with that code.


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