Two high school districts in Illinois will introduce teachers and students to iOS programming, T.H.E. Journal reports.
According to a prepared statement, about 500 students in seven schools in Barrington Community Unit School District 220 and Township High School District 214 in Arlington Heights, Ill., both in Chicago’s northwestern suburbs, are working with the Mobile Makers Academy. The company offers professional development for teachers as well as curriculum for students and support for the classes, which will teach kids to develop mobile apps.
They’ll have to learn the Swift programming language, which is the language Apple uses for the iPhone, iPad, etc. Getting good will require an intimate understanding of variables, branching and conditionals, storyboards, arrays and dictionaries, and user interface elements, as well as advanced project management skills.
“Introducing students to mobile software development early on brings relevance to the classroom and ensures our students are competitive in higher education and the workplace,” T.H.E. quoted Lazaro Lopez, associate superintendent for District 214, as saying. But one “significant challenge,” he added, was finding teachers with experience in coding to teach the subject.
“It’s exciting that the district has embraced this new opportunity for students to learn coding. They look forward to learning Apple’s new programming language. I hope this leaves them wanting more in our four-year sequence of computer science class offerings,” the journal quoted Kristen Fisher, an Elk Grove High School computer science teacher, as saying. “Our students are learning how to be creative, solve complex problems and use critical thinking through a technical framework. We are creating a tangible way to expand STEM education.”
What apps would be good for these high school students to create? Why would the apps you suggest be useful? See Common Core English language arts literacy standards WHST.11-12.1-9 for more information.
