What you need to know
- A new Apple feature details how 500 educators took part in a virtual coding academy this summer.
- Apple facilitated the program in 24 cities and regions.
- 21 of these served predominantly Black and Brown students.
A new Apple feature has detailed how nearly 500 educators took part in a virtual coding academy this summer.
In a new feature press release Apple charts the story of Portrice Warren, a Birmingham City Schools fourth-grade science and social studies teacher:
Warren is one of nearly 500 educators who participated in a massive virtual coding academy this summer as part of Apple's Community Education Initiative (CEI), designed to bring coding, creativity, and workforce development opportunities to learners of all ages and to communities that are traditionally underrepresented in technology. Apple facilitates and supports CEI programming in 24 cities and regions across the US, 21 of which predominately serve majority Black and Brown students. As part of CEI, Apple also recently announced an expansion of its partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Apple says the purpose of the academy this year was not only to help educators learn how to code and teach coding, but also how to do it in the new remote environments of 2020. Warren and others took the course as students for the week:
Throughout the weeklong virtual coding academy, Warren and the other educators took on the role of student and worked together remotely using Apple tools, including the Everyone Can Code and Develop in Swift curricula, to design apps that solve real-world problems, an approach called challenge-based learning.
Part of Apple's Community Education Initiative, the academy was designed to bring coding, creativity, and learning opportunities to all ages and communities "traditionally underrepresented in technology."
