Swift Playgrounds
© 2016 Apple
Swift is a "real" programming language, created by Apple in 2014 specifically for Apple touch devices (iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS and Linux). It is a powerful text based coding experience that can be used to create mainstream apps. Swift is designed to work with Apple's Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks, and it plays well with Objective-C and Xcode. We'd also recommend Unity as a more platform neutral option (download from https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download. Swift Playgrounds (2016) is a set of free tutorials designed to introduce basic Swift programming to older children or adults. You'll find Playgrounds to harder to learn than Scratch or App Inventor for Android, in part because there are no visual, LEGO-like blocks. A lot of reading and abstract thinking is required, so make sure children are developmentally ready before downloading this content. A good rule of thumb is that they can conceptualize functions or variables. This series of tutorials could work well for a Scratch graduate who is ready for real code. After you download the Swift Playgrounds small, free app shell (with no content), you see a menu offering six featured playgrounds that start easy (Learn to Code) and get harder (Brick Breaker). Each playground must be downloaded before it can be used, so you'll need a solid Wi-Fi connection to avoid waiting. Because of the way progress is saved, this is a one player experience. So if a second child wants to use one of the Playgrounds, he or she will need to erase the existing playground and re-download a new copy. This rather clunky process should be noted by teachers and librarians. Other features include the ability to record a screen as a movie, a PDF creator, and a sources book with more tools and examples. Be sure to explore the Playground Book, with a set of useful tools. tutorial chapter, which contains examples of code, and answers to common questions. This initiative raises some questions. Obviously Apple wants to insure that a student's first coding experience is on their platform. We suspect this "free" experience is a very smart long term investment.
iPad (iOS 10 required)
Teaches: coding, programming, creativity, logic, math
CTR Rating: 95%