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This week is Computer Science Education Week (CSEW). A tech friendly non-profit organization called Code.org hosts an annual computer science awareness campaign to get kids interested in coding and to advocate for adding computer science to the core curriculum of public school education. This Wednesday, Dec. 11, Apple will participate in CSEW by offering a free class for “Hour of Code” day. Children and teens can sign up for a free coding class at a participating Apple retail store.
According to Apple’s press announcement, the “Hour of Code Youth Workshop” is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to “demystify code and show that anyone can learn the basics of programing.” The class will last one hour and is available to anyone, but is geared toward kids and teens.
Hour of Code is part of the non-profit organization’s campaign to get 10 million people to participate in this year’s CSEW between Dec. 9 and 15. According to Code.org, nearly 60 million lines of code have already been written and more than 2 million people have learned an hour of code.
Celebrities, executives, and officials who support SCEW include U.S. President Barak Obama, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, actor Ashton Kutcher, and more. Plus, Bill Gates (Microsoft), Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Susan Wojcicki (Google), and Gabe Newell (Valve) will participate in classroom video chats on Google+ throughout today.
In anticipation of this week, teachers across the nation have begun executing classroom coding with their students, including children as young as five. You are never too young to learn computer science.
If you are a teacher, you can get involved in CSEW, too. To find out more about how to participate in the Hour of Code, visit the organization’s website.
For more information about how to sign up for Apple’s Youth Hour of Code Workshop, find your nearest Apple Retail Store and make a reservation for the class this Wednesday.
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