Every Apple Store in the U.S. is offering a one-hour introductory course in computer programming on Wednesday, part of a national effort to expand computer science education.
The event is part of Computer Science Education Week, a celebration and campaign in which school teachers—no matter their specialty—are being asked to devote classroom time to an “Hour of Code” in order to get students started with rudimentary coding skills.
The week started Monday morning with kickoff YouTube speeches from President Obama and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a show of bipartisan support for the effort.
“We’ve had unprecedented support – not only from CEOs, celebrities, and world leaders, but from teachers, parents, and students, in the thousands and millions, to spread a simple idea: that computer science should be accessible to every 21st century student,” Hadi Partovi, a founder of Code.org, wrote in a blog post on Monday morning.
There are also lessons being offered to the public at large; Apple is offering the one-hour “youth workshop” at all 254 of its U.S. stores; Microsoft is additionally hosting similar classes at all 51 of its retail locations. Tutorials are also available at the Computer Science Education Week website.
In addition to the workshops, Apple, Microsoft, and Google—among other major American internet companies—will promote coding skills and education on their websites. (For example, Google’s homepage “doodle” on Monday also promoted the event.)
Apple fans who want to participate can sign up for the Dec. 11 event at the Apple retail store website.
Author: Joel Mathis
Joel Mathis is a regular contributor to Macworld and TechHive. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and young son.