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Swift Playground
On September 19, 2017, Apple released a new app aimed to help kids learn coding in Swift "in a seriously fun way." For those of you that are not familiar with Swift, it is the computer language Apple developed for building their iOS, macOS and other Apple applications. I took a break from my Python classes and played around in the app for a little bit.
Pros
Just like anything Apple makes, the graphics are very inviting and fun. This visual appeal will definitely capture kids' attention and keep them engaged a little longer.
There are various levels of coding you can download - Level 1 (Fundamentals of Swift), Level 2 (Beyond the Basics), and Level 3 (Explore the Universe), and each level starts off with a short introduction (again with fun graphics) of the lessons before delving into the games.
Level 1 starts the game by using simple available commands to train you in building algorithm skills. Level 2 introduces variables, types, arrays, and more complex coding elements to further enhance the game building experience. Level 3 is appropriate for kids that understands the concept of the x- and y- coordinates to make association with image creation and placement, followed by event experience creating.
The materials feeds you different coding elements in small bites to help you building a solid foundation before moving onto the next level. Once you have gone through the lessons, there are also challenges available to further sharpen your skills.
The App itself also does not require wi-fi access, except when you are downloading the individual playgrounds. So this is definitely a game you can take anywhere with your kids as long as the playgrounds are downloaded.
Lastly, as all coding games do, there are great commentaries encouraging kids to move on to the next level and explore more.
Cons
Level 1 of the application is definitely something that mimics a lot of the simple coding games out there. It is a series of commands that teaches you how to move characters from one location to another with series of block. While you may want to simply skip these sections, I don't recommend it because the lessons build onto the previous lesson's backstory to move onto the next. Skipping one chapter may make it difficult to figure out the objective of the next lesson.
The next option you may want to do to move through the easy lessons is to just do them very fast. But unfortunately, the App itself seems to load very slowly for each lesson (and this is with an iPad I just purchased last Christmas!).
One other recommendation I wish to make to the App Developer is that as we run our test code, it may be helpful to highlight which part of the code we are running through to help debug and easily see which function is the issue.
Given the short release time of this App, I am guessing the developers are still working on improvements to the game.
As much as I have listed some con's to the App, I do plan to continue working through the lessons with my daughter and encourage her to see how this can help her creating her own iPhone App.
Let me know the discoveries you've made with the Swift Playground.
Stay tuned as my daughter and I journey to creating our very own iPhone App!
image credits: Apple Swift Playground https://www.apple.com/swift/playgrounds/