Dive Brief:

• Apple this week announced the launch of Swift Playgrounds for iPad, giving students the opportunity to learn the tech giant's programming language, Swift.
• Techcrunch reports the app resembles Codecademy with more graphics and play, offering new users basic coding lessons and challenges to test mastery.
• The program is designed specifically for the iPad, featuring a special keyboard to help with code entry, and it will be available in final form for free with iOS 10 in the fall.

Dive Insight:

Teachers and schools looking for new opportunities to get students exposed to computer science may like Swift Playgrounds as an option. So far, only one in four schools offer computer science classes to students, according to Code.org.

States, though, are beginning to consider adding new curricular requirements across the K-12 spectrum. In California, there is support for including computer science in the Next Generation Science Standards, which have followed up the Common Core’s unified national focus on math and English Language Arts. Georgia, Texas, and New Jersey are among the states that already have K-12 computer science curriculum standards, but they remain in the distinct minority.