Mobile Makers Teacher Academy: Pre-Course Work

This week I began my two-week training at Mobile Makers in Chicago to learn the Swift programming language.  My school district would like to encourage more students to get involved with computer science.  They looked into several different options, and we decided that since we are a 1:1 iPad school district, we would like to teach our students how to program for iOS devices using the Swift programming language.

Before arriving at the training program, we were asked to complete some pre-course work.  Through this pre-course work, we were exposed to some of the syntax and structures associated with the Swift programming language.  During this work, I read through some different resources, watched some screencasts, and completed two apps.


Hello World

The typical introductory program for someone learning a new language is the "Hello World" app.  The app requirements allowed me to create some different text fields, labels, buttons, and images.  Through this app, I was able to work with variables and I learned to how to create a link between items in the storyboard (text fields, labels, etc) with the code.

Multiply

The second app for the pre-course work was called "Multiply".  In this app, I was able to create a simple calculator.  The app user is able to type in two numbers and choose to add, subtract, multiply or divide.  Based on the answer, a different picture appears.  This app introduced me to concepts such as the segmented controller and the syntax of a "switch" case.  The switch case allowed me to efficiently calculate the sum, different, product or quotient based on which segment was selected in the segmented controller.