Apple’s new free year-long course in app development – How about film making next?

Today Apple announced a free course that is available for school and university students to learn coding:

Apple today launched a new app development curriculum designed for students who want to pursue careers in the fast-growing app economy. The curriculum is available as a free download today from Apple’s iBooks Store.

App Development with Swift is a full-year course designed by Apple engineers and educators to teach students elements of app design using Swift, one of the world’s most popular programming languages. Students will learn to code and design fully functional apps, gaining critical job skills in software development and information technology.

There is currently an iOS app development gold rush. Stories of individuals making thousands by selling on the iOS app store have captured the mainstream imagination.

In reality – much like the 19th century US gold rushes – only a small proportion of app developers will be able to support themselves on iOS app royalties.

Many who make videos and film believe that storytelling with video – video literacy – is a skill that almost everyone would benefit from having. I think Apple could offer a very similar course based on the tools they make:

Apple today launched a new media development curriculum designed for students who want to accelerate their chances of success through video literacy. The curriculum is available as a free download today from Apple’s iBooks Store.

Telling stories with Apple Applications is a full-year course designed by Apple engineers and educators to teach students the fundamentals of storytelling using Apple’s iOS and macOS applications. iMovie for iOS and macOS is the most widely distributed video editing software. Final Cut Pro X has been bought over 2 million times from the Mac App Store. Students will learn to develop stories using these tools and more – including Clips for iOS, FileMaker Pro and Motion 5 for macOS, gaining critical job skills in all fields.

For now the iBooks store offers a free enhanced book: iMovie for Mac macOS Sierra. It is a full introduction to editing with iMovie – including source video and audio footage. That’s a good start. Once this is combined with similar lessons for other Apple apps and applications alongside the theory of how to communicate with video, Apple could change the lives of thousands of students and adults all over the world.