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Free training for high-tech future is brought to
Boundary County (and the rest of Idaho) by
Inspire Idaho program |
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March 27, 2018 |
 Robots
were zipping around the Exhibit Hall at the
Fairgrounds Tuesday, following
programming code instructions that had been
written by people who only moments before were
your everyday, average, non-coding North
Idahoans.
Having been introduced to Apple's Swift
programming language, and with mentoring by
experts present at the event, those attending
Tuesday's Inspire Idaho program immediately put
their new-found programming knowledge to work
instructing a platoon of spherical robots to
cruise the Exhibit Hall.
This was the first day of of a twenty-city tour
across Idaho by the Inspire Idaho team, a
collaborative effort by Innovation Collective
and the University of Idaho. Their goal: teach
coding language to any and all comers, free of
charge. Their longer-term goal: to prepare
Idahoans with the skills and training to be
qualified to step into the high tech jobs
looming on the horizon of the future.
The idea is to team up a couple of teaching and
educational heavyweights, the University of
Idaho and a Coeur d'Alene-based company called
Innovation Collective, who sees our future
economy leaning heavily toward the the
technological advances of robotics, automation,
and machine learning. They intend to see people
in the here and now become prepared and develop
the skills to thrive in that future, through
their mission to rebuild inclusive communities,
inspire innovation, and unlock economic
prosperity.
They intend to take this mission throughout
Idaho, leveraging the extended reach the
University of Idaho has into 42 of the state's
44 counties through extension offices,
facilities, teaching, and resources, and thus
provide innovative training to prepare people
for the jobs and the economy of the future.
So back to Tuesday's program. This was the
kickoff session for any who might be interested
to attend to learn how to create and develop
"apps," those little specialty programs on all
of our cell phones and computers that help us
keep track of our budgets, check the weather,
calculate, find our way around, follow the
stars. And a host of other seemingly innumerable
applications. If you have ever thought to
yourself, "They should have an app that does . .
. " then this is the opportunity for you to
develop that very app yourself.
This year the emphasis of the Inspire Idaho
program is on providing those who want to learn
Swift code and App Development the opportunity
to do so at no cost, and to make available to
all counties and interested citizens of
Idaho—from the busiest urban county to the most
isolated rural area—the resources needed for
this learning, including necessary computers,
training, and access to nationally-known experts
and mentors.
 The training program will utilize Apple Inc’s
"Everyone Can Code" curriculum, and participants
will be supported by the University of Idaho and
Innovation Collective. The intention is to
leverage the statewide reach of U of I Extension
to promote the creation of App Development Teams
in every one of Idaho’s 44 counties. Experts and
mentors in the community will also provide
guidance and support. Upon completion of Apple's
full 180-hour "Everyone Can Code" curriculum,
and as part of their training, each team will
generate a fully-developed app. And each
participant will emerge with significant app
development skills.
Those who attended and signed up at Tuesday's
session have already taken the first step. If
you missed the program, but want to jump in, get
involved, and be ready for the economy of
tomorrow, check out the details at the Inspire
Idaho website,
www.InspireIdaho.org, then sign
up by filling out the form
located here.
The application development field is the first
skill being trained this year in the Inspire
Idaho program. This field currently generates
$1.3 trillion in revenue, and is expected to
grow to $6.3 trillion by 2021. This year, 2018,
is the first year of the Inspire Idaho program.
While this year's training will focus on app
development, training in other skills and
knowledge will be introduced around the state in
coming years through the program.
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