New App From Google Teaches Adults to Code for Free

Enterprises

New App From Google Teaches Adults to Code for Free

Apr 19, 2018

Google has released Grasshopper, a free app aimed at adults that teaches beginner coding skills via puzzles and quizzes. The app was incubated out of Area 120, Google’s workshop for experimental projects, and its name pays tribute to the late computer scientist Grace Hopper.

According to the app’s website, Grasshopper currently teaches students “the basics of JavaScript and some of the building blocks of programming.” The website states that students can also take two animations courses.

Grasshopper founder Laura Holmes tells EdSurge the app wants to make it possible for more adults to learn to code, because it’s an “essential skill.” She points to the fact that while there are many people working on tools that teach children how to code, she and her team saw a need to help adults apply coding skills to their careers. Holmes says almost half of the app’s current users are from backgrounds that are underrepresented in technology.

“We really wanted to make sure that folks weren’t left behind and that they had an opportunity to get re-skilled in the new, kind of changing economy,” she says.

The app is currently available for both Android and iOS.

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