Apple this morning announced the expansion of its "Everyone Can Code" initiative to 70 educational institutions across Europe, and following the announcement, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke at Harlow College in Essex, one of the schools that will adopt the new curriculum.
The Guardian shared several of Cook's comments, which covered overuse of technology and boundaries for children.
Cook said he believes there are concepts that can't be taught using technology, and in many courses, technology shouldn't dominate.
“I don’t believe in overuse [of technology]. I’m not a person that says we’ve achieved success if you’re using it all the time,��� he said. “I don’t subscribe to that at all.”
Even in computer-aided courses, such as graphic design, technology should not dominate, he said.
“There are are still concepts that you want to talk about and understand. In a course on literature, do I think you should use technology a lot? Probably not.”
According to Cook, Apple cares about children out of the classroom, a topic that's notable as Apple investors recently urged Apple to do more to protect children from smartphone addiction.
Apple in early January said in a statement that it thinks deeply about how its products are used and the impact they have on people, including children. Apple takes its responsibility to protect children "very seriously," and has promised more robust parental controls for iOS devices in the future.
Though he does not have children of his own, Cook says in his own personal life, he "put some boundaries" on his nephew. "There here are some things that I won't allow; I don't want them on a social network," he said.
On the topic of learning to code, Cook spoke passionately, as he has done several times in the past. Learning to code, he says, is more important than learning a foreign language.
Cook said: "I think if you had to make a choice, it's more important to learn coding than a foreign language. I know people who disagree with me on that. But coding is a global language; it's the way you can converse with 7 billion people."
Cook's full commentary, which covers diversity, coding at an early age, and the importance of the press, can be read over at The Guardian.
