The Amazon Echo comes to the classroom.
Young developers who want to add skills to the Amazon Echo will now be able to take a voice-enabled coding course.
The New York Code + Design Academy has joined forces with the Amazon Alexa team to offer students an eight-week apprenticeship in building voice-enabled apps—known as skills—for the device. The curriculum for the “Voice Activated Apps 101 with Amazon Alexa” was designed by NYCDA, who worked with the Amazon Alexa team to provide students with all the voice-enabled training they need to succeed.
The course runs from August 9, 2016 to September 27, 2016 and is the first in-person training opportunity for honing Alexa skills. Developers will build skills in Ruby, a programming language that has a reputation for being dynamic, simple and “a programmer’s best friend.”
“We look forward to our collaboration with the NYCDA, which will open the door for more innovations from developers on Alexa,” said Amazon Alexa director Rob Pulciani, in a press release. “It’s a first-of-its-kind curriculum, designed specifically for voice-enabled experiences, and will teach students how to use the Alexa Skills Kit to develop high-quality, fun and unique skills”
The course will take a deep dive into the Alexa Skills Kit infrastructure, with the end goal for students of building a working app through the Ruby language and the Sinatra web application framework.
Classes will take place at the NYCDA campus in New York City and will end with a final project and a voice-activated apps certification. Students who complete the course will then have their skill published in the Alexa app.
Budding developers who want to sign up for the course can do so here.
Making The Most Of A Unique Opportunity
The NYCDA recommends that students should have a working knowledge of Ruby, Python or JavaScript, while an understanding of how to build a basic back-end service would be a bonus. Students do not have to bring their own Amazon Echo devices as the NYCDA will provide the hardware.
“I’m excited to begin our collaboration with the Amazon Alexa team this summer in a truly unique course offering,” said NYCDA co-founder and chief academic officer Zach Feldman. “This course gives NYCDA students an opportunity to reimagine the way voice-activated experiences are being used under the direction of one of the most innovative technology brands in the world.”
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