App Inventor Blog

Technovation teaching teachers App Inventor

wolber — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:47:27 +0000

The great team at Technovation is giving a workshop this summer for teachers. Here’s the info:

Technovation for Teachers: Summer Institute to Teach App Inventor

The Technovation Challenge has been teaching high school girls how to build mobile phone apps using App Inventor since 2010. Why should the girls get all the fun? Technovation is expanding to teachers with their first ever Summer Institute in Silicon Valley.

This week-long Technovation bootcamp will teach participants all stages of the app development process from the entrepreneurial process to design thinking to using App Inventor. Teachers can get CEUs for participating.

Teachers will leave with thorough knowledge of App Inventor, an app prototype, and the tools and curriculum to teach App Inventor in their own classroom (and maybe even set up a Technovation club!).

When: July 30- August 3
Where: Silicon Valley
Cost: $400

Learn more: www.technovationchallenge.org

USF students to pitch MS app in Cape Town, South Africa

wolber — Tue, 15 May 2012 02:32:09 +0000

Two humanities students took an App Inventor course and built a prototype; two graduates in computer science pushed the project along by building a more complete version using Java. Together, this uncommon comingling of students is competing in an international mobile health (m-health) contest. And they just make the lives of thousands suffering from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) just a little bit easier!

The school is University of San Francisco. The humanities students are Dylan Hindenlang and Samantha Lam, who walked into a core curriculum computer science course and will end their year traveling to Cape Town to pitch their project. The graduate students are Chen Chen and Yaoli Zheng, who for their final project in a Mobile Programming course worked with the humanities students and a person with MS to build a sophisticated piece of software. The contest is the GSMA Mobile Health Challenge to be held at the Mobile Health Summit 2012.

Yaoli Zheng, Chen Chen, Profesor David Wolber, Dylan Hindenlang, and Samantha Lam

Help MIT Study and Extend App Inventor

wolber — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:33:47 +0000

Hi folks. If you are an app inventor user, please fill out the survey on it here: survey.

This will help the MIT team move forward in improving app inventor. Here’s the announcement:

In order to ensure the future success of App Inventor and explore innovative uses of mobile technology in education, Google has funded the establishment of a Center for Mobile Learning at the MIT Media Lab. The new center will be actively engaged in studying and extending App Inventor for Android.

In an effort to assist MIT in their effort to study and extend App Inventor, we invite you to complete this brief survey on your use of App Inventor. All data collected in this survey will be shared with the MIT Center for Mobile Learning.

Please visit http://appinventoredu.mit.edu/ for updates on what is being done with App Inventor at MIT.

The App Inventor Team

P.S. This survey is being distributed through multiple means. Please be sure to only fill it out once.

App Inventor students, professors, and Googlers discuss their experience

wolber — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:53:13 +0000

Angelo Taylor is a University of San Francisco student who took my App Inventor course last year. He has created this video about our App Inventor course. Great work Angelo!

O’Reilly Webcast on App Inventor and Its Future

wolber — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:37:11 +0000

My O’Reilly Webcast on App Inventor and its future is now archived (it was given Sep. 2, 2011). I talk about some success stories with App Inventor, what’s going to happen as it transitions to MIT, and how the language might be developed further. I even tell a really bad App Inventor joke. Check it out.

O'Reilly Announcement

Video: University students interviewed about App Inventor

wolber — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 15:56:35 +0000

This video was created by University of San Francisco student Angelo Taylor. A longer version is coming soon. Do you have video of students working with or talking about App Inventor?

App Inventor en Espanol

wolber — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 02:55:27 +0000

Anaya Multimedia has created a Spanish translation of our App Inventor book. Here’s the Amazon link: http://amzn.to/n3i6Pa.

I also found this Spanish App Inventor resource site: https://sites.google.com/site/appinventormegusta/. Check it out!

Resnick and App Inventor: Community sharing will explode

wolber — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:42:17 +0000

Mitch Resnick will be teaming up with Hal Abelson and Erick Klopfer on the App Inventor project at the new MIT Center for Mobile Learning. This development is great for many reasons, one being that Mitch is an expert on building community and sharing within a development tool.

Mitch’s Scratch system is one of the greatest sharing sites– open source software sites– in the world. Community is built into the very core of the system and sharing is the default behavior. The motto is Imagine. Program. Share. Building something from example is the norm.

Such a scheme is especially important for kids and the non-geeks who inhabit the App Inventor world– its much easier than starting with an empty canvas or an empty text editor. Hell, its really best the way for hard-core geek programmers to work as well.

The current version of App Inventor has no sharing facility: its really a wonder that App Inventor flourished without it. Resnick’s influence will ensure that the community sharing is integrated directly in the workflow.

What’s it all mean? Are kids the only ones who buy into this sharing stuff? Can Resnick get adults to play together as well? I believe the answer is yes. People– kids and adults–love their phones. The lucky ones with tablets are obsessed with those as well. Most have never imagined that they could actually program these devices. App Inventor makes that possible, but it needs a community to foster it. Resnick may be just the guy to turn these phone lovers into the world’s greatest app building collaboratory.

Best App Inventor News Ever: MIT Launches New Center for Mobile Learning!

wolber — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:29:11 +0000

MIT announced the launch of the new Center for Mobile Learning. The Center’s first activity will focus on App Inventor for Android! The center will be led by App Inventor mastermind Hal Abelson, Mitch Resnick of Lego Mindstorms and Scratch fame, and Eric Kopfler, the director of teacher education at MIT and an expert in games and simulation. Here’s an excerpt from the announcement:

Dr. Maggie Johnson, Google’s Director of Education and University Relations, sees the Media Lab initiative as the ideal next step for App Inventor. “Google incubated App Inventor to the point where it gained critical mass. MIT’s involvement will both amplify the impact of App Inventor and enrich the research around it,” said Johnson. “It is a perfect example of how industry and academia can work together effectively.”

This news boomerangs the negativity surrounding Google’s discontinuation announcement last week. To the many teachers whose curriculums have been energized by app inventor, and to the thousands of newly empowered app builders: Rejoice! The fun has just begun!

Update: Hal Abelson discusses the move at Google Blog. Google is helping fund the center.

What’s Next for App Inventor? O’Reilly Webcast Friday Sept. 2, 10 am pdt:

wolber — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 05:04:36 +0000

O'Reilly Webcast

Join me on the web as I discuss the ramifications of Google’s open sourcing and discontinuation of App Inventor, Sept. 2 at 10 am. There will be plenty of time for QA!