[Year 12 SofDev] App Builders

[Poultney, Gordon A]

I've been using mit appinventor (now v2) for past few years with Year 10/11s.

It is easy to use, yet kids have to understand basics of order, condition, repetition.
It is capable of producing quite sophisticated apps.
Apps can be tested on an emulator or on a phone.
It's free and Android so thus uncomplicated by commercial motive.
It is all web based and can export to a phone fast.
There is also excellent documentation for getting started and tutes for building first apps.

http://appinventor.mit.edu/

cheers
          gordon



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________________________________
From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au [sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au] on behalf of Hanger, Elizabeth A [hanger.elizabeth.a at edumail.vic.gov.au]
Sent: Wednesday, 12 February 2014 2:30 PM
To: Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] App Builders

Hello

Does anybody have any suggestions for a good cheap free app builder, which will be easy for kids.

Thanks

liz

From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Jackson Isted
Sent: Saturday, 26 October 2013 8:37 PM
To: Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] Programming on the iPad with Codea

Hi,

Coming from a child who has started proper coding recently (me.learnAllTheJava()) I have found the Minecraft Mod ComputerCraft (Wiki: http://computercraft.info) was a great way to get me into Lua as it provided me with a reason to learn it. I wanted to be able to make things, do things in an environment I know well.

With it you can create "Computers" and "Turtle" (Computers that can move and perform actions with the world) that run an embedded Lua implementation and some custom API's that allow them to interact with the things around them and well as use some normal Minecraft (most people refer to this as "Vanilla Minecraft") mechanics.

It's actually what got me into coding properly.


Thanks,
Jackson Isted

Sent from my iPhone

On 26 Oct 2013, at 3:42 pm, Mark Schumann <mark.schumann at yvg.vic.edu.au<mailto:mark.schumann at yvg.vic.edu.au>> wrote:
Hi Kevork,

I used Codea with my Year 9s using the tutorial below as an introduction:

https://bitbucket.org/TwoLivesLeft/core/wiki/ForKids

I found it worked very well but beyond that tutorial it became quite difficult for the year 9 group to develop anything more complex than a few sprites moving around the screen. Interactions, collisions, explosions, animations, etc, were all quite complex to develop given it's purely code (with a few visual cues). Lua is very easy to learn but with the limited time I had with my year 9s it became a little too difficult.

I ended up using the app GamePress for iPad, which is closer to GameMaker in design and allows for logical branching of behaviours (collisions are VERY easy in that respect), a greater library of assets, and a good visual interface with drag and drop capability.

Feel free to contact me off list for more detail.

Mark
________________________________
From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au> [sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au>] on behalf of Kevork Krozian [kevork at edulists.com.au<mailto:kevork at edulists.com.au>]
Sent: 26 October 2013 14:32
To: Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List; Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List; 'Year 11 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List'
Subject: [Year 12 SofDev] Programming on the iPad with Codea
Hi Folks,

Sorry for the cross posts but recently  I have been quite absorbed with Codea as a programming language that can be a huge attraction for students of any year level in schools using iPads.
Has anyone taught programming on the iPad using this application? – it uses the language Lua,  http://www.lua.org/about.html
I am already looking at creating a beginner’s tutorial of say 10 lessons and then an intermediate version. It looks like an amazing hook to get students into IT / gaming / programming in middle and senior years considering they can do the work anywhere with their tablet on the bus, on the train, in the school playground, at home, in the car and oh I nearly forgot,  the classroom :)

Kind Regards

Kevork Krozian
Edulists Creator Administrator
www.edulists.com.au<http://www.edulists.com.au>
tel: 0419 356 034

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