These are my notes from Chris Thompson‘s breakout session, “Why Every Teacher Should Become an App Creator” at the 2012 Mobile Learning Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, on April 11, 2012. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. The official conference session description was:
Until recently development of mobile learning apps/games has been limited to the technical elite because of the complex development and publishing process. Coupled with the recent lifting of restrictions by mobile device manufacturers and the proliferation of user-friendly authoring tools this is no longer the case. Not only is interactive mobile learning app/game creation now possible by most teachers and students; it is also emerging as a highly engaging classroom learning strategy for middles and high school students. Participants will be introduced to both the why and how of mobile app/game creation for learning.
Chris Thompson is @ctceismc on Twitter. Slides from today are available as a PDF. Chris’ handout for “Tools for App/Game Creation” is available as a separate PDF. An audio recording this session (with permission from Chris, of course) is available as a free podcast on “Fuel for Educational Change Agents.”
I’m from Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA
– Chris’ website: www.ceismc.gatech.edu
Using surveys from PollEverywhere
Do you think mobile app development is too difficult for most students and teachers?
– most respondents today: Not sure
Reason #1: Mobile app creation and development is not as hard as you think
– young and old are doing it
– 3D game created by a 70 year old
– 9 year old boy in Korea has created published app
Thomas Suarez is app creator of “Bubble Ball” game
– created it in a month and a half
HERE’S A VIDEO “Bubble Ball – Robert Nay 14 years old developer” (NOT THE SAME ONE CHRIS SHARED, BUT SIMILAR)
ANOTHER ONE ON TOPIC, BUT NOT SHARED BY CHRIS: “TEDxManhattanBeach – Thomas Suarez – iPhone Application Developer… and 6th Grader”
BElieve is a free game development program for kids ages 5-12
Other game examples created by kids, 99¢ on Apple App Store:
– Butterfly Bubble Burst
– Valley Girl Buttons
Now watching Chris create a game in 4 minutes using GameSalad
– I could wirelessly transfer that app directly to my iPhone and play it there
PEW Internet Study from 2009: Demographics of teen cell phone users
– 75% of teens in each demographic group
Chris was evaluating a handheld grant in Georgia and found an extremely draconian cell phone policy
– hastily captured photo
Reason #3: New Tools + Old Ways = No Change
– mobiles not just for consuming
Biggest complaint from teachers on iPads: No flash video
– shows how many teachers just view a mobile device as a consumptive device to access/watch content online
Loeve 2: Access Information Anytime
– apps: from superhighway to Bypass
– August 2011 PEW Tracking survey, #2 most popular use for adults was “learning something new”
Level 3: Create Content (apps/games)
Why create mobile content?
Watching: “Baby Thinks a Magazine is a Broken iPad!”
Value proposition
– best way to learn something is to teach it
– gives kids and parents something to talk about
Reason #3: Mobile Content Creation = Learning
It’s incredibly engaging for kids to be creating apps and games
– motivation can be high
Just say no to PowerPoint!
– easy to share
– direct business connections
STEM connection
– all STEM jobs require some kind of computational thinking
You think a lot of people are getting rich creating mobile apps/games?
Is there gold in them that apps?
– 500,000+ apps
– 1 of the top 10 jobs in demand today
– the new American dream
– most popular categories: games, books, entertainment, education
– 400 new apps a day now
– 25 billion downloads to date on Apple App store alone
What can you learn creating a mobile app/game?
– user interface design
– instructional design
– media production
– game design
– programing
– robotics
– collaboration
– critical thinking
– marketing/business
– presentation / public speaking
– subject related content of the app / game: STEM skills
NET-S Alignment
STEAM – Integrating the Arts with STEM
STE@M
Reason f#5: Why Kids Should be Taught How to Code
– article by John Naughton, Open University
It’s becoming a moral obligation to teach kids MORE about technology and how these things operate
– if we don’t they are going to be cut off as users, who don’t know what is behind the curtain
– literacy in the future is not just about searching and finding information, but also being able to figure out when information is being manipulated
Let’s not forget Google manipulates information based on multiple factors when they present it in their search results
Kinds of Mobile Content / Apps
– Dropbox Documents
– images, movies
– web pages
– text and text rich files
On Device Creation
– iMovie, Keynote, Animoto, Flash Cards, TouchApp Creator, Creative Book Builder
iBooks, Kindle eBooks, Podcasts/Vodcasts
– interact books in hybrid forms
Web Apps
– HTML5 browser based, built with webkit
– don’t have to go through the app store
Native Apps
– faster execution than web apps, they are compiled
– full hardware access: accelerometer, GPS, camera, phone, email, gypos, accelerated graphics, etc
eBook / iBook Creation
– Apple Pages export
– Storyist for Mac
– Adobe InDesign
– Apple iBooks Author
Amazon Kindle has SDK, ADobe InDesign Plugin, converter apps
PDFs
iTunesU
Cartoon: Mom, you forgot to load my apps
Web App Creation Tools
– TouchApp Creator (App Store) – runs on iPad
– iBuildApp.com is browser-based application, has widgets to select
– NSBasic.com – GUI application, lets you program in basic and javascript
– Scirra.com (even driven point and click)
– Tersus.com
– AppCobra.com (Windows only)
– Appmobi.com (HTML5, javascript)
Hypercard lives on via RunRev.com
OH MY GOODNESS… THIS BRINGS BACK SOME FLASHBACKS…
Noncoding tools for Native app development
– GameSalad.com (Mac-only, the program we’ve used for all our camps)
– ClickTeam.com click and point
– AppInventor (now revived by MIT, Android-only)
– Stencyl.com (iOS only, Scratch-like)
– Unity3D
For our first iPhone game camp, we had 80 applicants for 12 slots
– this year had 200+ applications from 4 states and 3 countries
This weeks we are doing 7 weeks of camps, 25 kids at a time
– HUGE Interest in crating this kind of content
REsults to date:
i 92% said this has increased their interest in CS strongly
– 100% more likely to choose STEM career
What else can you do with a handheld
– control real world robotic devices
– AR Drone
Sphero is $100 rolling ball robot, iOS controllable
Our camp model: Kids learn techniques for 3 days, and then have 2 days to work on their own apps, then parents come for a showcase
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