APP INVENTOR AS A RECRUITING AND
RETENTION TOOL
Tim Krause, PhDUniversity of Wisconsin – Stevens Point
Overview App Inventor Course Design
First Offering – Fall 2010
Second Offering – Spring 2011
Next Steps & Issues
Additional Resources
Course Design
2010/2011 Spring 2012
CIS102
CIS499
Ind. study I
Ind. study II
Personal Researc
h
CIS 102
Spring 2010
Course Design Spring 2010:
Two independent studies:
○ iOS○ Android
Personal research and development
Course Design: Resources Internal College grant (with D. Gibbs):
2 Android Dev II Phones ($800)1 Apple iPad ($499)
Course Design - Findings iOS:
Limited access to hardwareExpense of integrated developer programObjective C learning curve
Android: Access to hardware in department*Affordable/optional developer programEase of development: App Inventor
Course Design: 2010 - 2011 CIS 102 (1 credit) – Pilot
3 First-Year 3 Sophomore 2 Junior
CIS 499 (2-3 credit) – Mentoring and course design4 Senior
App I: The Brain Reference
App I: The Brain Reference
App II: MineMaze
App II: MineMaze
Course Design: FormatWK Activity2 Setup development environment, Hello Purr Application3 Basic Tutorial I (PaintPot) 4 Basic Tutorial II (MoleMash OR PicCall)5 Advanced Tutorial I (student choice)6 Advanced Tutorial II (student choice)7 Semester Project Proposals8 Semester Project Design/Wireframe/Prototype9 Setup Eclipse development environment (advanced)10 Status reports11 Overview of iOS development12 Status reports13 Overview of other framework development (HTML5/CSS3)14 Status reports15 Informal presentation to class16 Formal presentation to faculty and student body
FindingsApp Inventor for Android
Increased Collaboration
Increased Collaboration JRs and SRs modeled problem-solving
and other skills: mentoring
Example: App Inventor was buggy and difficult to install
Solution: students created a list of helpful links and a how-to guide for installation
Increased Collaboration That difficult install?
Students telling students to read instructions was powerful!
Increased Engagement Students voluntarily chose to abandon App
Inventor (spring 2011) in favor of custom development in Eclipse
Students voluntarily chose to explore other mobile development frameworks and presented to class: HTML, CSS, JSAppcceleratorPhoneGap
Increased Engagement Fall internships locally (2)
Independently Developed Apps
Independently Developed Apps
Independently Developed Apps
Next Steps iOS training for faculty (summer 2011)
Refine CIS 102 and offer as a course for non-majors (spring 2012)
Issues: App Inventor Support
Issues: App Inventor Support
Issues Local employer demand:
Dozens of positionsTransitioning development from desktop
development to mobileFocus on iOS devices: iPad, iPhone
Issues Hardware and operating system:
Macintosh (Intel-based): OSX 10.5, 10.6Windows: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7GNU/Linux: Ubuntu 8+, Debian 5+
Java 6 (1.6)
Had to rely on students' hardware
Issues Fragmented development options
HTML5 Examples:
AppMobi: http://www.appmobi.com/
Adobe Edge: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/edge/
Jo:http://joapp.com/
Issues: Coolness Factor For me, in the classroom:
1995 - HTML2005 - Second Life2010 - Mobile
Resources(student recommended)
Installing Eclipse:Eclipsehttp://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/eclipse-classic-362/heliossr2Android SDKhttp://developer.android.com/sdk/index.htmlJava JREhttp://java.com/en/download/index.jspJava JDKhttp://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk-6u25-download-346242.html
Resources(student recommended)1. Install the JRE2. Install JDK3. Install Android SDK4. Run Eclipse as Administrator5. Install Google ADT through Eclipse6. Install Android SDK and AVD Manager
through Eclipse
Resources (student recommended) Tutorials:
Hello World with App Inventorhttp://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/hello-world.html
How to install Android SDK with Eclipsehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIL1UouA4dE
Troubleshooting ADThttp://wood1978.dyndns.org/~wood/wordpress/?p=275
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