ABSTRACT
Educators are often seeking new ways to motivate or inspire students to learn. Our past efforts in K-12 outreach included robotics and media computation as the contexts for teaching Computer Science (CS). With the deep interest in mobile technologies among teenagers, our recent outreach has focused on using smartphones as a new context. This paper is an experience report describing our approach and observations from teaching a summer camp for high school students using App Inventor (AI). The paper describes two separate methods (one using a visual block language, and another using Java) that were taught to high school students as a way to create Android applications. We observed that initiating the instruction with the block language, and then showing the direct mapping to an equivalent Java version, assisted students in understanding app development in Java. Our evaluation of the camp includes observations of student work and artifact assessment of student projects. Although the assessment suggests the camp was successful in several areas, we present numerous lessons learned based on our own reflection on the camp content and instruction.
- Abelson, H., Mobile Ramblings. EDUCAUSE Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 1, 2011.Google Scholar
- Alice. Carnegie Melon University. http://www.alice.org.Google Scholar
- Android App Inventor from MIT Center for Mobile Learning, http://appinventor.mit.edu.Google Scholar
- Barbosa, J., Hahn, R., Rabello, S., and Barbosa, D., LOCAL: A model geared towards ubiquitous learning. SIGCSE Symposium on Computer Science Education, Portland, OR, March 2008, pp. 432--436. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Cheung, J., Ngai, G., Chan, S., and Lau, W., Filling the gap in programming instruction: A text-enhanced graphical programming environment for junior high students, SIGCSE Symposium on Computer Science Education, Chattanooga, TN, March 2009, pp. 276--280. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Eclipse. ADT plugin for eclipse. http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html.Google Scholar
- Fenwick Jr., J., Kurtz, B., and Hollingsworth, J., Teaching mobile computing and developing software to support Computer Science education. SIGCSE Symposium on Computer Science Education, Dallas, TX, March 2011, pp. 589--594. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Goadrich, M. and Rogers, M., Smart smartphone development: iOS versus Android. SIGCSE Symposium on Computer Science Education, Dallas, TX, March 2011, pp. 607--612. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Guzdial, M. and Ericson, B., Introduction to Computing and Programming in Python, A Multimedia Approach. Pearson Education, 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lego Mindstorms. http://mindstorms.lego.com.Google Scholar
- Loveland, S., Human computer interaction that reaches beyond desktop applications. SIGCSE Symposium on Computer Science Education, Dallas, TX, March 2011, pp. 595--600. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Mahmoud, Q., Best practices in teaching mobile application development. ITiCSE Joint Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, Darmstadt, Germany, June 2011, pg. 333. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Nielsen Wire, Young Adults and Teens Lead Growth Among Smartphone Owners. Written September 10, 2012, retrieved December 7, 2012 from http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/young-adults-and-teens-lead-growth-among-smartphone-owners/Google Scholar
- Perrone, V. Teaching for understanding: How to engage students in learning. Educational Leadership, Vol. 51(5), February 1994.Google Scholar
- Roy, K. App inventor for Android: report from a summer camp. SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Raleigh, NC, March 2012, pp. 283--288. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Scratch. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. http://scratch.mit.edu.Google Scholar
- U.S. Census Bureau. Age and Sex Composition: 2010. 2010 Census Briefs, May 2011. Retrieved July 9, 2012. http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-03.pdf.Google Scholar
- Wolber, D., Abelson, H., Spertus, E, and Looney, L., App Inventor: Create Your Own Android Apps. O'Reilly, 2011.Google Scholar
- Wolber, D., App Inventor and real-world motivation. In Proceedings of the 42nd ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Dallas, TX, 2011. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Using app inventor in a K-12 summer camp
Recommendations
Hands-On Summer Camp to Attract K–12 Students to Engineering Fields
This paper explains the organization and execution of a summer engineering outreach camp designed to attract and motivate high school students as well as increase their awareness of various engineering fields. The camp curriculum included hands-on, ...
App inventor for android: report from a summer camp
SIGCSE '12: Proceedings of the 43rd ACM technical symposium on Computer Science EducationGoogle's App Inventor for Android (AIA) is the newest visual "blocks" programming language designed to introduce students to programming through creation of mobile applications (apps). AIA opens up the world of mobile apps to novice programmers. Success ...
A technology infused science summer camp to prepare student leaders in 8th grade classrooms
SIGCSE '10: Proceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science educationTechnology-enhanced science curriculum has potential for introducing fundamental computing concepts to adolescents. iQUEST (investigations for Quality Understanding and Engagement for Students and Teachers) is designed to transform middle school science ...
Comments