caitlin's blog

$200K Keck Grant for Appinventor.org

caitlin — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:32:29 +0000

David Wolber and the University of San Francisco received a $200,000 grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to launch the Democratize Computing Lab at USF . The Lab’s mission is to break down the programmer divide and radically broaden and diversify the pool of software creators. The Lab will be using App inventor to allow beginners to build useful apps within days and experience the joy of computing and real-world problem-solving.

Wolber has been involved with App Inventor since its inception at Google in 2009, and co-authored a book with App Inventor creator Hal Abelson and two of the Google engineers on the App Inventor team (including Mills College professor Ellen Spertus). His site appinventor.org, which provides video lessons and course materials for students and teachers, recently received its millionth hit.

The Lab is involved with a number of App Inventor education projects for providing beginners with an entry-way into the world of programming. Wolber and his students are completing and refining the “course-in-a-box” materials for students and teachers on the appinventor.org site. They’re also working with MIT and UMass-Lowell on the App Inventor Community Gallery, a site where students, teachers, and developers share apps and learn from each other.

Wolber will continue to direct the Lab in the fall while on Sabbatical at MIT, where he’ll be serving as a visiting faculty member and working with Hal Abelson and the App Inventor team.

Join the App Inventor Community Gallery!

caitlin — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:36:16 +0000

The App Inventor Gallery is now open to the world at gallery.appinventor.mit.edu. Show off your apps. Find apps for remixing. Learn from others and collaborate! The gallery is an open-source app store, a collaborative development environment, and a peer-to-peer learning studio, all in one. Teachers, students, and app developers: make the gallery part of your app inventing!

Preliminary Report from World Mobile Congress

caitlin — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 20:16:40 +0000

It's a busy time here for the App Inventor crew! CML staff Shay and Leo are currently in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress, presenting on unX. Created through a partnership between MIT, UNED, Santander, Telefónica and CSEV, unX is the first online learning portal (MOOC) specifically created to foster entrepreneurship in Ibero-American countries. Learn More about unX and the Mobile World Conference in this downloadable press release.

Though we'll have to wait for a full report until they get back, in the meantime, they've sent some exciting news: our partner CSEV recently received the New Media Consortium's Center of Excellence Award for their work on unX! This award, given for excellence in the application of technology to education and learning, recognizes CSEV's work in "developing inventive and interactive models to transmit knowledge in online environments. Read More about unX NMC Award

We know Shay and Leo will return from Barcelona with great stories and insights from their unX colleagues, and from the multitude of exciting technology enthusiasts at the Mobile World Congress. We look forward to sharing them with you soon.