joanie's blog

URBAN Txt Students Using App Inventor

joanie — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 13:34:59 +0000

The URBAN TxT (urban Teens eXploring Technology) program seeks inner-city south L.A. students from 7th to 11th grade with an interest in technology and exploring more about. Many of these kids have parents who didn't attend college or even graduate high school. The URBAN TxT program has been incredibly successful. Each of the 15-week summer terms start with an intensive course in team and leadership building.

“What I’ve found so fascinating is that the tech is just a tool to turn our teens into the leaders we know they can be,” Juan Vasquez, technology mentor at URBAN Txt, says. “It’s not really about the tech. It’s about how we get these kids to understand that they can go out and eat up this world … how we can tell kids ‘you’re meant to succeed … you’re built to succeed.’”

After these kids are taught how to be leaders and work on a team, they are introduced to HTML, CSS, and Javascript using a variety of online courseware. Once they are equipped with the foundational skills, they target problems in their communities that they're passionate about solving. After identifying these problems, the students are provided with mentors and volunteers whose goal is to help them explore different technologies that can be used to create the solution.

Some of the final projects students have created are: L.A. Volunteers, a sort of Match.com for teens — who need volunteering hours for high school graduation credits — and local charities and nonprofits, who need help and SAT Fighter (which students built using MIT App Inventor), a ninja-fighting game that helps teens prepare for their SAT tests.

Students of the program present their projects to everyone participating in a final demo day where they can win up to $3000 in prizes.

“Just seeing the hunger he has to compete in the world … that’s what I want every kid to have,” Vasquez says.

Read the original article at: http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/22/apps-in-the-hood-taking-south-l-a-kids-from-homeless-and-failing-to-stanford-and-princeton/

App Inventor Boot Camp in Western Mass

joanie — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 14:44:18 +0000

App Inventor Boot Camp was a summer professional development experience for teachers to learn MIT App Inventor, a free visual blocks-based programming system for Android mobile devices that can be used to teach computer science concepts through the creative design of apps for smartphones and mobile devices. In this hands-on workshop, educators built their own apps and explored how to integrate app programming and computer science principles into their curricula in computing, technology, science, and math classes. The workshop included time to develop curriculum exercises and share them with colleagues, as well as begin to build a learning community of educators using App Inventor.

Starting Tuesday, August 13, 2013 at 8:30 AM until Friday, August 16, 2013 at 1:00 PM, teachers gathered at the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center for an App Inventor Boot Camp: a 4 day workshop geared on teaching teachers about App Inventor and computational thinking. Mark Sherman, PhD candidate at UMass Lowell and part of the MIT App Inventor Training Corps led the workshop with assistance from myself and James DeFilippo and Rajia Aziz: both undergraduates at UMass Lowell in the Engaging Computing Group.

A photo of the instructors (minus Rajia who had to leave early) of the Bootcamp.

About 15 educators participated in the Boot Camp, including teachers and professors from middle schools, high schools, and even colleges. Participants had a mix of backgrounds, from very strong programming experience to none at all. But by the end of the bootcamp, everyone was able to build apps and understand basic computing concepts by using App Inventor.

A photo of all of the teachers and instructors from the last day.

As part of a project to get participants using App Inventor and integrating the tool and computing principles into different content areas, participants sorted themselves into groups of 2-3 and made an app for an infusion activity. Each app needed to serve an educational purpose that combined App Inventor and the computational thinking it affords with another subject area. Participants also wrote worksheets that complemented the apps. Some of the apps were: a College Tour of Western Mass colleges, a Physics app about gravity on Earth and other planets, a growing a plant app that teaches a bit about plants, a Spanish teaching app, an app that teaches and tests reading a ruler, and an app that teaches about computer/technology costs. All the apps, with source code and descriptions can be found in the App Inventor Gallery.

Two of the infusion apps that participants in the Boot Camp created

Overall, it was a great experience, learning and teaching App Inventor. Thank you so much to MGHPCC for hosting and for CAITE and ECEP for sponsoring. And thanks again to MIT's App Inventor Group and UMass Lowell's Engaging Computing Group for providing the instructors.

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Want to Contribute to App Inventor's Educational Resources?

joanie — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 20:07:41 +0000

We'd love to share your tutorials or other resources with the App Inventor community. To get started creating your own tutorials, check out the How To Create Your Own Tutorial page. If you'd like to create a Concept Card, use our Concept Card template. For these and any other resources you'd like to share, feel free to send them to

with a description of the resource with the resource as an attachment. Thanks and hope to hear from you soon!

Chicago Summer of Learning features App Inventor

joanie — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 20:00:43 +0000

This summer of 2013, thousands of young Chicagoans will continue learning while school is out, thanks to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s citywide Chicago Summer of Learning initiative, the largest coordinated summer learning effort in the country. Summer of Learning will specifically focus learning activities around science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. The City of Chicago teamed up with the MacArthur Foundation and Mozilla to be the first city to pilot a citywide digital “badge” system that visually represents and rewards students’ achievements. The badges in the Chicago Summer of Learning will recognize learning across all of the summer programs in the initiative, whether at a park, museum, library or online course, giving learners digital credentials that communicate the skills that they have developed. The badges the youth earn will unlock additional learning opportunities and challenges. All of the badge information can be carried back to schools and job fairs during the school year. These badges are earned by completing activities in various pathways available from the Chicago Summer of Learning hub site. App Invention using App Inventor is one of these pathways.

Arun Saigal and I went out to Chicago to lead a few workshops to Chicago youth and mentors who are part of this summer's Chicago Summer of Learning. Some of the students involved with CSOL come to the drop in center located at DePaul University every day for a Digital Divas program run through the Digital Youth Network. Others come every week wth their summer camp through the Chicago Park District. Some students are not involved in any camps but interested in learning as much as they can over the summer. Here are some photos from our workshops.

If you're interested in learning more about Chicago Summer of Learning, check out the homepage.

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