Mobile App development

[Linda Robertson]

30/08/2016 at 8:20 am

I am having trouble getting appinventor (http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/) working on my council network does anybody have another mobile app development course they could send me details of or point me at on the web thanks.

[Jeremy Scott]

30/08/2016 at 9:57 am

Linda,

I don’t know if you mean my own “I Love My Smartphone” course, but if you do, version 2 for App Inventor 2 will be out very soon.

In terms of App Inventor, version 2 works completely within the browser for deisng and coding, but requires a local installation to connect to phones. Full instructions are here:

http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ai2/setup.html

(which I’m assuming you’ve already looked at). Note that App Inventor will not work on Internet Explorer; in my own school, we use Firefox.

[Linda Robertson]

30/08/2016 at 10:02 am

Thanks Jeremy, yes it is the “I Love my Smartphone” course, Getting anything installed or connected on the council network is difficult and takes time. However I have managed to get the emulator working just not any phones connected, but I am working on it. I was hoping there was a more user friendly course out there that was easier to get working.

[Mrs Janet McDonald]

03/10/2016 at 1:56 pm

Hi Jeremy

Do you know when “very soon” will be? We’re struggling with the old screen casts and the new reality!

Many thanks
Janet

[Linda Robertson]

03/10/2016 at 2:42 pm

If you find out let me know as only 2 pupils have android phones and the emulator is not working well….

[Jeremy Scott]

04/10/2016 at 2:52 pm

It’s finished, so should be available for download from the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s website very soon.

[smcalpine]

11/12/2016 at 7:33 pm

I am looking for mobile app development that is great for the weans… I know you are talking about AppInventor here but has there been any other suggestions?

I am looking at NativeAndriod and InVision… anyone else looked at them for classes?

[Peter W Donaldson]

11/12/2016 at 8:23 pm

Hi Shona? and Linda,

after using AppInventor for a number of years we’ve decided to try Code.orgs Applab programming environment. It does need a modern browser, Google Chrome or Firefox, but is completely browser based and generates HTML 5 web apps that can be viewed and used on any make of phone. There’s even a facility for them to text a link to their phone to access any app they’ve created. Although it’s block based it’s really just standard Javascript with a number of specially created libraries and pupils can switch from a blocks based view to a text based view instead.

Currently there is a simple code.org course that starts with simple turtle graphics style challenges to introduce you to the environment, some starter apps they can look at and customise and some video tutorials to build some simple games and survey style apps. There’s also a teacher dashboard and the ability to create a class so that you can monitor students overall progress.

Another possibility is the free version of the Appshed online environment which has a number of different components that can be dragged onto a virtual mobile phone and then scripted. It’s fairly easy to create simple information based apps in this but it’s more of a challenge to create interactive apps with lots of scripting. If you want a classroom view, unlimited access to the environment and a greater number of support resources you do need to pay for a subscription for this option.