Democratizing Computing with
App Inventor
David Wolber
University of San Francisco
University of San Francisco
David Wolber
● Professor at University of San Francisco
● Author, App Inventor 2 with App Inventor creators
including Hal Abelson
● AppInventor.org teaching site has helped 1.3
million app builders and teachers
● Contributor to MIT App Inventor tool
● Excited to visit Estonia and learn
Agenda
● Introduction to App Inventor
○ Quiz
○ Demo, Raffle and International Research!
● App Inventor at USF
● App Inventor in K-12, after-school programs
● App Inventing in a class, a module
○ not just CS
○ Course-in-a-box
● Homework
App Inventor
● A Visual Blocks Language for building
Android Apps (phone/tablet)
● Plug together puzzle pieces instead of
type in code
● “Scratch” for mobile devices
● Even absolute beginners can build an
app within minutes!
App Inventor
● Developed at Google and MIT
● Lead by MIT Professor Hal Abelson
● Inspired by Logo and Scratch (Resnick)
and Constructionist Theory of Learning
(Papert)
This is an App Inventor app. Can you tell what it does?
No Texting While Driving
● USF Student Daniel
Finnegan created the app
in a beginning course.
● He was an English Major
"Software, after all, affects almost everything we do. Pick any major problem—global
warming, health care, or, in Finnegan’s case, highway safety—and clever software is
part of the solution. Yet only a tiny chunk of people ever consider learning to write
code, which means we’re not tapping the creativity of a big chunk of society."
Clive Thompson, Wired
Could you make the app send a particular response to
a particular number (e.g., your significant other)?
How about an app to vote by text?
Demo: Build a Raffle App
...and raffle away a prize
text Dave at
+1
415 359-4787
Tutorial for raffle app at:
appinventor.org/content/howDoYou/RecordingInfo/phone
Entire presentation at:
http://bit.ly/aiEstonia
What can you build with App Inventor?
Games
Real-World Apps
Text Processing Apps
Quizzes
Location Aware Apps
Broadcast Hubs
Web Enabled Apps
Real-World App Samples
● Vote-by-text app for our CS Night projects
● US Citizenship quiz for dad to study on bus
● American Sign Language (ASL) app
● App for parents to track child on bus route in
India.
App Inventor Compared to other
Languages
Our Goals
● Teach coding as a creative real-world
problem-solving activity.
● Broaden/diversify participation
● Not primarily to train more engineers...
● Instead, teach computational thinking:
○ problem solving skills
○ jobs with some programming
○ communicate with coders
Participation in CS
Computing,Mobile Apps, and the Web
USF CS0 course
Portfolio-Based Learning
App Inventor in Middle Schools
App Inventor in K-12: Kelly Powers
App Inventor
in
After-School Programs
Foodini Team from Fremont High
High School (age 15-18) Level
● Traditionally very little CS at this level in US
● Java Advanced Placement (AP) course
○ few students, few teachers
● Computer Science Principles (CSP)
○ More accessible for all
○ new AP course
○ App Inventor version: mobile-csp.org
App Inventor Resources
appInventor.mit.edu
appinventor.org/book2
appInventor.org
AI course-in-a-box
App Inventor Teachers registered at
appinventor.org/teacherMap
Coming Attractions:
Integrated Gallery
Coming Attractions:
Java Code
Why Teach with App Inventor?
● Building apps for phones and tablets is incredibly
MOTIVATING
● The high-level blocks language makes App Inventor coding
ACCESSIBLE
● Even beginners can create useful
REAL-WORLD SOFTWARE
● Learning to build interactive software as
A NEW CREATIVE MEDIUM
Kids People Love their Phones
Your Homework
Build an app!
appinventor.org
Tomorrow 1:30 App Inventor workshop with
Marika Anissimov and Maris Maripu .
anytime today/tomorrow: grab me for a demo!
Dave Wolber
[email protected]
appinventor.org
This talk is at
http://bit.ly/aiEstonia