Category Archives: STEM Education

App Inventor News, STEM Education, Uncategorized

App Inventor course available in Spanish

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Estructurado en 8 módulos y con más de 146 clases este curso es ideal para aquellas personas que, sin tener idea de programación, quieren tener un curso completo de App Inventor paso a paso y basado en la metodología de aprender haciendo.

Curso de Desarrollo de aplicaciones móviles Android con App Inventor

The 22 hour online course is offered through the udemy.com

(I did not make clear – sorry – this course is from Professor José Luis Núñez and he is offering it through udemy.com. I am not involved in this at all – just sharing the link – Ed)

Components, Documentation, Programming Method, STEM Education, Uncategorized

Tip: Using component colors to find components in the Blocks Editor

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Finding a specific programming block with in the AI2 Blocks editor can be hard for new AI programmers.

You found a great code example online and want to recreate it by entering the blocks in to your program – but you cannot find that red block in the middle of the code sample? Where is it? !!!

You start poking around the drop down lists, scanning up and down the pop up menus, missing it the first time(!) and then going through all the blocks again until you finally locate that darned block! Frustrating!

Continue reading Tip: Using component colors to find components in the Blocks Editor →

App Inventor News, STEM Education, Uncategorized

“App Inventor 2 Databases and Files” ebook now available, 322 pages

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For a complete description of Volume 1 (Introduction), Volume 2 (Advanced Concepts) and Volume 3 (Databases and Files), please see my App Inventor 2 e-books page where you can view the table of contents, download a sample chapter, and find links where you can obtain these ebooks online at Amazon, Google Play, Kobo Books and so on.

  • Volume 3 covers TinyDB, TinyWebDB, Fusion Tables, Files and exchanging data with CSV format files.

Volume 3 is a big e-book – 322 pages long, says Amazon’s page counter.

Volume 3 is now available at

Links to all 3 books are available here.

Capture

My Guide to 3D Photography e-book is available from:

Android Development, App Inventor News, General, STEM Education, Uncategorized

How did you discover MIT App Inventor?

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How did you discover MIT App Inventor?

I discovered App Inventor just as Google was handing AI classic off to MIT. At the time I was looking at different kinds of development tools for mobile devices, and App Inventor showed up in some online searches.

I took a look at it and found it  intriguing – at the time, AI classic did not seem quite capable of doing the things I was likely to need, but I intended to keep an eye on it.

A few months later, I was asked if we could quickly train some high school students to write Android apps? I have been a volunteer engineering mentor with FIRST Robotics programs for eight years. The new high school team where I was volunteering had intriguing ideas for mobile apps. When I was asked about the feasibility of quickly building some Android apps, I immediately proposed MIT App Inventor!

Our first student was so enthralled he literally stayed up half the night teaching himself App Inventor and soon was writing bundles of code for our Android tablet applications. Eventually another student joined the effort (from an iPhone background!) and rapidly came up to speed, writing a neat app in App Inventor.

Continue reading How did you discover MIT App Inventor? →

Documentation, STEM Education, Uncategorized

App Inventor 2: Databases and Files – available shortly

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Volume 3 – focusing on TinyDB, TinyWebDB, Fusion Tables and text files – is now Available.

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App Inventor 2: Databases and Files is a step-by-step guide to writing apps that use TinyDB, TinyWebDB, Fusion Tables and data files for information storage and retrieval. Includes detailed explanations, examples, and a link to download sample code. This is the first tutorial to cover all of these App Inventor database and file features.

If your apps need to work with data or files – you need this book!

TinyDB stores data on your smart phone or tablet and is a primary way for App Inventor apps to save data, even when the app is no longer running or if the device is turned off.

TinyWebDB is similar to TinyDB, but stores your data on a remote server in the network cloud.

Multiple apps can share a TinyWebDB database, plus you can update the content of your TinyWebDB using just a web browser. This means you can distribute an app whose content can change over time – just by changing the values in TinyWebDB.

A big challenge is the need to set up a TinyWebDB server – this book shows how to do that through free services offered by Google.

Fusion Tables provide a powerful, cloud-based database system for App Inventor apps. Creating, retrieving, updating and deleting data is done using the industry standard Structured Query Language or SQL. Fusion Tables reside in the Google network cloud – this book shows you how to set up and configure Fusion Tables for you own apps using free services of Google. As your app requirements grow, Google’s cloud can provide low cost servers and bandwidth for your needs.

Underneath the Android OS user interface, there is a file system, similar to the file system found on Windows or Mac OS X. With App Inventor your apps can write and read data from files, and if using the special “CSV” format, App Inventor data can be shared with many spreadsheet programs. This book shows you how to create, use and access data files, and how to convert data to and from the CSV format.

Over 28,000 words. Amazon’s page count is 322 pages. Over 250 screen shots and illustrations. Numerous sample programs and code.

App Inventor 2: Databases and Files – Table of Contents
1 – Introduction
2 – Using the TinyDB database
3 – Implementing Records Using Lists in TinyDB
4 – Simulating Multiple TinyDB Databases
5 – How to Use Multiple Tags in TinyDB
6 – Introduction and Setup: TinyWebDB
7 – Managing TinyWebDB in the Cloud
8 – Programming for TinyWebDB – Demo 1
9 – Adding a Tags List to TinyWebDB – Demo 2
10 – Handling Multiple Users with TinyWebDB – Demo 3
11 – Implementing a Student Quiz Application using TinyWebDB
12 – Introduction to Fusion Tables
13 – Developing Your Fusion Table App
14 – Using Text Files in App Inventor

Documentation, General, Products, STEM Education, Uncategorized

Pre-Announcing: App Inventor 2: Databases and Files-new e-book

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Available now: App Inventor 2: Databases and Files

I have finished writing App Inventor 2: Databases and Files, a new e-book providing step-by-step guides to using TinyDB, TinyWebDB, Fusion Tables and Data Files in Android App Inventor programs, including sharing data with spreadsheets.

Continue reading Pre-Announcing: App Inventor 2: Databases and Files-new e-book →

Documentation, General, Products, STEM Education, Uncategorized

App Inventor 2 Tutorial Volume 2 is now available at Amazon

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Volume 2 of the App Inventor 2 Tutorial is now available at Amazon as an e-book via this link: App Inventor 2 Tutorial Volume 2: Step-by-step: Advanced features including TinyDB.  The e-book will also be available from Google Play shortly.

Description

MIT App Inventor 2 is a fast and simple way to create custom Android apps for smart phones or tablets. Volume 2 in the series introduces debugging methods, explains additional controls not covered in Volume 1, introduces “agile” methods for developing a real world app, and provides sample code for using the TinyDB database.

The App Inventor 2 Tutorial series is targeted at adult learners (high school and up). App Inventor 2 provides a simplified “drag and drop” interface to layout your app’s screen design. Then implement the app’s behavior with “drag and drop” programming blocks to quickly assemble a program in a graphical interface.

Volume 1 of this series covered the basics of the App Inventor user interface Designer and the Blocks programming editor, plus basic “blocks” programming concepts and tools for arithmetic, text processing, event handling, lists and other features. Volume 2 builds upon Volume 1 to provide tips on debugging programs when the apps work incorrectly, how to use hidden editing features, and how to install your own apps on to your phone or tablet for general use. Code samples are provided for using the Notifier component for general use or for debugging, for user interface control tricks such as buttons that change color continuously or implementing the missing “radio buttons” component, using ListPicker and Spinner for list selections, and using the WebViewer to display web pages in your app. The book includes a large section on designing and building a sample real world application and finishes with a chapter on using the TinyDB database.

For readers of the blog, Chapters 4–8 are based on the tutorial already presented here. Chapter 2 and Chapter 9 on TinyDB are all new material.

Chapters

  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1 – App Inventor Tips
  • Chapter 2 – Debugging App Inventor Programs
  • Chapter 3 – User Interface Control Tricks
  • Chapter 4 – Designing and Building a Real World Application
  • Chapter 5 – Tip Calculator Version 2
  • Chapter 6 – Tip Calculator Version 3
  • Chapter 7 – Tip Calculator Version 4
  • Chapter 8 – Tip Calculator Version 5
  • Chapter 9 – Using the TinyDB database

(Volume 3 is now available – App Inventor 2 Databases and Files adds substantially more information on TinyDB, plus TinyWebDB and Fusion Tables and includes the full introduction to TinyDB).

AppInventor_Volume2Cover

Products, Programming Method, Software, STEM Education, Uncategorized

“Visual Development” system for Arduino

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As you know, MIT App Inventor is a graphical-based programming system, or a “visual development” system where programs are constructed by dragging and dropping “blocks” onto a Blocks editor.

Arduino, which we mentioned in conjunction with our Bluetooth interface code, is a microcontroller system that is normally programmed in a language similar to the C++ programming language – which is text-based.

Mitov Softwware has introduced a new visual programming system for Arduino. I have not yet had a chance to try this out – the software is in “Beta” test phase and is not yet generally available.

The simplicity of an App Inventor type programming environment might then be available for Arduino applications. This is very exciting. It may be helpful for enabling more kinds of people, with different types of backgrounds than software developers(!) to write code for Arduino boards.

Program Arduino boards visually, fast and easy with Visuino #Visuino #Arduino

Source: Visuino – Visual Development for Arduino by Mitov Software

I have used this screen shot from their web site to illustrate the general idea – really looking forward to trying this out!

screenshot-03

App Inventor News, STEM Education, Uncategorized

MIT App Inventor usage triples during 2014-2015 school year

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Source: MIT App Inventor usage for 2014-2015 Academic Year

As they point out, the cyclical ups and downs in usage suggest App Inventor is primarily used by students – with drop off in usage during school vacation periods.

That suggests an opportunity to expand usage of MIT App Inventor – by insuring that AI2 appeals to a wide audience of potential app developers and not just educational programs!

Software, STEM Education, Uncategorized

“Why Learning to Code is So Damn Hard”

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Click through for the full post at Viking Code School – as they say, the early part can be easy, then things get tougher, followed by a challenging learning period – until confidence and skills flourish.

What every beginner absolutely needs to know about the journey ahead

Source: Why Learning to Code is So Damn Hard

MIT App Inventor makes many things easier – but eventually one must learn to think like a software developer and become familiar with concepts like data structures, algorithms, design patterns, and software engineering design and project management.