Teaching computing and programming fundamentals via App Inventor for Android

Abstract

In this age of growing importance for interdisciplinary studies, the field of computing, and its indispensable component, programming, have become increasingly important not only for STEM areas but also for many other fields. Computational chemistry, bio-informatics, computational linguistics, computational toxicology, etc. are just a few examples of the crossover disciplines that benefit significantly from the developments in the computing and Information Technology (IT). Instructors are facing more challenges today than ever in trying to come up with new, fresh and appealing methodologies to attract and retain students in delivering computing and IT related topics to a much broader audience. Computing courses and topics both for majors and non-majors need new approaches that motivate students to feel comfortable with the life-long learning of computing concepts and tools. The goal of this paper is to summarize our teaching experience in and the great potential of App Inventor for Android (AIA) in broadening the appeal and diffusion of fundamental computing and programming concepts. With a pedagogical foundation stemming from constructionist learning and contextualized computing education, we present our motivation and the details of courses that can greatly benefit from AIA.

MIT App Inventor como Ambiente de Ensino de Algoritmos e Programação

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Teacher Perspectives on Introducing Programming Constructs through Coding Mobile-Based Games to Secondary School Students

“…In one way, teachers of any subject can easily create an educational mobile application for their subject to help their students to learn more (Hsu & Ching, 2013). Teachers should exploit this interest in such devices and take advantage of them to teach their students (Dekhane et al, 2013;Karakus, Uludag, Guler, Turner, & Ugur, 2012).…”

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“…Multiple strategies have been described in literature. In [13] App inventor for Android is used to familiarize STEM students with some basic computer science concepts. Furthermore, in [5] the authors describe the integration of programming in a STEM course through a visual programming environment.…”