Task Discussion

TahaniZ said:

Hi Everyone!

I remember a hearing a lot of frustration about App Inventor crashing, not being able to package the app, losing your code because you didn't use checkpoint. So I conveyed your frustration to the App Inventor team at MIT, and they would love to hear from you!

The App Inventor team is dedicated to improving it to best suit your needs. So if you ran into any problems while using App Inventor, let us know by sending us an email. Try to be as specific as possible, include screen shots, when the problem would occur, and if your app crashed, please attach the source code.

You can also send an email if you have any suggestions on how to make a feature better, any components you would like to be added to App Inventor, how to make using it more ntuitive etc.

Send all emails to TechnovationChallenge@iridescentlearning.org with the subject line: "App Inventor Feedback" and I will make sure they get it!

I will also add this note to the task above, so it doesn't get lost in the comments section :)

Thank you!

Tahani

on April 23, 2013, 1:38 p.m.
Mariana said:

HI guys!

The girls don't know how to test and make sure their source code will work fine for the judges.

Any ideas on how to make it?

We appreciate the help!

Mariana

on April 13, 2013, 11:34 a.m.

Elaine Mistretta said:

There is a emulator on App Inventor, but many screen changes will not work on emulator, you can upload to an Android tablet or phone. might be buggy at first emistretta On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 11:34 AM, Mariana <

on April 13, 2013, 11:50 a.m. in reply to Mariana

Mariana said:

Thanks Elaine! And how do they upload it to an android phone or tablet? They know how to make it an apk files, but not with the source code.

Thanks again and goof luck to your teams :)

on April 13, 2013, noon in reply to Elaine Mistretta

Elaine Mistretta said:

honestly, i am not sure how they do it. They only tested their initial screen saves to see if the buttons would open the screens, as they added functionality they did not do further testing. But there is a way to upload to the tablet. I am not sure how the girls did it though sorry elaine On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 12:00 PM, Mariana <

on April 13, 2013, 12:02 p.m. in reply to Mariana

Nathalia Goes said:

Hi, I'm from Mariana's team, and i still dont understand how to test. I downloaded the source code in .zip file, but i don't understand how the judges will see the app?

on April 13, 2013, 12:05 p.m. in reply to Elaine Mistretta

Elaine Mistretta said:

the girls ability to go from non-programmers to learning app inventor was amazing to me. They used you tube and googled alot of questions while trying to get done each step. elaine On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 12:02 PM, Elaine Mistretta < elaine.mistretta@gmail.com> wrote: > honestly, i am not sure how they do it. They only tested their initial > screen saves to see if the buttons would open the screens, as they added > functionality they did not do further testing. But there is a way to upload > to the tablet. I am not sure how the girls did it though > sorry > elaine > > > On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 12:00 PM, Mariana < >

on April 13, 2013, 12:05 p.m. in reply to Mariana

Nada said:

You can use packaging on the Top right..

it's possible either to download it directly to phone or to computer ..

If you prefer wireless connection , you can download it to computer first ,then send it to phone via bluetooth or using other software like (airdroid)..

Let me know if that helps!

Nada

on April 13, 2013, 12:11 p.m. in reply to Elaine Mistretta

JennaB said:

Love this!

on April 13, 2013, 1:26 p.m. in reply to Elaine Mistretta

Nathalia Goes said:

But to send the app it has to be the source code in .zip file, right? or it can be the apk file?

on April 13, 2013, 1:58 p.m. in reply to Nada

Nada said:

Yes Nathalia ,you are right - you should send the source..

All the best :)

on April 13, 2013, 2:07 p.m. in reply to Nathalia Goes
Team Round of APPlause said:

Hi,

So we have a few questions. First of all, what level of prototype exactly will we be submitting? Is it the code, or images of the different screens, or what?

Thank you!

on April 6, 2013, 8:16 p.m.

Angelica said:

Hello Washington DC!

You will be submitting the source code to your app on App Inventor. Additionally, you may want to pick a few images or screens to show off in your pitch and/or slides to help you explain why your app is so awesome (and addresses the points on the rubric).

Thanks,

Angélica

on April 8, 2013, 2:12 p.m. in reply to Team Round of APPlause
HW Technovation Team said:

Hello,

Does anyone know how and where to insert an API access key in App Inventor? The Stock Quotes tutorial did not use an API with a required an access key so it wasn't helpful. Also, would someone please let me know how to integrate query parameters supported by an API into an App Inventor app?

Thank you,

Lara

on April 3, 2013, 7:39 p.m.
HW Technovation Team said:

Hello,

My team's app involves prompting a user to upload a document to the it from his or her own device. I am not sure how to approach programming this in App Inventor. Does anyone know if it is possible to program an app to upload a document file in App Inventor? If so, how might I program something like this and are there any tutorials that could help with programming it?

Also, is there a way to use code from another language like Java Script in App Inventor?

Thank you,

Lara

on April 2, 2013, 7:25 p.m.
girodichatterbox said:

Too many images causing the app to melt down

Hi all,

Last week, we started with a completely functional app, which was just grey buttons and black text on a white background. We wanted to add some art to make the app more visually appealing (and inline with our app's theme). So, we selected a great photo to use as a background image. As soon as we added the image to all the screens, the app crashed on pretty much every action.

So, I opened the image in Photoshop and downsized it to the minimal bit size needed to cover the screen. Things were happy again.

But, then, our app consists of users taking photos and then passing the photo from screen to screen to add more information. As soon as we got two photos in memory, the whole thing comes crashing down again, even though the logic seems rock-solid at this point. I think at this point, we are still able to demonstrate each flow before we crash, but we cannot continue adding on and switching user roles as we go through, which we were able to do before adding the background image.

Any suggestions?

-Sarah Clatterbuck

on March 30, 2013, 12:32 p.m.
Allie Janoch said:

The code for one of our screens has somehow been deleted and replaced with an old version of code from another screen. Has anyone else seen this behavior? Any ideas how to recover the lost blocks? Apparently we should have been using checkpoints - if you aren't using them start now!

on March 26, 2013, 10:12 p.m.

Mita Mallik said:

what are checkpoints? How do I learn more about them? Thanks, Mita On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 7:13 PM, alliej <

on March 27, 2013, 12:27 a.m. in reply to Allie Janoch

Allie Janoch said:

It looks like it just a button at the top of the designer that lets your save a copy of the current version of your code - basically it is a poor mans version control. That way if anything happens, you can go back to an older version. Allie On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 9:28 PM, mitam <

on March 27, 2013, 12:47 a.m. in reply to Mita Mallik

Appers said:

The same happened to us and as much as we tried, we could not retrieve the missing screens/blocks and had to redo them. And yes, checkpoints are a really good way to back up work, we discovered that after losing a good amount of work, good luck! On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 5:14 AM, alliej <

on March 27, 2013, 4:20 a.m. in reply to Allie Janoch

Appers said:

When you open your project, near the save and the save as button, there is a button called checkpoint, this acts sort of as the save as button, and is useful in case something happens to the screen you are working in, like losing blocks or deleting something by mistake that you can't retrieve, in which case you can go back to your last checkpoint and see all the missing blocks. So for example, you can create a checkpoint after every screen you finish, sort of like a backup form. Good luck! On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 7:29 AM, mitam <

on March 27, 2013, 4:23 a.m. in reply to Mita Mallik
Nada said:

Hi all,

I just wonder if you found better way to delete / change screen name in AI after creating ?. I saw before there is an external software to work on .have you tried any?

Thanks & best of luck to all teams !

Nada

on March 26, 2013, 11:34 a.m.
TahaniZ said:

Hi everyone!

Need help finishing your app, writing your business plan or anything else? We have just the thing! NYTechWomen is hosting a Hack Day in to help you answer all your questions, no matter where you are.

The event is on April 6th at 12pm EST.

To RSVP to go to the event in New York, and for more information, visit the eventbrite here.

Not in New York? No problem!

Join in virtually! If you would like to call in via a Google Hangout, please fill out this short RSVP form and you will receive the Google Hangout link!

We hope to see you there!

Tahani

on March 25, 2013, 4:19 p.m.
tnjiti said:

Hello Everyone,

There are two main questions we have:
-We are trying to embed an email in our code, such that if someone takes a picture or records a video, they can automatically send it to that email.
-The next question is how can someone put a comment below their recorded video or picture.

Thank you

Tala

on March 25, 2013, 11:23 a.m.
Kamilah said:

Has anyone else had trouble using App Inventor today? I was meeting with my girls and we're getting this message: "An internal error has occurred. Go look in the Debugging view." On some computers the website continues to load but then we can't access the project, on others the page doesn't load at all.

on March 24, 2013, 6:21 p.m.

Mita Mallik said:

My girls had trouble sometimes loading the block editor.

on March 25, 2013, 2:38 a.m. in reply to Kamilah

Elaine Mistretta said:

We are too, it seems to depend on the computer. So we found the computers that work best and are using them only.

on March 25, 2013, 8:20 p.m. in reply to Mita Mallik
Shannon said:

Hello Everyone!

I have a question about expectations for the judging criteria and coding with App Inventor. How functional does the prototype have to be? What is actually being judged in the coding? For instance for the sake of time if we 'hard code' data instead of using Fusion Tables, is that an issue? As much specific criteria as possible would be helpful. Thanks!

on March 23, 2013, 4:56 p.m.

TahaniZ said:

Hi Shannon,

I think as long as the app prototype gives a sense of what the final app would look like, that should be fine. You can find the exact judging rubric we are using here.

Good luck!

Tahani

on March 24, 2013, 12:46 p.m. in reply to Shannon

Shannon said:

Thank you Tahani! This is great news. We have been following the judging rubics cube, it's a big help. Just weren't clear about this and now I think we're on track! You might put this information in the judging cube too.

The girls were not looking foward to returning to programming as we were working for weeks on the business deliverables but within a short time they were enjoying the problem solving again.

We mentors in PDX are now looking at some additional programming classes to prepare girls for Technovation next year. Maybe HTML5, but JS is a bear to learn. Python is also a favorite as it's also teaching native constructs.

on April 2, 2013, 9:56 a.m. in reply to TahaniZ

Angelica said:

Shannon, the extra programming classes sound great! Keep us updated after Technovation this season. I just recently started an intro programming course through MIT online (free). They teach it using Python.

on April 2, 2013, 11:48 a.m. in reply to Shannon
Gigi Torres said:

Is there a way to position text so that it is on top of an image?

on March 23, 2013, 4:26 p.m.

Nour Alkhalil said:

Try using a vertical alignment, it should do the job..

on March 23, 2013, 5:25 p.m. in reply to Gigi Torres
Mariana said:

Hello!

Brazilian team is wondering what is a good server that works with app inventor to keep user information (names, email, passwords etc) safe. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Mariana

on March 12, 2013, 2:24 p.m.

Princetongirls said:

Well, i dont see appinventor as the server that keeps all that. Google sever is still responsible for all that. appinventor only uses google services. Princeton Girls From Nigeria On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 10:26 AM, Mariana <

on March 13, 2013, 5:50 a.m. in reply to Mariana

Mita Mallik said:

I think you can use the SharedWedbDB

on March 13, 2013, 11:17 a.m. in reply to Mariana

chinmauche said:

Just noted that the Princetongirls is a Nigerian team and want to extend a warm welcome to them. Good luck with your work. Chinma

on April 2, 2013, 2:46 p.m. in reply to Princetongirls

Mariana said:

Thanks for the answer. So do you think they should make it? Or just go with a given username is fine?

on April 9, 2013, 9:08 p.m. in reply to Princetongirls
Ruth said:

I'm working with a team in Oakland and we've found that the best way for finding tutorias and help is just by googling "using appinventor to..." do whatever it is you want. There's a tonne of stuff out there. We just stumbled over the pizza party tutorial yesterday adn previously the fusion tables. We're doing a deep dive into them next week to see if we can model on them.

on March 8, 2013, 1:50 p.m.
Shannon said:

Calling all team mentors!

The Portland (adult) team is stumped.

Our assumption is the challenge work is supposed to be done soley by the girls, so the adults aren't coding on their behalf (you don't even have to be technical to be a mentor). What was covered in the App Inventor tutorials doesn't cover a lot of functionality. The coding curriculum as written is about a few high conceptual level (statements & loops). These girls have never coded before.

What are other teams doing to get over these hurdles to create the apps the girls are envisioning (which are very cool)?

Thanks!

on March 7, 2013, 10:16 p.m.

Allie Janoch said:

Shannon -

I have been utilizing some of the other tutorials on the app inventor website. We we started planning our app, we found that the TinyWebDB wasn't going to be sufficient, so I started investigating other fuctionality that AppInventor has and found out about fusion tables. So, last week, my girls completed this turtorial. It teaches about list pickers and fusion tables, two concepts we are going to rely on for our app:

http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/content/pizzaparty.html

Yesterday at our meeting, I looked at this tutorial with one of the girls because it describes how to use one screen to set some variable used on another screen. As this is a smaller element of our app, I just asked this one girl to take a stab at this tutorial by herself for homework this week. http://beta.appinventor.mit.edu/learn/tutorials/coloredDots/coloredDots.html

There are other tutorials here: http://beta.appinventor.mit.edu/learn/tutorials/

Allie

on March 8, 2013, 1:13 p.m. in reply to Shannon

Nada said:

Hi Shannon,

I'm mentoring 4 teams with another mentor ,I can understand well your concerns .In our case the teams still in early stages of framing app ideas . we meet twice a week .The girls have great ideas ,but still I see they need support on how to frame ideas into apps ,and also what kind of ideas are proper for mobile and which not . I always remind them to think simple .Part of inspiration ,I showed them some apps from MIT gallery .

Their are also untechnical teachers in each team ,we all learn together ,there is a lack of time and communication among teams .It will be a big achievement if girls decided paired with their teachers on a beneficial idea ,built a prototype & a business plan ,not sure if they will finish coding the whole app within the deadline.

Good luck :)

Nada

on March 9, 2013, 1:41 a.m. in reply to Shannon

Angelica said:

Thank you for sharing your feedback and ideas. For first time coders, they may not get far with their app, and that is absolutely fine. Focus on a couple of screens that best capture their app idea and spend the most time on those. In their pitch, they share what they would like to have accomplished and show off their coding knowledge in the parts they completed. I would encourage them to be resourceful as far as finding similar apps, ideas, or tutorials online and borrowing/improving different aspects.

We are excited to see all of these wonderful apps!

Angélica

on March 13, 2013, 3:33 p.m. in reply to Nada

Shannon said:

Thank you so much! They have a great concept and can prototype capabilities to some degree. Best, Shannon Sent from phone.

on March 13, 2013, 8:52 p.m. in reply to Angelica

Katie Corner said:

Hi Allie - our team is trying to use fusion tables to showcase the major functionality of the app. We saw the Pizza Party tutorial and followed it in a modified way for our app.

The coding is quite complex for the team, but we ALMOST have it working. I have been trying to debug recently but only get a cryptic error "403 Forbidden Forbidden Please try again" . I have been trying to add some debugging messages around it to investigate with no luck. Did you get a similar outcome after following the tutorial? Any advice?

on March 25, 2013, 1:44 p.m. in reply to Allie Janoch

Allie Janoch said:

Katie- We have used a few techniques for debugging this. The first is that we added some labels, just for debugging purposes where we print out the query before sending it so that we can visually inspect the query. We also added another label to print out the result in the GotResult function. Off the top of my head, here are some road blocks that we have run into: 1. Permissions: make sure that you set the table permissions as they describe in the tutorial. It needs to be editable by anyone who plans on adding to the table, and public for viewing. 2. Spaces: Make sure you don't forget spaces in your query. This is easy to catch if you print out the query as I described above. 3. Capitalization: Make sure the columns use the exact same capitalization as you used when setting up your table. If that doesn't work, let me know. We are just putting the finishing touches on the fusion tables stuff, so I feel like I have a pretty good handle on it. Maybe you could send me a screenshot of your code. Allie On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 10:44 AM, katherinecorner <

on March 25, 2013, 2:22 p.m. in reply to Katie Corner

Katie Corner said:

Allie! You da best. :)

I had not gotten into enough of the details with the girls about permissioning on the Google Docs side. Our code was great, but I had forgotten you need to share editing priviledges with EACH gmail account who would be testing/using the app. When I made the link and priviledges "public" I figured that was enough.

Thanks for the reminder - posting my story here, in case other mentors decide to use Fusion Tables in their prototype and run into similar issues. :)

Thanks for the great explanation!

on March 25, 2013, 2:31 p.m. in reply to Allie Janoch

Elaine Mistretta said:

Dear Angelica, When you say "focus on a couple of screens"- is there a way to use multiple screens in an app with say a button on one screen opening another screen? To my understanding due to the nature of data sharing in a mobil app this is not the process. Using layouts or actually multiple apps so that one app closes as the other opens are two options I have been trying to look into. We did not want to put in too many screens as multiple screens do not seem to be functional. If we use multiple apps to gain functionality will we be able to send that as a file indicating that they make up one project? Otherwise is there a way to use multiple screens? We see that in the button we can close a screen, but not open a screen2 in screen1 button object, but as you mentioned the testing in blocks editor is limited. If we do focus on the screen shots then we lose functionality between screens. I am a little confused- I know it is just a prototype and the girls are beginner programmers so functionality on each screen might be enough without opening and closing the screens themselves on the prototype. Thank you Elaine Mistretta Haverhill, MA On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 3:33 PM, AngelicaTechnovation <

on March 25, 2013, 8:10 p.m. in reply to Angelica

Elaine Mistretta said:

I have been just going by the girls questions and needs to try to find solutions with them. And collaborating on our facebook group with them by posting addiitional tutorials and solutions i find to their questions. That is okay as the teacher, right? Not pogramming for them, but responding to their needs as they progress. They have been basically putting in almost every afternoon now for the programming piece and finalizing their ideas etc.

on March 25, 2013, 8:19 p.m. in reply to Shannon

TahaniZ said:

Hi Elaine,

Yes, I think helping them find resources is great since you are not programming it yourself! You are just providing them with some support. I would encourage the girls to try and find resources themselves as well since that is also a valuale skill they can learn :)

I'm glad to hear they are making some headway in their app development. Best of luck to your team!

Tahani

on March 26, 2013, 10:48 a.m. in reply to Elaine Mistretta
Natascia Carr said:

Any advice on buiding a database in AppInventor? Girls have completed the Quiz Me tutorials but we're struggling with the functionality of the program. Please help.

Thanks.

Natascia

on March 5, 2013, 10:21 p.m.

annalise said:

Natascia,

Can you be more specific with your question? Did you try searching the App Inventor forum?

AnnaLise

on March 7, 2013, 9:01 p.m. in reply to Natascia Carr

Natascia Carr said:

Hi,

My girls are building an app whereby the user will answer 3 multiple choice questions. Each possible answer needs to have points assigned. The app will return with a selection that correlates with the sum of the multiple choice questions.

We are using lists and just watched the tinydb tutorial but are so confused. Thanks.

on March 20, 2013, 10:39 a.m. in reply to annalise

Natascia Carr said:

Thank you, Elaine.

I think we understand the underlying logic, we're just not sure how to organize it in the app builder. Do you use a database to house the return string and lists for the values assigned to each question?

Really appreciate your help!

on March 20, 2013, 1:05 p.m. in reply to Elaine Mistretta

Elaine Mistretta said:

If it is easier to use lists for both, than a data base, a list might be the way to get functionality short term. Can even just use variables for the returning strings, and lists for the multiple choice answers that are then assigned a number. I would have to try out a bunch of options to see what works in app inventor. Are the girls getting return values appearing on the screen as the correct response? If not do ONE thing at a time Have girls get functionality for one question and have that return one response; then go from there to add Q2, then add Q3 in a step wise repeat and test process. elaine On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 1:05 PM, natasciacarr <

on March 20, 2013, 1:36 p.m. in reply to Natascia Carr

Natascia Carr said:

Thank you!

I'll see the girls again tomorrow and we'll see how we do.

Really appreciate your help!

on March 20, 2013, 1:50 p.m. in reply to Elaine Mistretta
Meru.Visan said:

We did some work on Block's editor on the same acc but on 2 different comupters and the work wasn't saved. Would we need to create seperate accounts to do the work on 2 different computers?

on Feb. 23, 2013, 11:49 a.m.

Margaret Butler said:

Hi! My experience with App Inventor has been that if two people/computers are working on the same app, they clobber each other's work. AppInventor does not support simultaneous access to the same app. Someone could comment if this version of AppInventor supports simultaneous access, but previous versions have not. Sorry about that! -Margaret

on Feb. 23, 2013, 11:01 p.m. in reply to Meru.Visan

Elaine Mistretta said:

I am wondering also if you can share work to access from more than one account? elaine mistretta haverhill, ma On Sat, Feb 23, 2013 at 11:50 AM, MeruVisan <

on Feb. 24, 2013, 3:46 p.m. in reply to Meru.Visan

Margaret Butler said:

As far as I know, you cannot share a project across accounts. This means, team members have to communicate with each other regarding who is working on the project at any one time. The bottom line is that multiple people cannot work on the same project at the same time. One approach to sharing is to create different projects to work on different pieces of the app, maybe divide by screens. After the separate projects work, you can copy the pieces of one into the main, or you might be able to use the "Launch other application" mechanism to launch one project from the other. -Margaret

on Feb. 25, 2013, 5:06 p.m. in reply to Elaine Mistretta

annalise said:

Thanks for bringing this up, Meru. Kate Feeney (one of our instructors from last year) recently created something called "Merger" as her master's thesis project. This tool allows you to merge two projects together, as long as they are created within the same App Inventor account.

My suggestion is to work within the same account, but create two separate projects-- one for each screen, for example-- and then you can join them together later with the Merger. You must be logged into the same account, but two people cannot be working on the same project at the same time or the work will be destroyed.

I will share a link to the Merger tool once I get it from Kate. Let me know if this answers your question!

AnnaLise

on Feb. 26, 2013, 3:47 p.m. in reply to Margaret Butler

Anna said:

This would be perfect, thanks for the reply.

Did you ever find the Merger tool's link?

on March 17, 2013, 10:07 p.m. in reply to annalise

annalise said:

Anna,

I'm sorry, I haven't heard back from Kate yet. Just pinged her again, so I'll post info as soon as I have it. Sorry for the delay!

AnnaLise

on March 17, 2013, 10:47 p.m. in reply to Anna

annalise said:

Anna,

Just got the file from Kate! Here are the instructions. Please email me (annalise@iridescentlearning.org) if you would like me to send you the Merger file. I can't post it online but I can email it to you. Thanks for your patience!

AnnaLise

on March 22, 2013, 6:32 p.m. in reply to annalise
Gigi Torres said:

After creating all the blocks, we are having problems switching from one screen to another on the emulator or on our Android phones, after packagin.

on Feb. 10, 2013, 10:25 p.m.

Elaine Mistretta said:

we are having trouble with that too elaine in Haverhill, MA On Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 10:25 PM, g161chase <

on Feb. 11, 2013, 4:59 p.m. in reply to Gigi Torres

annalise said:

App Inventor doesn't support switching screens on the emulator, or on the phone during development. It should work on the phone after you package it, though. I would go back through your code and check to make sure you've programmed the screen transitions correctly.

AnnaLise

on Feb. 13, 2013, 1:15 p.m. in reply to Elaine Mistretta

Gigi Torres said:

Thanks, AnnaLise.

We actually did package it, and we still received an error message that said that the beta version did not support switching of screens.

Any other suggestions?

on Feb. 21, 2013, 7:58 p.m. in reply to annalise

Humberside CI (G. Hutchison) said:

Gigi, the screen switching should work on a real phone (just not the emulator). If you would like me to take a look at it you can download the source and email it to me and I'll test it to ensure your blocks are correct for multiple screens.

When I teach App Inventor in my CS classes I actually use virtual screens by setting the Visibility property of Vertical Screen Arrangements as it provides the ability to share components like procedures across screens - and this technique works in the emulator the same way it does on a real phone.

You can email me the zip file grant.hutchisonATgmail.com.

Grant Hutchison

on Feb. 21, 2013, 8:25 p.m. in reply to Gigi Torres

annalise said:

Thank you for offering to help, Grant! That's very kind of you.

Gigi, did you unplug the phone from the computer and see if it has properly downloaded to the phone before you test it? That's the only thing I can think of.

AnnaLise

on Feb. 21, 2013, 10:46 p.m. in reply to Humberside CI (G. Hutchison)
Elaine Mistretta said:

One thought on the instructions and tutorials is to add some blocks diagrams to them, aren't they mostly text? I just took a workshop on app inventor with some CS teachers last weekend and screen shots of the block editor helped me to learn.-Elaine Mistretta Haverhill, MA

on Feb. 2, 2013, 10:13 a.m.

TahaniZ said:

Thanks for the feedback Elaine!

on Feb. 4, 2013, 6:44 p.m. in reply to Elaine Mistretta

annalise said:

Thanks for the feedback, Elaine. We took out the pictures this year because we've found in the past that students simply copy the picture without thinking about what they are doing. We've tried to make our curriculum more robust this year, in terms of promoting critical thinking and helping students think through what they are doing as they build their apps. Our hope is that this will better prepare them to create their own app, where they won't have any pictures to look at or instructions to follow. Does that make sense? Please keep us posted on how your students do throughout the program, I'm curious to hear how they do with the instructions.

AnnaLise

on Feb. 5, 2013, 4:21 p.m. in reply to TahaniZ

Sara Spiegel said:

I think it would be helpful to wean them off of the pictures of code blocks. In the beginning, the pictures really help, plus the colors help them find things. So much of what they learn is more about how much discussion you are able to get out of them.

Thanks, Sara

on Feb. 6, 2013, 7:20 a.m. in reply to annalise

annalise said:

Thanks for the feedback, Sara! We'll take that into consideration for next year's curriculum, I think that's a great idea.

on Feb. 7, 2013, 3:35 a.m. in reply to Sara Spiegel