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Unfortunately, we've run into some snags. First thing we did is watch the free iPhone App class from Stanford University. Free class from Stanford? Super! To actually participate in the class, this required downloading the iPhone SDK, which also required giving Apple $99.
Roadblock: No money. My sixth graders seemed to have a problem coming up with the cash. I can't blame them. So, even without the SDK, my kids wanted to watch the iPhone class anyway. Okay...
Roadblock: Pre-requisite. Although this class is free, there's obviously some prior programming knowledge required. My students were lost after the second episode. Their programming knowledge from Scratch didn't cut it.
They've been bugging and asking how to make iPhone apps since the beginning of the year. Using Scratch has definitely helped develop their interest in programming, hands down. For app development, the Stanford class looked like a possible road, but it's clear that this free class was not designed for middle schoolers.
Create your own app?
I've seen "create your own app" tools online, but I also heard that Apple was not allowing these apps into the App Store. That would have seemed like a neat solution, but it also required... more money. Wouldn't it be cool if there was an app program like Scratch, that allowed anyone to be a developer- anyone to write their own app?
Well now there is! But it's not for the iPhone. It's for the Android phone.
Yesterday, Google announced the roll-out of App Inventor, a web-based program that lets you create your own apps with a computer and your own Android phone.
This. Is. Awesome. For so many reasons.
Google is putting App development tools in the hands of students. And teachers. And anyone who wants to make a simple, functioning app for their own or public use. This is a profound gesture for the world of creativity. I'm sure Sir Ken Robinson would be ecstatic.
A couple of cool tidbits:
1. it's VERY close to Scratch with its visual-block programming, and
2. (this is very Googly): it runs in the browser!!!
3. Of course it's free.
It's Open vs. Closed.
This really throws an arrow across the bow of Apple. Apple has claimed to be open in that they are "free from porn" and free from lots of spam apps, but there's a reason that the iPhone and the iPad is so sanitary; they're very closed.
To be honest, the open world is a little... messy. I'm okay with that. I think that the junk Apps will find their way to the junk pile once Google opens up the Market to other vendors (allowing them to create their own "stores" inside the Android Market), or Google uses Pagerank or something similar for the Android Market to clear the clutter.
I like the Apple user experience, but if Apple doesn't respond to this somehow, they will be sending many clear messages that say:
"Leave it to the professionals."
"You have to pay to play."
"We don't want just anybody to make Apple apps."
"We are closed."
There's just no way around this. They can pretend that they're open, but we all know that's just a fallacy.
Apple and Google vs. Education
Apple once built it's core business on education, and every day, Google seems to be taking that mantle. I hear more and more schools ditching Apple products for netbooks, whether for budget reasons, customer service reasons, and now there's rumblings that Apple is going to charge schools for every app downloaded to iPod and iPads (currently, one can image a handful of iPod touches with only one purchased app).
Does Apple give a hoot about education anymore?
Google seems to. Almost every time I have a need for a classroom tool, a browser function, or app, Google responds before I think of it. Already, my Google Certified Teachers' group received a message about getting App Inventor out to students- pronto. This Google Juice tastes so good right now; I can't wait to see what Google conjures up next.
This Apple Juice, on the other hand, is starting to taste a little sour.
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