Week 6: Introduction to App Inventor

This was an exciting week.  We made our first app in MIT's App Inventor (AI).  It was called "Hello, World."  In the first version, when you click on an icon, text appears that says, "Hello, World!"  In later versions, we used text to speech to have the icon actually SAY, "Hello, World."

Before using this app, I had never had any kind of experience with creating an app. I was very anxious to begin using it. The app we created had very basic functions such as: text to speech and reacting when a certain button was pressed. When I first saw how the app I created had worked, I was ecstatic! I saw that when I pressed the button, the text I had entered appeared.

For someone who never used App Inventor I highly recommend the use of it. I have never done anything like this so it was a new experience and I barely knew anything. I learned how to code our apps, how to use our diffrent types of buttons. With coding "Hello World," for me it was hard, but I got the hang of it. Before I started the app inventing, I felt overwhelemed because I knew nothing of entrepreneurship and I thought I was going to fail because of lack in experience. Well since we have a great teacher, it was really fun to learn because she took it slow with us.  It helped a lot, because this process is hard to understand if you go too fast. When I got my first app working, okay to be honest I was hype but when i learned that my app could talk. To me as someone who never did anything like this, I was really happy & excited.

The best part of the week was when the two gentlemen from Colonial School District came to see if they wanted to bring this program to their schools. They asked us many questions and Mrs. Costello got us to present what we have been working on to the gentlemen. This week was great - can't wait for next time!




Mrs. Costello's Corner

I've been teaching for 8 years.  The first time students tested their Hello World apps, I had students leaping in the air and screaming for joy.  That genuine exhilaration was the most amazing experience of my teaching career.

When I was told I would have visitors observing my class after we had been on AI for just three days, I was beyond nervous.  I didn't even know what my visitors were going to ask, so I couldn't prep the kids.  But my students rose to the occasion.  Their poise, confidence, and mastery of the course content and objectives made us all forget that they were only 13.

Today, we celebrated with cupcakes in Startup Tech colors.  My students are right.  This was a great week.  I can't wait for next time, either!

Week 5: Customer Surveys About Our Wireframed Apps

Customer surveys are important because they can collect a lot of data about what you're surveying about. So this week we surveyed people in our Startup Tech class to collect information about the app we created. If you survey a small amount of people, you might survey all of the same people and they might put all of the same answers. Your data might not be accurate. If you survey a lot of different people you might get different results. And you can get an accurate understanding about how you can improve your app and to see what people like. The types of questions that are important are the ones that have to do with the features of the app. The most useful questions are the ones that ask yes-no & scale questions. 

Our worst questions would be "Would you buy this app?" The reason why I don't like that question is because no matter what, people will probably buy it just to check it out and you don’t know why they are buying or not buying it. I would like to add more words into the questions.  I would ask more detailed questions in more formations and on more different topics. I would make them better by saying them in different words and sentences. The best way I know to revise my questions is so put them in a way anyone would understand them. Doing this project really helped me see that you have to put the questions and sentences in very well detailed words.

Week 4: Wireframing with POP 2.0

Wire Framing is a process in which you design the outline of your app. Like imagine someone building a Ginger bread house. You use candy canes as the support/outline. Well that's just like wire framing.  You're making the outline of your app. 

Wire framing is a important steps for app development. Wire frame is to create the model or prototype of the app. After the first step which is to come up with the idea for the app, the next step is to wire frame. Wire frame is to test your app and try it. You will create a prototype of the app you developing and see how it work. Its also a process to develop the  and the feature of the app. This is a great way to test the app and improve it. In wire frame you also creating the foundation for the app.

The last wire framing project impress me a lot. I feel like a real app developer and I know more about app developing. I like this project because it give me more experience about app developer and let me get used to the app developing process. This project make me more confident about my app because I can fix the mistakes and make my app better.