Course Overview

As part of this development track you will learn to build applications and games for phones using MIT’s App Inventor. App Inventor is a free, cloud-based service that allows you to make your own mobile apps using a blocks based programming language. One can access App Inventor using a web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari) at the app inventor website. Through simple beginner-friendly tutorials, you will learn the basics of programming apps for Android devices. 

About MIT App Inventor

(Source – Wikipedia) App Inventor for Android is an open-source web application originally provided by Google, and now maintained by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  It allows newcomers to computer programming to create software applications for the Android operating system (OS). It uses a graphical interface, very similar to Scratch, which allows users to drag-and-drop visual objects to create an application that can run on Android devices. In creating App Inventor, Google drew upon significant prior research in educational computing, as well as work done within Google on online development environments.

App Inventor and the projects on which it is based are informed by constructionist learning theories, which emphasizes that programming can be a vehicle for engaging powerful ideas through active learning. As such, it is part of an ongoing movement in computers and education that began with the work of Seymour Papert and the MIT Logo Group in the 1960s and has also manifested itself with Mitchel Resnick‘s work on Lego Mindstorms and StarLogo. MIT App Inventor is also supported with the Firebase Database extension. This allows people to store data on Google’s firebase.

You can read more about the MIT App Inventor at the App Inventor website.

Prerequisites –

1. A Mac or Windows computer (see system requirements)
2. An internet connection

Once you complete your tutorials you will also need to learn how to load your applications onto your Android cell phone.  Choose which way you want to connect to run your apps, and follow the links to setup instructions:

1. Android mobile device (phone or tablet) and wi-fi
2. Android mobile device (phone or tablet) and a USB cable
3. On-screen emulator

You will create your applications using the MIT App Inventor coding interface which can be access here – <MIT App Inventor>