Shay’s Blog

Creating Challenge-Worthy Apps

Apr 8, 2014 shay's Blog

Want to create challenge-worthy apps? Want to participate in the House Student App Challenge but don’t know where to start?

MIT App Inventor’s Guide to Creating Challenge-Worthy Apps! A virtual live webinar (recorded LIVE on April 7, 2014, now available for viewing)

MIT’s App...

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First Lady Celebrates 2013 Winners of Technovation Challenge in Nigeria

Feb 10, 2014 shay's Blog

The First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and ITU Child Online Protection Champion, Dame Patience Goodluck Jonathan celebrates the winning team of the just concluded Technovation Challenge in Nigeria. She applauded the feat of these young girls during the one day youth convention organized on September 3rd, at...

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Hungry Middle Schoolers Create Prize-Winning Allergy App

Feb 10, 2014 shay's Blog

ABC News Betsy Klein - December 12, 2013 When 13-year-old Samantha Hinton is unsure of the ingredients in a snack, she just doesnt eat it. Thats because Samantha is among the growing population of food allergy sufferers in the United States, and she fears a bite containing peanuts could kill...

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Hour of Code with App Inventor

Oct 6, 2013 shay's Blog

In preparation for the first Hour of Code TM we developed new tutorials in the form of short, user-friendly videos that anyone can follow to build their first mobile apps. The Hour of Code is nationwide initiative by Computer Science Education Week and...

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App Inventor featured in CSTA Voice

Jun 25, 2013 shay's Blog

Creative Engagement with Technology: There's an App for That!

I recently teamed up with CS teacher Kristin Violette to write an article for the July issue of CSTA Voice. In the article we chronicle how Kristin's students at Newtown High School in Connecticut have used...

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Join the App Inventor Community Gallery!

Apr 9, 2013 shay's Blog

The App Inventor Gallery is now open to the world at gallery.appinventor.mit.edu. Show off your apps. Find apps for remixing. Learn from others and collaborate! The gallery is an open-source app store, a collaborative development environment, and a peer-to-peer learning studio, all in one. Teachers, students,...

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Computer Science Educators embrace App Inventor at SIGCSE

Mar 28, 2013 shay's Blog

Ahh, Denver in March: Sunny and 60 on Thursday, blizzard on Saturday... but we had a blast!

I am happy to report that the 44th annual meeting of the Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) was a wonderful success, and that App Inventor was well represented by educators...

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MIT CML at Mobile World Congress

Mar 13, 2013 shay's Blog

Leo Burd and I have recovered from jetlag and are ready to report on our trip to the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona February 25-28. We went to MWC to represent the MIT Center for Mobile Learning as part of the unX network, a partnership with CSEV, UNED, Telefnica,...

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First App Inventor Contest: Winners Announced!

Jan 7, 2013 shay's Blog

The 2012 App Inventor Contest had 125 submissions in four categories: K-8, High School, College/University, and Open. Google Nexus 7 Tablets are awarded to the 1st place winners, with App Inventor books given for second place. Participants included students as young as third grade, college students, hobbyists, professional developers,...

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NEW RELEASE brings sprite flinging, wifi texting, and more!

Nov 16, 2012 shay's Blog

We have great news: the new release of App Inventor is now live, and contains some exciting new functionality. Be sure to read the release notes for the entire list of updates. Here are the highlights:

Sprites and Canvas can now respond to Fling, TouchDown, and TouchUp gestures....

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New Release: Screen arrangements, resizable video, and more

Sep 13, 2012 shay's Blog

Announcing the newest App Inventor release! Version 129 is now live. In addition to a few bug fixes and minor User Interface improvements, here are the exciting new features:

Resize-able and Full Screen Video support. You can now resize an existing Video Player component from the blocks editor. In Android...

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App Inventor Summit Archive Now Available

Aug 30, 2012 shay's Blog

The MIT Center for Mobile Learning hosted a two-day summit in Cambridge, MA on July 13-14 ,2012. This meeting allowed time for the 80 attendees to form small working groups to develop strategic plans to guide the future of the App Inventor project. Also, invited presenters shared the work they...

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Ed Week features App Inventor as tool for engaging students

Jun 14, 2012 shay's Blog

Check it out: Ed Week ran a feature article on App Inventor and the power of teaching students how to build mobile apps. Many excellent programs are described in the article, including Youth APPLab, Technovation, Youth Radio, and others. My favorite quote is from an eighth...

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Welcome to the new App Inventor website!

Jun 1, 2012 shay's Blog

Hello again, After a bit of a hiatus, this blog is back in action. I was waiting to post a new entry until we had successfully rolled out the NEW WEBSITE! Now that it's here, I'd like to draw your attention to a few things. The App Inventor website hosted...

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App Inventor helping to bridge gap in numbers of CS Majors

Apr 30, 2012 shay's Blog

Hello Inventors, One of our main goals at the MIT Center for Mobile Learning is to encourage greater participation in computing from a wider and more varied assortment of people. App Inventor does this by inherently fostering personal creativity with technology. I was pleased to see App Inventor mentioned in...

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Hog Wild for App Inventor!

Mar 23, 2012 shay's Blog

Hello App Inventors, Things are moving right along here at the MIT Center for Mobile Learning. The community continues to grow and we have now topped the 90,000 mark for the number unique accounts on the App Inventor service! We have several initiatives underway to bring you new materials and...

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App Inventor Community continues to grow!

Mar 15, 2012 shay's Blog

Hello App Inventor Educators! My name is Shaileen Pokress (“Shay”). I have just gotten started in my new position as Education Community Manager at the MIT Center for Mobile Learning. I am working with the App Inventor Team to facilitate sharing of ideas and materials in support of using App...

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