Making it Appen

An Idiots Guide to creating an MFL App

Language Show Live, October 2012

Jen Turner @msmfl / msmfl.wordpress.com Secondary French, German and (occasionally) Mandarin teacher in Suffolk Learning Spanish with the OU Big fan of ICT to teach and learn languages

What is an app?

Theres an app for that!

Guardian Campaign for Digital Literacy

ICT / Computing in schools

Computer science and programming

becoming more prominent

All GCSE and GCE ICT/Computing

specifications have significant element of digital design and creative programming

Collaborate on MFL/ICT controlled

assessment project

Start small

Quizzes and puzzles

Translators

Trivia games

Culture and history

Drawing

Use a onestop commercial service

DIY: Programming Developing Coding Distributing Reviewing Upgrading

DIY with semicommercial service

developer.apple.com

Coding with XCode

?!@$%*&^!!

Apple Developer
Cost Time Ease Support approx $100 per year to register as Developer if you want to distribute Very time consuming to code and update. Complex programming - best left to experts Extensive - if you know what the problem is in the first place.

developer.android.com

Android App Inventor

- uses Java - behaves like Scratch - no coding required - distribute through play.google.com - one-off registration fee of $25 - v simple publishing process

Sample blocks from App Inventor

Android Developer / App Inventor

Cost
$25 one-off fee to publish on play.google.com free to download SDK / Java / App Inventor

Time

SDK - time-consuming - involves coding App Inventor - marginally quicker

SDK - tricky coding App Inventor - more visual - building blocks

Ease

Support

Lots of online support and manuals

Windows App Hub dev.windowsphone.com

Develop Windows and XBox apps

www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox
Student zone Earn credits and learn how to code for Windows hardware Silverlight

Windows Developer
Cost Time Ease

WD - $99 annual fee with credit card .toolbox - free

Depends on complexity! .toolbox - modular courses

.toolbox v student friendly. Student zone

Clear advice online for Windows Dev. Good in .toolbox area, especially if setting up a school project for the first time. Accredited courses.

Support

developer.blackberry.com

Blackberry Developer
Cost Time Ease Support No registration or submission fees. Dependent on complexity but does rely on Java, HTML5, and CC+ See above Extensive online support and analysis

School webdesign companies

e4education.com empra.co.uk interactiveschools.co.uk schoolappkit.com + various others

School webdesign companies

Cost
Variable. Might be included in a school website package.

Time

They do it all for you. Quick turnaround if using a standard design? Very easy - someone else is doing it for you.
They look after it all for you. Can you update with new content yourself?

Ease

Support

Online app development services

appmakr.com appfurnace.com appsmakerstore.com applite.co.uk snappii.com + various others

Online app development services

Cost Time
Free to sign up. Subscription fee to host thereafter. Many take cut of your profits.

Relatively quick, depending on what you want to do. No coding - blog feeds / cut and paste / insert app elements onto a storyboard.
Extensive - services created for nonexperts.

Ease

Support

www.appmakr.com

www.appmakr.com
Easy and clear to work through

Simulator shows you how it will look.

No coding required!

www.appmakr.com
Can make an app from one or more RSS feeds. Ideal for easy school or dept app if you already have a blog.

All blog sections and pages

Adverts

Comment on and share blog posts

Includes fully functional web widgets from your blog

www.appmakr.com
Cost
Free to sign up and try out. Need to be Apple Developer ($100 per year) to test and then distribute through AppStore. Other services and platforms at lower but variable cost.

Time
Ease Support

Quick - use a blog/website feed. Slow - process of tweaking for approval but helpful feedback at every stage.
Easy if you already have a blog. Will make Apple, Android and Windows versions for you. Tweaking for approval might be trickier

Extensive support and ideas for development.

Come to #ILILC3 to find out more! 9-10 February 2013

Southampton
http://tiny.cc/ililc3