App Inventor: A Tool for creating android apps helping students to exhibit their creativity

Designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; App Inventor is a blocks-based programming tool that allows everyone, even novices, to start programming and build fully functional apps for Android devices. Newcomers to App Inventor can have their first app up and running in an hour or less, and can program more complex apps in significantly less time than with more traditional, text-based languages.

The collaboration of Google Code to Learn initiative with the Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan has allowed young school children of India to use this tool for creating mobile applications and exhibit their creativity to the world while winning gift prizes as well.

What are the objectives of App Inventor?

The easy block based programing tool has been designed with the following objectives:

• Building Capacity
• The app targets to expand the capacity of formal and informal computing education for adults and youth around the world. The application is actively engaged in developing and disseminating resources and training materials to support those interested in creating programs in their locale.
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• Promoting Computer Science Education
• To drive the attention to the state of computer science and computational thinking in education.
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• Conducting and Supporting Community Research
• To evaluate the use of the tool throughout the world and help the community by sharing knowledge and research.
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Former President of India Mr APJ Abdul Kalam inaugurated the Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan under collaboration with Google India’s Code to Learn contest includes the App Inventor and Scratch wherein the students would be able to exhibit their talent and creativity to figure out ways in which they could help the nation and nature. The student can log on http://appinventor.mit.edu/ and get started to create their products.

How to get started with App Inventor?

• Log on to the main website of App Inventor (http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore) and click on the Create Tab located on the upper right hand corner of the page.
• This will lead you to another web page where you would be asked to sign in with your Google account.
• In the initial stage, you need to get your android device (either phone or tablet) with your desktop via Wi-Fi connection or USB device. If you do not have an android device, you can install and run Emulator in App Inventor where you would be able to test it in real time on your computer with the onscreen emulator.
• Once connected, you start designing your application in the way you want.
• Please note that this application is not supported by Internet Explorer. App inventor recommends Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

Currently, the tool has 184.3K monthly active users out of total 3.4M users registered across 195 countries. These users have designed more than 9.5M applications till now without using any single word of coding!