Looking to integrate real-world technology skills into your classroom with an eye towards preparing your students for the digital economy? AppMakr, the leading do-it-yourself mobile app company, has just released a free new curriculum targeted at middle and secondary school teachers who want to build on their students’ excitement about new technologies.
With more and more companies hiring skilled developers to build in mobile applications, it’s clear that apps are here to stay and the need to integrate them into our class curricula is becoming clear. From social media and communications to shopping and entertainment, there is an app for just about any activity you can think of. Given smartphone penetration amongst today’s young adults, (79% of the 18-24 year-old range), it’s not surprising that students today know more than adults about what is happening in the mobile world.
As a teacher, you can help your students navigate the digital wave by teaching them how to make and market their own apps and to understand the implications of the broader app economy. Over four practical sessions, students will learn how mobile apps work, how to create a well-designed app, and how to market their finished products. Lastly, and perhaps most important, they will have learned that making apps is easy and can be a real expression of their creative ideas.
With the AppMakr school curriculum, which is free for all users, students will be emboldened to find they can actually have a voice and be powerful participants in the burgeoning digital economy. At the end of the workshop, students will walk away with their very own native Android App, as well as an HTML5 mobile web site that will work on an iPhone, Microsoft, or Blackberry smartphone.
Based on the ebook, “The Monkey’s Guide to Mobile Apps,” this curriculum is well adapted for non-traditional classrooms, homeschooling, and unschooling, and can even be utilized as an adult continuing education workshop.
The hands-on approach encourages student-to-student interaction as a way to help participants retain the materials discussed. If you’ve been intimidated by the pace of technological progress in recent years, this is a great way to stay abreast of current developments and cultivate the next generation of entrepreneurial talent. And best of all, your students will have a lot of fun doing it.
