Two months ago I got my first Android phone--a Samsung Intercept with Virgin Mobile. I loved it right away. I learned about the Android Market and installing apps on my phone. I also learned that people from all over design apps for the Android Market.
Soon, I came up with the idea that I would teach a course at Harford Day School showing students how to build an app for Android. Over the next weeks, I spoke with David Withrow about my idea. He told me to proceed and I read websites about how to download and install the Android SDK (software developer kit).
Two weeks before Winter Break, I presented my information to Su Harris. She liked the idea and suggested that I get the support of other teachers of students in grades 5-8. They also supported the idea. So, during the last week before break, I announced the class to the school. I wrote an announcement for the Wednesday Bulletin. On Thursday morning, I visited the 5th grade homerooms to explain the class. At the end of the day, I met with all the 6th graders to tell them. Friday morning, I explained the details to all the 7th and 8th grade students, who met in the MS commons. From all the questions I got, I thought I would be turning away students to keep the class from getting too big.
Then, I waited. I set up the website so parents and students would read about the class: https://sites.google.com/a/harfordday.org/cybergofer/android-programming-class. There was a permission slip for parents to sign and a registration form for students to complete online. I specifically designed the class so parents and students would have to go online to express their interest. I intentionally wanted to avoid a paper-based registration process.
In the first few days, I got only a few email inquiries from parents, but none from students. Two weeks went by and I didn't get any more inquiries. By this morning, I had had only 4 students registered and I began to wonder if my plan for a paperless registration was a mistake.
By the end of the day, I decided that a group of four would be a good size to initiate this kind of after school class. Well, about 2:45, I received an email message from a mother asking if it was too late for her son to join. I replied with my approval and went to tell the homeroom teacher. While I was in the hallway, a few other kids asked to join. So, by 3:15 I had nine kids in the media lab.
I've never been one for paperwork, so I got them started right away. I pointed them to the start page for the Android Developer Kit and told them to follow the directions. Because we were in the media lab, I divided the kids into groups and put some one Macs and some on Linux--one Ubuntu and one Mint.
The first hour was spent reading instructions, downloading and installing software, and just figuring things out. The students spent a lot of the time figuring things out on their own and asking me questions when they got stuck, but mostly they did it themselves.
By about 4:30, the first group got a virtual Android device to appear on the screen of the iMac. THEY MADE A PHONE!! It was exciting. Until that point, I wasn't really sure this class would work. But, I believed in the process of constructivist learning. I set up the environment and gave them the tools to succeed. Then I let them loose to struggle and succeed on their own. And they succeeded.
By 5:00 I figured out the paperwork and got permission slips from all the kids...or a promise to bring it tomorrow. All the parents showed up on time to get the kids and thanked me for offering this class. It was a good day.
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