Can you imagine developing Apps on your WP7 phone? I couldn’t even begin to contemplate
anything of the sort until I saw Touch Develop!!
TouchDevelop
is a novel software development environment that lets users write programs for Windows
Phone directly on the smartphone, no PC required. TouchDevelop can be used in the
classroom to teach programming concepts, and TouchDevelop is also ideal for classes
on Mobile Computing, as it cuts the time required to write apps.
University
phone loan program
To help students
gain access to this revolutionary new programming language and environment, we have
set up a loan program, from which you can get Windows Phones for a semester. Please
send a short proposal to outreach@microsoft.com.
Give the name of the instructor, the class website, the number of students, and how
the phones will be used.
experience
Visit TouchDevelop
teaching page at
Microsoft Research for a list of how TouchDevelop has been used and is being used
in classrooms.
resources
for educators
-
book –
currently available for free online; systematic introduction to all basic concepts -
slides –
many slides decks going through all aspects of mobile app development with TouchDevelop -
learn –
more documents, videos
in
the classroom
Teachers and
students should work with actual Windows Phones devices in the classroom – the TouchDevelop
user interface was designed around the idea of only using a touchscreen to write code
and performing gestures to navigate; using TouchDevelop on an emulator doesn’t provide
the intended experience. When teaching in the classroom, you can use a webcam or desktop
visualizers to project the image of the phone on a big screen. As a teacher, consider subscribing to
your students to see what they are publishing and if they are asking questions
Blog Post by: Mick Badran