RAY PASTORE, PH.D.ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY – UNCWWWW.RAYPASTORE.COM

How to Build Mobile Apps for iOS and Android

Developing for Apple

Becoming an Apple Developer https://developer.apple.com/ $99 per year (but free for classroom use) Can only be made on Macs University Program

https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/university/ Can share apps, publish to personal ipod/iphone/ipad

with university program

Developing for Apple

Xcode – tool used to publish most apps https://developer.apple.com/xcode/ C/C++ is the programming language used Have Mac to use Review Process – Apple reviews apps before you can

publish Ease of Use

Very difficult Experienced Programmers only

Developing for Android

Becoming an Android Developer http://developer.android.com/index.html $25 per year (free for classroom) No need for university license, can publish apps to

devices and even publish on web for free. License only needed if publishing to app store

Developing for Android

Eclipse - tool used to publish most apps http://www.eclipse.org/ Java is the programming language used No Review Process Ease of use

Not as difficult as Apple But programming required Can get by with a basic understanding of programming Would be very difficult in a K-12 classroom

How to develop on both Android and Apple?

You have several options: HTML5 (well really just a plain old webpage) and

Adobe Flash If you know either, then making the app is easy The interesting thing is that publishing on both is

significantly easier than publishing on one of them (ie making a native app using the previous mentioned methods)

Developing on Both: Cross Platform Tools

HTML5 (or Dreamweaver HTML) Use software called - PhoneGap (Adobe owned)

http://phonegap.com/ Dreamweaver/HTML programming Publish to apple, android, windows, blackberry Very easy to use. It allows you to publish the web page

into an app Users will not know the difference between an HTML

app or a regular app. Only you know how it was created!

PhoneGap is FREE!

Developing on Both: Cross Platform Tools

Adobe Flash Publish to apple and android via Adobe Air. Somewhat easy to use but Flash is not free

If you do not know Flash this will be difficult

Drag and Drop options: Apple

Apple Gamesalad - http://gamesalad.com Free to publish in iOS but $299 for full package Works with android too just need to pay the fee Very easy to use in K-12 settings

Drag and Drop options: Android

Android MIT App Inventor - Free http://appinventor.mit.edu Curriculum Guide: http://teach.appinventor.mit.edu/

Tons of great resources and tutorials for K-12 use Very easy to use and user friendly

Drag and Drop options: Other

Other tools Tons of other tools out there however these are some

of the most popular Most of the other tools (not all) have a catch, such as

a fee to actually publish even though free to create or have ads. Look for more of these tools in the future but please read

the fine print. They usually sound perfect until you figure out that ads will be on all of your apps.

Hardware

What are my options for testing use or classroom use? iPods iPads Android Tablets Computer simulators

You technically can do everything, even test, on a computer. No need to buy these devices for developing an app.

Overall Recommendations

The drag and drop tools are very easy to use but usually only work on one device and many are not free so read the fine print These are the best K-12 option

HTML apps are very easy to create if you can create a webpage. I publish these through phonegap and its something that is very easy in a classroom environment If you are developing webpages, this is just one more step

Native programming apps are very difficult even in college level programming classes I would not recommend students trying this unless it’s a programming class

If I had to publish apps with a K-12 class I would choose Dreamweaver or MIT App Inventor. These are both visual editors which are more fun for students to see immediate results. I personally like MIT App Inventor. Their tutorial and resources for educators

are very well done.