Android App - Keyword Touch

Almost a year ago I blogged about App Inventor and Kodu, with the intention of doing something useful with them soon after. I found it frustrating that you have to buy an application for the Xbox to make Kodu apps work for real, whereas App Inventor apps can be deployed very easily, even without creating a developer account with Google and putting them on the Android Market. (Thanks to Hossein Amerkashi and "App to Market" the process of making a Market app from an AI app is dead easy. I haven't published to the market but his application makes it easy to add install to SD and other features). It took a while, and was held up somewhat by the transition of ownership from Google to MIT, but I've finally completed a genuinely useful app.

Keyword Touch was born because my son (in reception at primary school) had a whole series of sets of "tricky" words to learn. Whatever your view of learning words out of context, it was something he had to do so I wanted to help. He had begun pinching my phone (and my wife's) so we'd put a simple child lock app on them, but there wasn't really anything educational about what that allowed him to do.

I decided I'd take advantage of App Inventor, my son's interest in phones and his need to learn these words, and Keyword Touch was the result. Essentially, the phone speaks a word and you have to press the right one. It keeps score and moves a little Android across the screen depending on how you're doing.

I've had to learn various new components, such as Canvas, Notifier, TinyDB and TextToSpeech, which has been fun. It has flaws, for example the text to speech engine struggles with some short words (like "he"). I have a few ideas about how to extend it, such as allowing people to create their own sets, providing a chart (using Google's chart API) of the scores, and even sending the scores to a central location for the teacher to track. (Maybe the last is a bit Big Brother). The main obstacle has been understanding the way TinyDB works - I'm used to SQL and kept wanting to see it like a "normal" database; it isn't. I can see lots of useful ways to analyse what he does (which ones does he get wrong the most, for example) but querying TinyDB is such a pain I'm putting that off for now.

If you'd like to try the app it's free to download from here. You have to set your phone up to accept applications from unknown sources (go to Settings - Applications - Unknown Sources and tick the box). All comments are welcome!

EDIT: I've now put together another little app that randomly spits out a word from any of the sets you choose. This can be useful if you're playing a game where the child has to find the right word or - even better - if you lay out the words on the floor you can play a version of Twister. In order to make this work the app also shows a random limb whenever you spin! Get it here.

Phone update

Looking back over my blog, I wrote a fair bit about using the iPod touch instead of my old Windows Mobile device (a Dell Axim). I moved on again last year, getting hold of an HTC Desire running Android. I love it. I can pick up home and work email, edit or read docs, spreadsheets, PDFs, sync with my Google calendar (I use Touch Calendar - better than the stock app) and - of course - do all sorts of other things like control my Media Center PC or play Angry Birds.

When I teach "future trends" in ICT, I always seem to end up pulling my phone out of my pocket. Today it was real time translation (interpreting really), which is (or was) a hard CS problem.

Amazing.

Android App Inventor and Kodu

App Inventor has been around since summer 2010 and I've been playing with it since then (though recently I've hardly had the time!). I attended the Norfolk ICT Conference this week and heard several inspiring speakers (Ewan Mactintosh and Dawn Hallybone amongst others) talking about games-based learning and students creating stuff - "entrepreneurial learning". I know there are some projects going on to use App Inventor in the classroom but I haven't heard much about Kodu. Having looked at it last night the potential is enourmous: you very quickly create 3D worlds to explore, and add simple event-based control to build up game logic. The game can be played on PC or... Xbox 360. Interestingly, about 10% of my 9 students have an Android phone; more like 50% have an Xbox.

When I get time, I'm going to do something with these great tools.

Remote Potato

... is a great app to allow web access to Windows 7 Media Centre.

More on iPod/iPhone for school

Just a quick post today - when updating my iPod software the other day I got offered a free tool for enterprise deployment of the iPhone and iPod Touch. Now the iPhone has often been criticised as an alternative to a "proper" business smartphone or PDA, but even Paul Ockendedn in PC Pro magazine has now changed his mind and declared it "Fit for business". The reasons it got knocked initially have been slowly removed. First there were the applications (admittedly third party) which gave access to MS Office documents; next came OS3, which gave us copy and paste and Search (amongst other things); now there is decent integration with Exchange and the ability to manage profiles centrally (ensure passwords are used, manage apps, wipe data...). More information is available here. It seems to me that £149 for the new 8GB Touch is cheaper than a PDA with similar capabilies and offers much more besides.

Living with OS3 on the Ipod Touch

It's time to come clean and admit I was wrong: I'm pretty disappointed with the improvements in Apple's recent revision of the operating system on the iPod Touch and iPhone. I was pleased to see various features, like search and cut & paste, but for me the killer app was bluetooth: I wanted a BT keyboard and headset so I could really use the Touch a bit like a mini PC for proper typing and get more from it as an audio device. I'd also hoped it would open the door to other 3rd party hardware like GPS modules, or even sensors for science experiments (at school the science team are currently testing some bluetooth sensors for a local firm that makes them).

Sadly, I've used search once, and copy and paste not at all: it's just too fiddly.

The crucial factor, though, is that bluetooth is completely crippled. It only supports audio out, not even allowing use of the microphone on a headset let alone other peripherals.

Looks like I might have to bite the bullet and go for an iPhone, or perhaps Apple have done enough with this (and potentially with their possible refusal to sanction Spotify in the App Store) to drive me to another solution. Anyone for Android?

Successful Intervention with the Edexcel Project

Like a fool, I volunteered myself to spend the last 2 weeks of term working with a small group of year ten students who hadn't managed to sort out work experience placements. Most had a track record of poor attendance or behaviour at school. In the past, we have used an external organisation to provide ASDAN Wider Key Skills to this cohort but it wasn't going to work for this little group (or be cost effective).

I decided it would be interesting to have a go at the Edexcel Level 1 (or for some of them, Level 2) Project. In addition to the students developing their subject knowledge in a particular area and earning a half GCSE I had a few other objectives which should help them do better in all their other subjects:

1. Improve their research skills
2. Improve their ICT skills
3. Improve their communication skills
4. Improve their literacy and numeracy
   

I met the group individually about 6 weeks ago to explain what we'd be doing and find out about their interests, so we could establish a topic. I then asked our school librarian to get some books together and she put me in touch with the staff at the Millennium Library in Norwich, who kindly agreed to help us find books, newspaper articles and use the computers.

The week before we started, the group met for an hour to establish rules and clarify what we'd be doing. Everyone created a mind map of the area they wanted to research, and I allowed students to have a totally personal choice here, as long as they could come up with a question which allowed for a range of responses:

• Should boxing be banned?
• Is gambling dangerously addictive?
• Should smoking be completely banned?

When the fortnight began, we followed a similar routine each day: arrive by 9 and get a drink; work on the project for the first hour; learn a new skill for the second; further work on the project after break; literacy/numeracy (leading to the ALAN qualification) period 4; write up the day's diary and have a chat over a few games on the Nintendo Wii after lunch (assuming the other work was complete). We went into Norwich on the first Wednesday to visit the library (which was a new experience for many, and they signed up so they could take out DVDs and games in future). While we were there the students carried out a survey on the general public (scary!) about their chosen topic, which we then analysed and made into charts back at school.

So, how did it go?

Well, there was some poor punctuality, and one student dropped out entirely after the first couple of days, but the vast majority of the group attended regularly (more so than normal!), achieved the part or even full ALAN qualification (some at Level 2) and put together a project that both I and they are really proud of. Many of them dramatically improved their ICT skills in Word, PowerPoint and Excel, they can now structure a discursive essay and support their ideas with evidence, they can use references and produce a bibliography. When we looked at what they'd put together as a whole document (Introduction, Research, For, Against, Conclusion, Bibliography) it was a really impressive piece of work. On the last day, they were clearly nervous about presenting their findings to the group and one boy disappeared (ill!). The others stuck it out and delivered their presentations really well.

Conclusion

The projects haven't yet been moderated, but I'm hopeful we've got a range of responses from a B grade equivalent down to an F. Although it was tough going at times, I did enjoy the fortnight and I feel more comfortable with the Project as a form of intervention than some other qualifications, since I think the students genuinely learned a lot of transferable skills. I'm thinking about how we can use it next year as part of the overall arsenal of intervention techniques at our disposal. Anyone interested in the resources I put together to support the course is very welcome.