Are you interested in learning more about how to host an in-person or virtual summer camp or after school club for students to get them excited about coding and computer science? You can host a club or camp focused on app design and app prototyping in 10 easy steps.
App prototyping is the process of creating a working model of an app. Before spending a lot of time writing the code for an app, you can create a prototype to help you map out the interactivity and features of the app. Essentially creating models of each screen, the features of the app, and demonstrating what happens when you push a button. Does the app go to the camera app, a photo gallery, a data entry tool, or back to the home screen?
I hope you are able to join me to learn more about hosting a virtual summer coding camp or after school club focused on app design and app prototyping as a way to get students excited to learn more about computer science, coding, and app development. You can also integrate smaller pieces of this experience into any content area class to introduce the concept and help students make cross-curricular connections.
In addition to getting students excited about computer science and helping them to be more aware of the app development process, all of the materials that you need to help guide you through the process are completely free from Apple and can be used by anyone, regardless of having any coding experience. Resources are linked below.
Session Description
Learn 10 steps to guide you from start to finish in organizing and holding a virtual or in-person summer camp or after school coding club for students focused on app design and prototyping to build their interest in learning how to code and develop iOS apps. Hear about the process and free resources available to help your students learn more about app design, UI, and UX while prototyping a working model of an app using the Keynote app on the iPad to help solve a problem or challenge in their community. No previous coding experience needed. Google Slides and PowerPoint users can follow this process, too.
Presentation Slides
Marketing:
Creating a flyer to get information about the camp out to students, staff, and families is a very important step in the process so that everyone knows about the opportunity. Fortunately there are lots of great tools, apps, and applications that you can use to create your flyer.
I used Keynote and shapes from the built-in shapes library to create the flyer shown below.
Layout and Graphic Design:
Keynote
PowerPoint
Google Slides
Canva
App Ideas:
Where to start? We had students brainstorm ideas of apps that they thought could help solve problems or challenges in their communities or could help to promote opportunities or resources that people might not know about.
We used the Google Jamboard app. Padlet would be another great resource for this task too. Both of these apps allow students to add sticky notes to a board to share ideas with others. By using a collaborative community board, students who were still struggling to come up with ideas were able to take inspiration from the ideas shared by others.
Learning About App Design:
Apple has an awesome App Design Journal that is a Keynote file that guides students through the four stages of the app design process: brainstorm, plan, prototype, and evaluate. The journal is loaded with helpful information and spaces for students to sketch, write, and record their thoughts as they move through the process.
Creating An App Prototype:
Building Interest - Creating A Good Pitch Statement:
Celebrating Student Success:
Keep The Interest Going:
Resources:
Apple K-12 Education Teaching Code - Curriculum and resources for teaching code.
Apple Teacher Learning Center - Learn about iPads, apps, Mac computers, applications, and integration ideas. Get started earning your Apple Teacher badges.
App Design Journal - Keynote file students can use to guide them through the app design and app prototyping process.
App Showcase Guide - Tips, suggestions, and steps to hosting an app development or app prototyping showcase.
Google Meet - Video conference application.
Google Jamboard - Internet-based collaborative whiteboard. Great for collaborative brainstorming. Saves in your Google account.
Keynote - Apple presentation app for iPads and Apple computers. Awesome for creating presentations, drawing, animation, video, and layout and design.
PowerSchool Schoology - Learning Management System for hosting courses and groups making it easy for students to find, access, and share materials and learning.
