Mobile phones for programming
It has been a while, wonder how many people still actually read this blog. ;-)
I know this isn't a new idea, but am interested in a slightly different spin.
Programming for mobile phones has been a discussion I have noticed in a few places, however few people have mentioned using them with input/output devices.
I am currently exploring a few options for a course next year to motivate students with programming and have been looking at robotics.
Options I have explored include Lego Mindstorms, Scratch with the optional interface or from a purely motivational standpoint Alice or a creative use of Flash.
During this exploration it has occurred to me that students have their phones.... is there a way to get an attachment for the phones that will allow input devices to be added? Can a simply language then be used to make use of these readily accessible computers sitting in kids pockets...
Another avenue to explore - not sure I will get anywhere with all those different connectors.
posted by Jason Plunkett @ 10:59 PM
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3 Comments:
Scratch is pretty cool -- I had excellent results using it to introduce programming to a programming-naive audience last summer (these were adult school teachers, not kids) .
All but one of my students were able to successfully complete a Scratch program, which is a much higher success rate than any other language I've ever tried.
We have a couple of the Scratch boards and they also work well. However, they only solve half the problem -- they provide input, but not output. You can sense the world but not alter or control it.
There's no networking, so you can't send data to other machines (I gather this was a conscious design decision).
In regard to the mobile phone idea, one (relatively) easy way to get information in and out of the phone is through SMS messages. Most carriers have some sort of email interface to SMS, which allows the phone to talk to any system which can send and receive email (i.e., essentially everything, with perhaps a bit of glue code).
BTW, you still have 10 subscribers on Bloglines. That's the great thing about RSS -- if a blogger you like goes on hiatus, the feed reader will let you know when he or she comes back.
Thank you, I'm actually an avid bloglines fan (or is it that I'm too lazy to investigate google) so I probably could have checked that out myself.
My scratch boar5ds are on order, not sure how long they will take to ship to Australia, so I will get to investigate them when they arrive.
Thank you for your feedback, it was something I had not considered.
I am really interested in the robo soccer challenge. I can see this as a way of motivating the students, challenging them and learning programming concepts all in one hit. Might have to be Lego mindstorms that we use here though .:-(
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