MIT App Inventor

Name: MIT App Inventor
Author: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

VALIDATED

Proven effective in research studies

For:Educators & TeachersGeneral Public & EnthusiastsKids & Youth

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App Summary

MIT App Inventor is an educational platform for students and novice programmers to learn computational thinking by building mobile applications using a visual, block-based programming language. The platform's design is informed by computational thinking literature, utilizing a fast, iterative process that aligns visual blocks with student mental models to emphasize programming logic over syntax. The associated research concludes that this approach makes programming enjoyable and accessible, enabling users to develop valuable computing skills.

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Detailed Description

Functionality & Mechanism Developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT App Inventor is a web-based visual programming environment for creating functional Android applications. The system leverages a drag-and-drop interface for designing the user interface and a block-based language for programming application logic. This dual-view architecture abstracts complex coding syntax, allowing developers to focus on computational logic. A companion mobile app facilitates real-time testing and iterative debugging, streamlining the development process for educational and prototyping purposes.

Evidence & Research Context

The platform's design is grounded in pedagogical principles from computational thinking literature, leveraging components as abstractions and a visual language aligned with novice mental models to facilitate learning.
A usability study analyzing a corpus of 5,228 projects found that usage patterns are heavily influenced by the structure of introductory tutorials, suggesting many capabilities remain underutilized by users.
Associated research involving senior high school students indicated the platform can make programming accessible and enjoyable, facilitating the development of foundational computing skills.

Intended Use & Scope This platform is intended for educators and novice programmers, particularly in K-12 and introductory higher education settings. Its primary utility is as a pedagogical tool for teaching computational thinking and software development principles. The system is not designed for building high-performance, commercial-grade applications and abstracts low-level syntax, limiting its scope for advanced programming instruction.

Studies & Publications

4 publications

Peer-reviewed research associated with this app.

Effectiveness/Outcome Study

Students' Experiences from the use of MIT App Inventor in classroom

Perdikuri et al. (2022) · Panhellenic Conference on Informatics

Students found App Inventor made programming enjoyable and accessible while developing computing skills.

MIT App Inventor for Android is a visual programming environment for creating applications for Android-based smartphones and tablets. It constitutes an alternative, quite easy but also powerful programming platform as it allows the development of apps using databases, interactive maps and other advanced concepts and most importantly, you do not have to write code. In this paper we first present how App Inventor works, its limitations and benefits compared to other Android application development environments, and we subsequently report on teacher and students' experiences from using App Inventor as an introductory programming course with senior high school students. The students were able to create mobile apps quite easily either following specified instructions or on their own initiative. Overall, the research conducted using a questionnaire found that App Inventor could make programming enjoyable and accessible to novices, enabling students to develop computing skills and computational thinking. Finally, we discuss possible extensions App Inventor could have as a visual programming environment for mobile application development.

Development/Design Paper

MIT App Inventor: Objectives, Design, and Development

Patton et al. (2019) · Computational Thinking Education

Describes the research-driven development of this app

MIT App Inventor is an online platform designed to teach computational thinking concepts through development of mobile applications. Students create applications by dragging and dropping components into a design view and using a visual blocks language to program application behavior. In this chapter, we discuss (1) the history of the development of MIT App Inventor, (2) the project objectives of the project and how they shape the design of the system, and (3) the processes MIT uses to develop the platform and how they are informed by computational thinking literature. Key takeaways include use of components as abstractions, alignment of blocks with student mental models, and the benefits of fast, iterative design on learning.

In the Media

The power of App Inventor: Democratizing possibilities for mobile applications

MIT professor Hal Abelson developed App Inventor at Google to bring mobile software development into classrooms, using a block-based visual programming language that allows students to create apps without learning specialized coding syntax. Google software engineer Mark Friedman describes the platform as "a web-based app where everything was online and no external tools were required, with a simple programming model, drag-and-drop user interface designing, and blocks-based visual programming." The free platform gained significant adoption with more than 70,000 teachers using it with hundreds of thousands of students.

MITRead article

MIT App Inventor Impact

MIT developed App Inventor as part of its RAISE initiative to empower anyone to create mobile apps without technical background, even primary school students. The platform's 14+ million users have created more than 85 million mobile apps across 194 countries, with the MIT-hosted server supporting over a million users monthly. The 2022 Appathon for Good welcomed 1,100 contestants from 77 countries, with participants ranging in age from 8 to 80 years old.

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