Should we use App Inventor in a primary school

[TwistedHelixis]

We currently use Espresso Coding and code.org but I have been asked to look at App Inventor which seems a bit over the top for this age group. Also I gave the year 6 teacher a demo and I thought her head was going to pop. She really is not going to get her head round this one.

 

So my questions,

 

Are any primary schools using App Inventor and would you recommend we drop our other coding software (Espresso Coding, Code.org) in favour of App Inventor.

 

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Oh and we do use scratch extensively from KS1

[NB9457]

We have it installed on our base image in all primary schools, so it's there when needed, although I would really say it's more for children in Higher Education, or at the very least, Y6 pupils.

 

I've sat in on lessons where they've used it in a primary and the kids do get stuck a bit and the apps they make are very basic at most.

[Foresthippy]

Is this for Y6 rising stars? I'm helping a school deliver this to Y6 children, but at this stage don't believe the pupils have the coding ability to develop the apps they have designed. I quite like app inventor as a product but it has certain technical issues which make it difficult to use in school - you need individual google accounts for each app as it complains if several people log into the same account simultaneously, the emulator often won't run again if someone has closed it down during a session, the emulator is slow and unresponsive. Even with real phones, the apps can be very slow and unresponsive, particularly any of the more complex demos. On the plus side, the kids seem to be very motivated by the idea of developing an app for a smartphone and the coding side is similar to scratch in the way you drag blocks together.

[dry]

We're in the process of setting up Google Apps for Education so our Year 6s can use App Inventor.

 

They're under strict instructions to keep the app design very simple. This is the first cohort the school has used App Inventor with so I'm withholding judgement. From what I've seen it does look almost too complex for our Year 6s (and certainly too complicated for the member of staff teaching them!! )

[compsue]

Personally I think Espresso Coding is great and gets updated regularly, it now has html and python lessons. We also use code.org and scratch and tynker, the children are loving it and learning lots.