The future of teaching programming is on mobile devices

Mobile game development: improving student engagement and motivation in introductory computing courses

“…Using mobile ubiquitous devices in the educational process will add a social dimension to the success of this learning contextstudents will be able to see a connection between the technical material and their everyday lives. In fact, a number of recent publications described a number of novel approaches to using mobile devices as a learning context; for example, in the TouchDevelop project described by Tillmann et al (2012), mobile applications are developed directly on mobile devices. CS educators realize the importance of not only offering individual courses in mobile computing, but also incorporating the elements of mobile application development throughout the curriculum to leverage the engagement and motivation factor of this learning context (Fenwick et al, 2011).…”

“…Mobile game development has been successfully integrated into graduate degrees (Zyda et al, 2008); they have been found helpful as a motivating tool to increase student interest in CS and other STEM disciplines (Metcalf, Milrad, Cheek, Raasch, & Hamilton, 2008). Mobile devices have been integrated into CS curriculum in different ways, including teaching computer literacy (Mahmoud & Dyer, 2007) and introductory programming (Mahmoud & Dyer, 2008;Tillmann et al, 2012). Current research indicates that mobile devices and mobile games are a valuable teaching and learning tool (Chao, 2006), especially in the context of attracting schoolchildren to computing (Sharples, 2000), improving engagement and motivation in secondary education (Huizenga, Admiraal, Akkerman, & ten Dam, 2009), and as a powerful tool used in augmented learning (Klopfer, 2008).…”

The Robot Programming Network

“…Most environments require the use of a PC or laptop to write code, but recent initiatives are directed towards computer programming being done directly on the mobile devices [44].…”

Insights Into Student Experiences With Mobile Platforms and Application Development

“…Attempts such as cross-platform frameworks themselves lock the developer into using those tools, creating the same problem (code must be kept up to date if there are any major changes to the framework, locked in to a particular environment and way of doing things). Cross platform tools are often not kept up to date to the point where they able to utilize the most recent features which are present on a given system, and add another layer of complexity to an already complicated system [9].…”

“…A unique approach which bears mentioning is the newer concept of having students not having to choose an IDE for programming a mobile device, but to perform all mobile devices programming on the device itself, as with TouchDevelop [9]. The designers of TouchDevelop argue that the way we use devices and the types of input devices users employ have changed with each paradigm shift in computing, and that the new input paradigm occurring right now is touchscreens and the cloud.…”