From computational Thinking to computational Action - Dr. Hal Abelson, MIT App Inventor Project.
1. 1
Hal Abelson
MIT Department of Electrical
Engineering
and Computer Science
MIT App Inventor Project
From
Computational Thinking
to Computational Action
This work is licensed
under a Creative
Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0
International License.
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The purpose of this essay is to
present a grander vision of an
educational system in which
technology is … something children
themselves will learn to
manipulate, to extend, to apply to
projects, thereby gaining a greater
and more articulate mastery of
the world, a sense of the power of
applied knowledge and a self-
confidently realistic image of
themselves as intellectual agents.
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a greater and more articulate
mastery of the world,
a sense of the power of applied
knowledge
a self-confidently realistic image
of themselves as intellectual
agents
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a greater and more articulate
mastery of the world,
a sense of the power of applied
knowledge
a self-confidently realistic image
of themselves as intellectual
agents
35. Pharm Alarm as Computational Action
• Pharm Alarm demonstrates:
• Even children can draw on their personal experience
as inspiration to make life better for others
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40. ComPal as Computational Action
ComPal demonstrates:
• Even students can create breakthrough applications to
for medical care worldwide
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41. Activity on MIT App Inventor Server
Spain 15%
US 13%
Taiwan 9%
Mexico 9%
South Korea 7%
UK 6%
Brazil 4%
Italy 3%
Colombia 3%
Hong Kong 3%
France 2%
India 2%
…
June 2017
710 K monthly active users
140 K weekly active users
40 K daily active users
Total
5 M users
20 M projects
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42. Activity on MIT App Inventor Server
Spain 15%
US 13%
Taiwan 9%
Mexico 9%
South Korea 7%
UK 6%
Brazil 4%
Italy 3%
Colombia 3%
Hong Kong 3%
France 2%
India 2%
…
June 2017
400 K monthly active users
140 K weekly active users
40 K daily active users
Total
5 M users
20 M projects
Plus:
220 K China
users of server in
Guangzhou
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46. Youth mobile power
• A collaborative project of Youth Radio and MIT App Inventor
• Produce national radio broadcasts about youth-related
issues where mobile computing can play a role
• Publish apps that relate to those issues
• Publish App Inventor toolkits that let young people create
their own original related apps
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51. Mood ring as computational action
• A real application to address an important global
issue.
• Designed by the young people at Youth Radio to
address mental health issues as they see them.
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65. Real-time collaborative programming with
App Inventor
• Masters thesis work by Xinyue Deng at MIT
• Provides real-time collaboration on projects (similar to Google Docs)
• Lets students program together in classroom activities
• Enables group project work
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74. Texas middle schoolers win national contest
for app inspired by their blind classmate
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75. No matter how old
you are, or what
gender you are, as
long as you have the
imagination and the
will to do it,
anything is possible.
-- Helo Navi team
member 75