New Apps Class at Red Lion SHS
It seems like almost everyone has an iPhone or iPad these
days. Even if you don’t, you probably
have heard the term “APPS”. An app is software that you can download on
your iPhone that will do almost anything.
It seems like no matter what you need to do there is an app for it. Game apps are probably the most popular
type. This year millions of users have
downloaded “Angry Birds” or “Words”.
Many of these apps are free but some must be bought. The person who writes the app gets a
percentage of the price. So if you wrote
Angry Birds, you probably don’t have to worry about where you are going to get
the money for your next car payment.
Some of you might be thinking about how you could become
part of this new way to make money. Red
Lion SHS has offered a new course to students called “Writing Apps for iPhones
and iPads”. There is a beginner’s course
and an advanced course. Both courses are
one semester. There are currently 25
students enrolled in these courses. A
few may be thinking about developing a new app that will sell millions of
copies. But the students are finding out
that you just can’t sit down at a computer and start writing apps. You must learn the language. Learning the language takes some work, but it
can be done. Many of the current students are already demonstrating this. The first nine weeks of the course involves
learning a language called Objective C.
Our apps students are now writing simple apps that can display an
address book, bell schedules, student schedules, or any information you would
like to have at you fingertips. Our next
type of app will be a geographic app, which will draw a map on the iPhone and
then place a marker at your present location.
This type of app could eventually be used to measure rate of speed and
distance.
If you are thinking about taking this course in the future,
you can go to www.rlasd.k12.pa.us/apps
and view all the lessons that are completed in this course. The website is not complete as more apps
projects will be added in the future.
Since improving our reading and writing skills has become a
priority at RLASHS, there are apps that can help you. Here are a few:
- Google Mobile. Search by using your voice or pictures.
- Voice Memos. This app allows you to record any audio reminders or snippets of text that come to you when pen and paper aren’t handy.
- Dragon Dictation. This app records your speech and instantly transcribes it. You can then edit then copy and paste into an email or other application
- Idea Generator. This app generates three random words, which will hopefully get your writing juices flowing. But it doesn’t stop there, you can select the language and customize it other ways.
- Method Cards. This app gives you cards, which you can use to generate ideas, look for inspiration, raise questions, get a different point of view on something.
- iStop WritersBlock. A program to help you get ideas for plots, plot twists and even characters.
- Writing Prompts. Writing.com gives you an app, which generates prompts for anything from words, colors, genres and writing types
- My Writing Spot. My Writing Spot provides a writing environment on your iPhone. You’ll also have access to a dictionary and thesaurus, font controls, autosave, and word count.
- Office.2 If you prefer to write using Microsoft Word, Office2 will let you edit your Microsoft Word and Excel documents.
The possibilities
for usuable apps are endless. Maybe you
have an idea for an app that you feel could be something that people would want
to use. You can’t write it unless you
learn it. “Writing Apps for
iPhones and iPads” is a good place
to start.
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