If you want to learn technical skills, hone your business sense and tap your creative side, there’s a class for that.
Students are powering on their imaginations in Flagler Palm Coast High’s new app class, one of a growing number across the country that capitalize on teens’ fascination with cellphones and other mobile devices.
The popularity of mobile apps, which are software programs for devices like smartphones and tablets, is surging. Close to nine in 10 American adults own a mobile phone and 43 percent said they’ve downloaded apps, according to a study released in September from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
Students like senior Andrew Migryt are motivated by the possibility of creating the next must-have app.
“Imagine going into the real world and seeing people using your app,” said Migryt, 18. “It’s very rewarding.”
The 18-year-old was no stranger to coding when he completed the class last semester: He knew HTML and CSS from a web design class and his own research. But Objective C, the tricky language used to build many apps, offers an extra challenge. Migryt described it as “like chicken scratch.”
Classes that focus on mobile apps are “certainly not unique” to the area and likely are offered in many high schools across the country said Doug Levin, executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association, a nonprofit organization that represents and supports state technology leaders. App development is “much more attuned with what is currently driving the market,” he said.
“(Apps are) certainly very accessible to kids because, not all, but a lot of kids, are used to this format outside of school,” he said. “It does engage kids in skills that are important and valuable.”
Volusia County schools don’t offer any classes that are devoted solely to the development and use of apps, said Kelly Amy, coordinator of career and technical education and the arts. But students sometimes create apps as part of their coursework, especially in the county’s career academies, where project-based learning is par for the course.
“It’s happening — it’s out there,” Amy said. “It’s not at a place where it’s enough to develop a whole course in it.”
A handful of Mainland High School students who “live and breathe Apple” products, teacher Clifford Scarborough said, are building an app that will provide information about bell schedules, grades and more to students.
“I had always wanted to have a central place for students to go to get information and I had a group of students who were fanatics for (the) iPhone and iPad,” he said.
The “App Creation” class at Flagler Palm Coast debuted in the fall and it’s filled each semester with 20 to 25 students, mostly upperclassmen, teacher Kerri Sands said. She starts with an overview history of technology, starting with the primitive tools of the Stone Age and ending with smartphones. After a few weeks, she introduces basic programming skills. The ultimate goal is to create a product that’s available on Apple’s App Store.
A few students, like Migryt, are versed in one or more programming languages on the first day of class. But others have never written code, Sands said, so the class does “collaborative projects” that allow beginners to learn from their experienced peers. She’d hoped her students would code independently, from scratch, by the end of the class, but last semester’s group didn’t advance that far. Instead, she walks through the process with her students and gives them options to personalize their projects along the way.
“Some of them come in having no idea, not having a smartphone or not having written any kind of programming language,” she said. Technical skills are important, but programmers also must think like users, and that seems to come naturally for many teenagers.
“As we were going through the design process, the kids have that way of thinking of apps in their mind,” Sands said. “It kind of flows for them. Teaching to a different age group would have been a different process.”
Changing the background on a simple app called “Bullseye,” Migryt pointed out, made the game easier on the eyes. He and his classmates devoted nearly two weeks creating the app and spent at least a class period focusing only on aesthetics.
“It’s not all about the coding,” said Migryt, who plans to study video game programming at Full Sail University in Winter Park next year. “It’s about making it appealing.”
Experiencing “something that’s relevant to them as opposed to doing a textbook exercise” is exciting for teenagers, said Andrew Rothstein, special advisor on education policy for the National Academy Foundation, which operates a network of high school career academies.
“The kids feel like they’re on top of a really hot topic,” he said. “The people who do this — they get to be the stars. They can use their imaginations and dream about being the next entrepreneur.”
Jacob Oliva, former principal at FPC, said he’s heard others refer to app development as “the modern day gold rush.” He pitched the app class concept to Sands last year as a way to round out the technology course offerings at FPC.
“We are always looking for innovative ways to connect kids to classes and experiences that can prepare them to a career or college readiness,” said Oliva, who is now the district’s assistant superintendent.
For aspiring programmers, the demand for apps is exploding: Apple reported last month that people worldwide have downloaded 40 billion apps from its App Store, with nearly 20 billion downloaded in 2012 alone.
Not everyone in Sands’ class aims to make a living by writing code, including senior Keoni Grabowski, who said he plans to enroll in the nursing program at Daytona State College next year. Still, the 17-year-old said he’s enjoying a “fun class” during his last semester of high school.
“Being able to make my own apps and learning the technology before this and how we came to what we have today,” Grabowski said in describing what he likes about the class.
Aside from the technical skills, students should learn a “combination of the skills transferable beyond developing an app,” Rothstein said, including working in a group, solving problems and meeting deadlines.
“The best thing is not to think about the app as an end unto itself,” Rothstein said. “Think of it as a mental concept — a way to think about problem solving.”