App Lab from Code.org

App Lab from Code.org

While I am a huge fan of the Hour of Code and the content on Code.org, I haven't used a lot of it in my classes in the past. This is partially because it is built for minimal teacher interaction and I like taking a more active role in my classes.  This year, however, I came across their new App Lab product.  Love it!  (https://code.org/educate/applab) It makes it easy for students at the Middle School level to create something resembling an app.  It's not actually an app but a webpage framed to appear as an app when opened on a phone or tablet.  Students can quickly create a project with multiple screens, text images and sounds.  We used the Hour of Code tutorial to get started, then jumped ahead to parts of their AP CS Principals course that reference App Lab. (https://studio.code.org/s/csp3#) My students are liking it a lot and I think I will be looking for additional ways to use App Lab in future classes.