Blending Mobile Programming and Liberal Education in a Social-Economic High School

Abstract

Mobile programming is one of the fastest growing approaches in many fields, such as marketing or e-commerce. From the educational perspective, this means that students should understand that they can build mobile applications (apps) without being professionals, and at the same time recognize their own potential to use technology in any professional path they choose. This goal is not trivial, even if students are in general curious and open to learn about the creation of apps. Indeed, especially in liberal education, students get discouraged upfront as they perceive programming as a difficult task. This paper describes a course that was cre- ated to fit the educational needs of a social-economic high school. Students take part of an interdisciplinary project in which the Software Engineering process is used to promote CT skills. The course was repeated twice and involved 29 students (8th and 9th grade).