The 2015 spring semester is steadily coming to an end on most campuses including Howard University where our CEO Aaron K. Saunders is finishing his first semester teaching Howard’s inaugural cross-platform mobile app development course.
Students at Howard University are quickly grasping the value of cross-platform mobile development as Aaron has spent the first several classes going over two widely used frameworks, Appcelerator Titanium and Ionic Framework.
After the first handful of classes, Aaron identified that a few additional lessons became necessary for students to effectively use cross-platform frameworks like Titanium. These additional lessons included overviews of Javascript and identifying popular online resources available for troubleshooting issues with code.
The students have reacted with excitement and shared their aspirations as well as candid opinions of Aaron as a professor.
We took time to sit down with three students — Rochelle Scott (Math / Sr.), Remington Holt (Computer Science / Jr.), and Hannah Clark (Computer Science / Soph.) to get their thoughts on the first couple months of the course.
Here’s what they had to say:
What intrigued you about the cross-platform mobile app development course?
(Rochelle) I have a ton of apps and no idea about what makes them tick. That needed to change and that’s what motivated me to sign up for the course.
(Remington) I was leaning towards signing up for the course the moment I saw it was available but once I saw that the course would be taught by Aaron, looked him up and saw that he had real industry experience, that really sold me.
(Hannah) As a computer scientist, you have to try building apps. I was always curious about learning how to build mobile apps then I saw it was cross-platform, never heard of that and became very curious.
What are your thoughts so far on the course and Aaron as a professor?
(Rochelle) Some professors are all about teaching you step-by-step but that’s definitely not Aaron’s style. No spoon feeding. And he makes himself really available which is a relief from most professors who are hard to track down. With regard to the course so far, a lack of code familiarity might play a part on this but mobile development is very time consuming in order to do it well.
(Remington) I really like Mr. Saunders but noticed he’s not big on native languages and I don’t know if I totally agree about that (Dom: Remington is calling you out Aaron! #JustKidding) and Angular has been a VERY cool surprise to me.
(Hannah)
It’s crazy how much I’m learning about apps. Seriously. It’s a lot. Lots of Javascript and Angular and all of it is really fascinating. Aaron’s digital presence makes him easily accessible for questions and he makes himself frequently available. He clearly wants to teach the course.
And lastly, what is the one thing you are looking to take away from this course?
(Rochelle) I want to be able to explain how an app is made. I want to understand the ingredients involved in cooking up a mobile app and be able to teach that recipe to other people.
(Remington) I am just excited to build an app using a cross-platform framework and for it to be available to the public.
(Hannah) I’m hoping to make an app, have it compiled in iOS and Android and I mean, I’m not trying to create the next Flappy Bird but if it happens, I won’t complain.
— — —
To learn more about all our work in the tech and entrepreneurial education space, click here.
Comments