Most of us who taught Mobile CSP this past year would probably agree it was a big success. Still, there were some lessons on which the team received feedback suggesting changes. In this post, I am going to discuss three such changes that were made to the MCSP curriculum as a result of this feedback:
1. The Firebase lesson on the Presidents’ Quiz was thought too complicated. So that lesson has been replaced by a much simpler Firebase/TinyWebDB lesson called the Clicker App. Unlike last year’s Firebase lesson, this one does not require students to set up a separate Firebase project – the new app works with the default Firebase connection built into App Inventor 2.
2. The Internet lessons (Unit 7) were not interactive enough. There have been several changes made here. In particular, Beryl Hoffman has introduced a neat, unplugged activity that allows students to explore the world of packet switching but cutting up mesages and taking on the roles of the various layers of software in the TCP/IP protocol.
3. Again on the them of the Internet, we have introduced a DNS widget that will allow students to explore how IP addresses are discovered by a browser. This widget will also allow them to simulate a shopping spree on Amazon and also chat with their peers on the network.
Given that these lessons are new, we hope to receive feedback this year as you teach these lessons for the first time. We have tried these lessons in our summer PD with some solid results so we hope you will agree with us that these changes have made the course better by making it simpler.
Chandan Sarkar