Using mobile phone programming to teach Java and advanced programming to computer scientists

Abstract

In this work an approach employing the Android mobile phone platform in an upper division computer science course to teach Java programming and other advanced computer science topics is presented. Mobile phones are growing influences in the computing market, but their strengths and popularity are rarely exploited in computer science classrooms. The aim of the course is to harness this enthusiasm to improve fluency in the Java language to afford an opportunity to learn how to work on large, complex projects and to enhance the students' preparedness for the job market. The ideas presented in this work could be adapted for improving learning in many courses across the computing curriculum. © 2012 ACM.