Opportunities for Android Projects in a CS1 Course

Mobile devices have become ubiquitous in our daily lives and are replacing the desktop for email, social networking, daily planner, and so on. A typical mobile device now integrates a wide range of accessories, such as camera, GPS receiver, accelerometer, and offers a touch-screen with gesture-based interaction. This makes mobile devices an exciting platform for software development and programming projects for mobile devices have great potential to provide engaging experiences for computer science majors. This paper describes a pedagogical tool for introducing Android in a traditional CS1 course. The goal is not to teach Android programming, but to create a framework that integrates seamlessly with the CS1 course structure and supports the introduction of the fundamental computer science concepts by creating an engaging learning environment. The framework enables the students to port their CS1 projects to an Android device with minimal effort.