Educators TouchDevelop Hackathon 28th and 29th of Jan 2013

 

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Microsoft Partners in Learning have brought together some of the most inspirational teachers for a dedicated TouchDevelop hackathon.

The educators who are all part of the Microsoft Partners in Learning Network recently took part in 3 Virtual Universities course based around the TouchDevelop platform and had to submit a mock-up of a TouchDevelop App.

21 outstanding Educators will now participate in the Partners in Learning Appathon taking place in London on January 28th and 29th, 2013.

The Apps are based on TouchDevelop so will support Windows 8 as well as Windows Phone. After an extensive review process, we selected 21 educators to Microsoft London Office on January 28th and 29th, 2013 (as part of the  BETT Show). The purpose of the Appathon is for the academics to build their app further with the help of experts who will be there to support the group. The selection was based on the innovation of the idea and the feasibility of the idea coming to life.

One of the academics attending is David Renton, David recently produced a guest blog see https://blogs.msdn.com/b/uk_faculty_connection/archive/2012/12/13/touchdevelop-making-apps-for-mobile-devices-on-mobile-devices.aspx

Following the 24 hours, each educator will be expected to present their app on January 29th. I am thrilled to be part of the final Judging/evaluation committee and via a voting process we will select the winner.

A huge congratulation to all the UK Academics who are taking part in the Partners in Learning network and we appreciate the time you took to participate in the Virtual Universities, complete homework and submit mock ups. We admire your initiative, drive and are excited to be a part of your journey in creating an environment of innovation in education using information and communications technology.

Can’t wait to see the lucky 21 in London at the finals!

Interested in learning more about TouchDevelop 

You can play directly with TouchDevelop on your Windows Phone FREE APP or more appealing to schools you simply go to www.touchdevelop.com and run the IDE in the browser you can also build Windows 8 Store app from TouchDevelop on any platform.

We have a some really inspirational educators in the UK using TouchDevelop in the curricula and for after school clubs. With the release of a browser version of TouchDevelop we have lots of interest from schools as they can effectively use any device with a web browser. So Windows Surface, iPads and Andriod devices are all fully supported.

Microsoft has also produced and released a full FREE curricula for teaching TouchDevelop which is available at https://www.microsoft.com/faculty