Hey Everyone, I am a high school teacher and I am sick of teaching my kids app inventor. I did the first couple Buzztouch U lessons and am convinced that this is a much better option. Is anyone out there using Buzztouch with students? I can pull a membership for myself and a apple developer licence out of my budget but do not have the funds to register all of my students. With the three free apps that you get could my students get through the Buzz touch U and create an app on their own? If they were building apps to learn can they delete them after I grade them and get the ability to build another app or is it your first three apps are free and you need to pay after that? Thank you in advance for your help.

Your best bet would for 'you' to be a BT Member, and setup a self hosted server... from there, you can register as many students as you want. You'll also be able to watch over all projects, etcetera... I don't know if anyone has done anything like a BT 'sylabus', but I can see the potential. The down side to 'you' having the Apple Developer, is everything would be under 'your' name; Anything published would have your name on it, and little Johnny (or probably his parents) might have issue with that. You might be better off just sending them home with a note saying "if they want to publish their projects, it's $25 for Google, $99 for Apple. But I think it's great idea. Let us know how we can help! Cheers! -- Smug (maybe you can get a local business to sponsor you? If a business thought that their logo would be plastered on 30+ apps a year, it might be worth a few thousand in investment and good will...?)

I believe the first three apps are not deletable. As a "Member", you can create 50 apps, and you also have the option of deleting apps. Also as a Member, you could setup a Self-Hosted server (which might be a good way for a teacher), and create as many apps as you want. My reply is not meant to sound like a membership drive, but I just wanted to make sure you knew the best options for what you were trying to do. Be sure to watch one of the New Member webinars (there's one coming up a week from today - Jan 30th). Or you can watch a pre-recorded webinar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQOpc0HJIHg) -Chris

I agree with all the above, probably the self hosted would be ideal for you, then you can create seperate logins for each student and have unlimited apps. Look forward to seeing the results of your students, encourage them to become interactive with this forum and learn via the webinars, BTU etc etc.

Alfrea (Andrea) is a member who is a high school teacher and has had great success with this. I believe she even was awarded a scholarship for her school. She had the kids set up a domain and hosting and work off of that. They are loving it! Right now she is on maternity leave having our first every buzztouch baby!!!! Maybe you should PM her and she can mentor you through it...if she isn't in labor. <smile> Sheri

@isaaczmann Wow, I love these type of posts, wish you all the best with it! That is high praise indeed, I strongly believe it is a great tool, if not the best for seasoned devs and students alike. First and foremost how many pupils are you hoping to run with on this? If you plan on continuing as a yearly class I'm sure you get some kind of packaged membership from the BT folks. You would be looking at, as you said, $99 a yr for Apple and $25 one time if you plan on going down the Android as well. If the school has it in your budget you could set up a recurring hosting account, the benefit for the students year on year would more than make up for it. Lastly, please don't ever hesitate to reach out to me (or anyone for that matter) if you need any assistance at all.

@isaaczmann: Tons and tons of ways to help you get this going, but, as you can well expect, the devil is in the details. I'm happy to have a phone conversation with you about all the ins-outs-ups-downs of trying to get a classroom full of mobile learners pointed in the right direction. Some of this is easy (as expected), some not so much. It's not about figuring out the obvious, it's about figuring out how to avoid a bunch of pitfalls and speed-bumps that aren't easily understood until 10 kids are struggling to make actual software. Three days later, their on your desk with a pile of iPods that "wont' work." LOL. If you're interested in some ideas, send me an email (use about us page), we'll go from there.

Thanks for the all the input! My internet was down yesterday (windstorm in Wisconsin) so I didn't have a chance to play with anything last night. I will contact David and see if we can figure something out and post whatever my students come up with when we are up and running.