Presenting Corona SDK at MobiDevDay Detroit

MobiDevDay Detroit Review

by Nathan (student)

Waking early to the sound of my alarm clock I realized it was a Saturday. Though I got up begrudgingly, I knew a day filled with tech awesomeness lay ahead. The first thing I noticed when nearing the event downtown Detroit was the shabby surroundings. Detroit is a place that has fallen down over the years and is still continuing to do so to this day. Many abandoned and torched buildings lined the streets of Michigan Ave, and even downtown had abandoned skyscrapers. While this was a rather depressing entrance, the location in which the event was being held was amazing (The Madison). Once inside, I was baffled by what the building had been turned into (see photos below) - it was like an oasis in a desert. The building looked old but was completely updated with WiFi, flat panel TVs, and most importantly various tech firms. These tech firms are offering the chance for Detroit to grasp a new industry and fill the large hole that the car industry left. A few employees who were present at the event were so kind as to give us a tour of their office -- Detroit Labs and Detroit Venture Partners including @areyouahuman. Located on the lower floors of the building, their offices have large windows and an open/chill environment. I was amazed at how open and relaxed the environment was, given that this WAS Detroit.

The event itself was very cool, offering seminars in different areas of mobile development. -- http://detroitdevdays.com/mobidevday-2012/ -- Not only were the seminars informative, but they also offered the chance to talk to other developers and establish connections. Connections are important in receiving information that you were not aware of, and they have the potential to open up several job opportunities. When it came time for us to present Corona SDK I did get a little nervous. However, I was able to pull through and demonstrate the capabilities of the SDK through their nice selection of API. It was a great experience, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Jackson Area Career Center Collects Three Thousand Pounds of Clothes

Before our Spring Break, our Computer Information Technology (CIT) Cluster's Business Professionals of America (BPA) chapter at the Jackson Area Career Center ran a clothes drive.

We collected and donated more than 3,000 lbs and filled a stake rack truck.

The Michigan Association of BPA posted a blog post celebrating the amazing feat:
Jackson Area Career Center Collects Three Tons of Clothes
http://www.michiganbpa.org/jaccr-collects-three-tons-of-clothes via @MichiganBPA

Field Trip to TechSmith

This week we went to a software development company called TechSmith located in Okemos, Michigan (only an hour away from us). They develop software such as Camtasia Studio, Jing and Snagit. The company itself was very interesting to visit. We saw many things but the thing I thought the most interesting was that we got to see what the programmers' actual work environment looked like. A lot of the employees' cubical and/or office space were each personally decorated: from 8-bit video game stickers to completely paper covered walls.  Each office was extremely unique. The thing that I really noticed was that each of the offices had some similarities with things that I was interested in.

They talked about the things that each of the employees were interested in and their history in software development. They also talked about the degrees that each of them had as well as the things that we as high school students should be doing at this point in our lives. They gave us pretty good advice about how we could go about getting into that field of study.

Overall, the trip was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed seeing what it would be like to work for a software development company.  As this is the field that I wish to go into, this boosted my enthusiasm about chasing my goals.

-- Josh S (2nd year student)

Intro to Our Class (Mobile Game & App Development)

Here, we will be posting about our class, which is separated into two shifts, AM and PM. This first post is an intro to our class with Mr. Keinath at Jackson Area Career Center.

At the beginning of the year, 1st-year students do something called “Rotations.” This is where all of the first year students rotate between our three classes that are offered in the Computer Information Technology Cluster at Jackson Area Career Center: Programming (this one), Computer Systems and Network Security. Once they have completed all rotations, they have the choice to pick which class they want to go into for the second half of the school year. I chose this class.

Our class is called Mobile Game and App Development (Programming). We use a tool called Corona SDK. It helps us make games and apps for both iOS and Android with one set of code and project files. Some of the things that are being made are: Team Projects, Mr. K Side Projects, How-To Videos, etc.


Team Projects are where you decide, "do we want to make an app - something that people would use, or do we want to make a game - something everyone will crave over?"

Mr.K Side Projects are extra projects that we all do which are:

• Class app (this class' app) 
• CIT Cluster app (app for the Computer Information Tech Cluster) 
• JACC app (app for the whole Jackson Area Career Center) 
• Class Reporter (my group) 
• Online Textbook (organize our How-To videos into textbook-style assignments) 
• Gamification 

The How-To Videos are on how to do things on Corona SDK from beginners to people who know how to do advanced coding. We are still finalizing the videos and will have them up on YouTube soon.

Our class' main goal is to learn how to make apps and have fun with it. We want to try to make apps that can be published into the app store that will make money for BPA funding. The whole point in our blogs is to share what we make and help others in learning how to program and code for Corona SDK. The ways we will be sharing things will be through our blogs, YouTube and twitter. We will be posting blogs weekly on what we are doing. So keep up with us, and maybe you can learn something. :)

- Ryan R. (student)