I would like to use Corona in my high school programming class but some of the non-technical issues are killing me. Most of my problems have to do with the on-line documentation. It is scattered all over the place and there is no progressive order. As a teacher I do not have large amounts of time to try and organize or write documentation. It would be nice if there was an extended, single document tutorial that starts at the beginning and ends with the construction of a half way decent game. Do not suggest watching the video tutorials. Video tutorials are useless in a classroom. They cannot be referred to easily and they are guaranteed to put the kids to sleep. The “which video was that in” search is just too time consuming. I accidentally found the “Basic Programming Techniques” as a link in the “Getting Started with Corona” doc. Burying docs inside of docs makes it time consuming to build my own textbook for the kids. A document as basic as the “Basic Programming Techniques” document should be in the Docs main page, not buried as a link. You have posted some great examples of code but the number of comments is just too scarce for a beginner to really learn from the code samples. I am not a great programmer and am not familiar with Lua so it takes a lot of time to try and figure out what a particular line of code is doing in an example. Bouncing back and forth between the code sample and the on-line API is taking more time than I have available.
I have a few fairly inexpensive suggestions to make this product more attractive to the average educator.

1. Make a printable full API. The on-line API may save paper but there is no easy way to search or just thumb through it.
2. Organize the documentation a bit. Get all the available documents on the Docs web page and have a printer friendly version.
3. Take a sample program (something like SimplePool) and comment almost every line or build a tutorial around it. Explain everything that is going on. I am presently working on this for my class but it is slow going.
4. Make it more computer lab friendly by not requiring a unique login for each install.

Corona could be an incredible teaching tool. The kids I have working with it can see writing their own games and actually carrying them in their pocket. Much more exciting than writing Tic-Tac-Toe in Visual Basic. If the kids can learn Corona in school you will end up with a whole lot of kids wanting to use your product. You just have to realize who the teachers are that have to teach Corona. Most are not skilled programmers but are teachers that know some basics of a programming language. Most will use only languages with good documentation so they do not have to spend hours writing up a lesson. I personally think the future of high school programming lies with writing mobile apps. Corona is a huge step at making that feasible for the average programming teacher. If I can get a course written so there is something reasonable to teach from I will have kids begging to get in my programming courses. I am excited about what Corona has to offer my students.

Garth Flint
Technology Coordinator
Missoula Catholic Schools

Garth, tried reaching you at your email in our database, but it bounces. 550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable (state 18).

Carlos

Something you'll probably want to keep an eye on:
http://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2011/03/01/corona-sdk-book-being-written

The book looks very promising. I could use it now.

I have to fully agree with what Garth has posted here. I too would love to use this as part of my level II scripting class. The main drawback for me is getting the software on 25 workstations, currently each copy must be e-mail registered and cannot be placed on more than one computer under that name. I wish there was a way to handle this so that a lab could be installed in a school.

Then the students could use it on their home computers with their own e-mails and registration.

As for the book it looks like it has been pushed back further… There is a lot of stuff out there on this but as Garth said, that is very challenging for teachers due to time.
--Floyd

Garth & Floyd,
Just wanted to let you know that my textbook will be ready in time for you to use this fall.
I am writing it to use for my mobile programming course this fall, so it will be ready. The ebook will be available late June/early July. A print version will be available early August. I am writing the book so that it is appropriate for use in advanced high school classes or a college course.

If you have any questions, drop me a line: DrBurton@BurtonsMediaGroup.com

Dr. Brian Burton