Chapter 2.7 - I Have a Dream & Soundboard Project
2.7. I Have a Dream and Soundboard Projects
Time Estimate: 90 minutes, including the Create Your Own Soundboard project
2.7.1. Introduction and Goals
This is your chance to be creative and program some cool enhancements for the I Have A Dream app.
Objectives: In this lesson, you will:
Continue learning to navigate the Thunkable programming platform;
Deepen your understanding of event-driven programming.
Getting Ready
Open Thunkable
Go to My Projects and select the Soundboard app that you created in the previous tutorial.
Soundboard Project
Here are some creative enhancements. Complete at least #1-4 of the enhancements below. If you want to create a copy of your project (and not modify the original), click on the arrow on the right side of the project name and then click “Duplicate” to save a copy and rename your project. Many of these enhancements will require you to test on a mobile device.
Have the app vibrate the phone as well as play a speech when the MLK Image is pressed. You will need to use the vibration block from the Device toolbox.
Instead of playing MLK’s speech, you can have it “speak” some text of your own. Look in the Speech toolbox for the “say ___ in ___” block and use it to have it speak some text.
Instead of using an Image click event to play Malcolm X’s speech, have it play when the phone is shaken. You’ll need to use the Accelerometer and respond to its Shaking event. You can add an Accelerometer component by clicking the + icon next to the Sensors toolbox.
Modify the project to create your own Soundboard app with at least three pictures and three sound files that are played when you click the pictures. Make sure that your app doesn't allow the sounds to overlap each other. That is, when you click an image to play a sound, the app should stop any sound that is already playing. This will require the use of an if/else block. Note: the Sound component accepts .mp3 and .wav files but does not accept .ogg files.
Extra for experts: Record and submit a video of your app running. Your video must not exceed 1 minute in length and must not exceed 30MB in size.
Copyright
Many sounds and images online are copyrighted, and it is a violation of copyright to include such images in your app. So, you should be careful about the images and sounds you put into your apps. If you want to use a copyrighted image or sound in your app, you will have to get permission from the holder of the copyright. It might be easier just to search for free media.
There are sites that offer free audio and image files, including the following:
Wikimedia Commons is a great source of free and open-source media. Any files found on its sites can be used in apps without violating copyright.
Google Image Search: search for an image, then on the results page, select Search Tools. Under the Usage Rights drop-down, select Creative Commons licenses
Pixabay Sound Effects (free .mp3 sound files)
WavSource (free .wav sound files)
Sharing Your App
This part shows you how to share your app to view or make a copy of your app.
Generate a link: When your app is finished, select Share at the top right.
This will ask you to generate a public link for your project. Click on Generate Link and copy the link.
Share your link: On the Google Classroom assignment, add your link to your reflection.
2.7.3. Summary
In this lesson, you learned how to:
Learning Objective CRD-1.A: Explain how computing innovations are improved through collaboration.
A computing innovation includes a program as an integral part of its function.
A computing innovation can be physical (e.g., self-driving car), non-physical computing software (e.g., picture editing software), or non-physical computing concepts (e.g., e-commerce).
Effective collaboration produces a computing innovation that reflects the diversity of talents and perspectives of those who designed it.
Collaboration that includes diverse perspectives helps avoid bias in the development of computing innovations.
Learning Objective CRD-1.B: Explain how computing innovations are developed by groups of people.
Common models such as pair programming exist to facilitate collaboration.
2.7.4. Self-Check
Q-1: How long is a millisecond?
A. 1/1000 of a second
B. 1/100 of a second
C. a thousand seconds
D. 1/0 of a second
Q-2: In an MIT App Inventor app, shaking the phone is a:
A. parameter
B. function call
C. event
Q-3: What is the app’s icon?
A. A picture that shows up on the app's user interface
B. The title that appears above the screen
C. The person the app is about.
D. The picture that appears on the device when you install the app.
2.7.5. Reflection: For Your Portfolio
Answer the following portfolio reflection questions as directed by your instructor. Questions are also available in this Google Doc, where you may use File > Make a Copy to make your own editable copy.
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