Prabal Dutta & Iqbal Mohomed

The last few months have been especially exciting for the DIY and Maker scene. We have witnessed a wave of equipment that used to cost many tens of thousands of dollars but has now become more affordable. In this column, we do a whirlwind tour of the categories that excite us the most.

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Khai Truong, Julie Kientz, Nilanjan Banerjee, A. J. Brush, Ratul Mahajan

There are many different ways to evaluate a novel interactive system. However, placing that system into the hands of real users and allowing them to use it as they would like in their natural environments may arguably be the best approach to understand if it "really" works. This is because findings learned from user studies conducted in the lab or a controlled setting are limited in external validity and therefore might not generalize beyond the studied usage scenario. Furthermore, the scenario used in a controlled study often lacks full authenticity, and thus it may not faithfully represent situations from the users' live.

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David Wolber, Harold Abelson, Mark Friedman

MIT App Inventor is a visual blocks language that enables beginners and non-programmers to create apps for their phones and tablets. It has empowered thousands to create software with real-world usefulness, and see themselves as creators rather than only consumers in the mobile computing environment. Educationally, it offers a “gateway drug” that can help broaden and diversify participation in computing education.

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