La Grange High School is first in the Nation with Mobile Application Design Industry Course

OLATHE, Kan. - Feb. 4, 2014 - PRLog -- Olathe, KS – January 7, 2014 – CTeLearning.com (CTeL) is proud to announce LaGrange High School (TX) students are the first in the US to complete the Mobile Application Design and Development Course and to receive the Mobile Application Design and Development Industry Certification delivered by WebProfessionals.org. One of the students who recently completed the course at La Grange, Abigale Herron said, “It’s pretty cool to be able to say that I have a legit certification that I can use beyond high school for a career.”

The educator responsible for this early success is Tracy Knapik, who teaches CTE and has taught another course delivered by CTe Learning, 3D Video Game Development. Tracy decided to broaden her course opportunities with this new online app development course, and says “I am very grateful that our school administrators allowed us to give the students this great opportunity, and I would encourage any student who plans on working in the field to take this course. It exposes them to possible career path focuses and provides an industry certification that will look good on job and college applications.”

“Mobile Applications are an incredible way to engage students. Programming is a 21^st century digital literacy skill, and apps are one of the most important tools our students today engage with. So, let’s show them how they can create their own app,” said Donna Goodman, CTe Learning’s Director of Implementation and Training. Donna continues: “the students ate this up, and it shows by how hard they worked and the incredible feedback they gave at the end of the course. Tracy is a real hero in the eyes of her students for giving them this career learning opportunity.”

The certification the La Grange HS students earned is delivered by WebProfessionals.org, the premier industry association for Web, IT and Connected App developers. .  WebProfessionals.org. Executive Director Bill Cullifer says: “We’re excited about the job prospects for Mobile Application Developers. The WebProfessionals.org apprentice level Mobile Application Developer Certification is a fantastic start to a fruitful career in Web development.”

CTe Learning’s founder and co-author of the Mobile App course Steve Waddell says, “This is the first online mobile application design development industry certification course that's available anywhere.” This course was developed in partnership with a number of app professionals and is designed as an introduction to mobile app design and the app industry. It requires no previous programming on the part of students. Waddell says, "Our idea is to get learners engaged with programming and being creative. This course has over 150 videos and learners will create over a dozen apps. It is a chance for high school students to be exposed to building mobile applications, to see if it’s something they might be interested in as a career. The course prepares students to become savvy consumers and users of mobile technology for whatever direction their career path takes them. We even show students how they can give back and create learning apps to help students in their own school district. This is very real world."

What did some of Ms. Knapik’s students say? According to Alex Barron,  “Watching your app come to life… it’s a great feeling just to see the end result of your work.” Emilio Sanchez said, “With (mobile) technology becoming a larger and larger part of our everyday lives, the ability to create applications will become more and more important.” When Trey Wolf was asked about the course he said,” I enjoyed the simplicity about the course. It wasn’t hard to grasp and the videos/tutorials really helped with understanding what a particular section was about. One chapter would flow into the next, which was really nice.”