App Dev for All’s Code on the Go IDE can bring computer science education to underserved regions and communities

Understanding how technology works—and how to make it work for you—can transform communities and lives. But for billions of people worldwide, CS education is out of reach. 

To learn to code, you need a computer and Internet access. Around 2.6 billion people—roughly one-third of the world’s population—can’t access the Internet at all.

To make CS education available globally, you’d need a very-low-cost computer and a programming environment that doesn’t need Internet access.

The hardware side of the equation is relatively easy to solve because a powerful pocket-size computer already exists: the Android smartphone, which is already ubiquitous in developing countries—for example, 87% of smartphones in Africa run Android. Android phones are portable, damage-resistant, and energy-efficient, and refurbished phones are comparatively affordable.

But there’s a hitch. It’s not a simple task to code Android apps on an Android phone, especially without an Internet connection. Google’s Android Studio—the premier integrated development environment (IDE) for Android apps—can’t run on Android phones. Open-source AndroidIDE lets you code on a phone, but it must have some Internet access to build an app. The popular block-based language Scratch works offline, but it doesn’t support advanced functions. MIT’s globally successful App Inventor is accessed online through a browser. And so on.

At App Dev for All, we want computer science education and professional programming resources to be available everywhere.

Our standalone, open-source Code on the Go IDE will operate on inexpensive Android phones with or without an Internet connection, enabling people anywhere to learn programming. On the foundation of the IDE, we’ll develop or adapt a variety of tools to make it easier to code using a phone’s small screen and soft keyboard.

We know that building an IDE for low-cost Android phones isn’t sufficient to bridge the digital divide. We plan to work with a wide coalition of partners to create curriculum, train teachers, and solve physical resource problems from obtaining and distributing phones to keeping them charged in communities without reliable electricity.

We’re just getting started, and we’d love your help.

• If you have suggestions, questions, or comments or want to discuss a potential partnership, please let us know.

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• We can’t accept donations at this time. If you’d like to support our mission, let us know.