Guess you got to be creative. Do some fund raising for tablets, change how you teach the course (share stuff) and work in teams?
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Institutions have policies regarding software; they sometimes make exceptions. Plead your case for the emulator.
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Share your existing Android phones among students. Have them work in pairs to build projects. ... just cut your Android requirements in half.
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Currently App Inventor 2 works only with Android phones. Soon, AI2 should work with ios. When? Sometimes this year hopefully. Some students might have ios phones
they can use. -
Bring in an old laptop. Install one of the stand alone emulators (I hesitate to recommend one) and let the students test their apk's on it. It is possible to develop 'in the blind'. This means, do not use Companion or the emulator. Simply do NOT Connect. Design and code, then BUILD and test the resulting apk in your Android device (that is make the apk periodically and load it into your Android) to test. Using the Designer without an emulator works to create an app; requires a bit of confidence but can work in a class if you have a least one real device to pass among the class for the students to occasionally test their creations. Yes, this is awkward but could allow students to continue on their Projects.
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Plead parents, students and friends for 'unused' cell phones.
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Buy a few cheap Tablets . I see a Fire 7 for 50$ and some off brand devices for 35$ or less that probably will work. The school can afford ipads, certainly a few inexpensive tablets are in order.
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Wait a while, someone else might have a different/better solution.
