Foreword
It’s great to have John Wargo in my classroom and in my teaching, both literally and figuratively!
Apache Cordova 4 Programming (AC4P) will be the fourth John Wargo title employed in my classroom. Surprisingly, this frenetic iteration happens in just two semesters and is testimony to the value of John’s work.
The figurative: In preparing for my college’s first offering of an upper-level mobile application course, it became evident that I should cover both native and hybrid mobile technologies. For a hybrid technology, PhoneGap immediately rose to the top of my candidate list. The search was on for a meaningful text. A survey of potential materials revealed that no formal college textbooks existed, and that John’s PhoneGap Essentials was the de facto primer for technology professionals looking to learn about PhoneGap. Perfect, right? I order and review a copy, confirm the book’s reputation, and place an order with my college bookstore.
Enter John Wargo. I engage John to explore the possibility of acquiring any supporting materials, the true value-add of a text or reference in any fast-paced course like this. John offers to assist but also immediately cautions that my choice of text is dated and that two newer texts now replace the first. I also learn that a fourth text is in the works [unhappy emoji]. Interactions with the college bookstore and publisher ensue, and the adjustments for text numbers two and three are made.
I’ll spare you the unnecessary detail, but fast-forward to today. I anxiously await AC4P for inclusion in my course, later this semester.
Ah, I haven’t yet shared the literal connection. Recalling my interactions with John, I add this anecdote. In addition to his assistance with the texts, John agrees to visit my campus when traveling to our area. He offers to visit my class as well as a college-wide venue to speak and to interact with our students. (We have a population of more than a thousand information technology students). What happened was marvelous; his words come off the pages and into life in these forums. This provides a tremendous learning opportunity for Georgia Gwinnett College’s students. Conversely, we see that the narratives provided in print are his knowledge and experience captured in prose. My students engaged enthusiastically, commenting that we should do much more with PhoneGap (and its open-source cousin, Cordova) in future semesters. They were hooked!
Again, I welcome John into my classroom figuratively and hope that we can host him literally again, too.