Want to teach children how to develop Android apps using MIT App Inventor? Have problems with an unstable or missing Internet connection? Use a local installation of MIT App Inventor on your Windows PC. Here's how:

VirtualBox

Download VirtualBox from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Install.

Download App Inventor Appliance

Go to

https://frc-events.firstinspires.org/FTCImages/2016

. They host a preconfigure virtual machine that runs an offline MIT App Inventor server. It contains some additional FTC stuff, but you can ignore that if you want. Download the Local App Inventor applicance file for Windows.

Setup Appliance

Start VirtualBox. In the menu, go to File / Import Appliance... .  Select the appliance file you downloaded from FTC. After it is imported, select the new virtual machine 'LocalAppInventor', go to settings and select Network.  Make sure Adapter 1 is enabled and set to 'Attached to: NAT'. Go to Advanced' / Port Forwarding and set up a new rule with Protocol: TCP, Host Port: 8888, Guest Port: 8888.

Launch Virtual Machine

In Virtual Box click on Start. After a few minutes everything should be running. Check that the screen shows a running App Inventor after some time.

Share your WiFi connection

Enable a WiFi hotspot on your Laptop to allow the children to connect their laptops to yours. You can follow the instructions from windowscentral.com.