So, there are many ways, some free and some for pay. Ultimately, you do have to pay to be a certified developer and to post your apps for sale on the appstores.
There is a product called “greenfoot”
to get started with Java (android) and Mac there is x-code. The good thing is that they are both free to download and play with but x-code only runs on a mac and greenfoot is for learning Java.
I’m going to try out “corona” which is installable on either and will publish to iOS AND to Android.
Look on the server data drive for the install files until I get it put on the computers.