Thor Prichard
As President and CEO of Clarity Innovations, Thor Prichard leads a team of professionals with the unique expertise necessary to meaningfully transform the process and practices of education. His effort is focused on multiplying the effectiveness of clients working towards a vision for teaching and learning in a global society. Read more...
An Idea Looking for a Good Home
Thor Prichard | February 9, 2013About this time two years ago, while thinking about the growing void of quality mobile apps for education, an idea for a way to help fix that was born: EdAppCamp. The idea was simple, easy to implement and would spark interest in a problem that needed attention. And the perfect domain name was registered: edappcamp.org/net/me/com/mobi (we thought it was going to be big, right?). Unfortunately, with only 24 hours in a day competing with other priorities, the idea slowly fell by the wayside… until today.
Before the domains expire and get auto-registered from some remote corner in cyberspace, we’d like to transfer them (for free!) to an organization ready to carry the idea forward.
EdApp Camp Concept
Here’s the essence of the EdAppCamp idea (Of course, you’re free to adapt and grow the concept beyond this too):
First, find a venue suitable for a weekend marathon of rapid prototyping (comfy ergonomic chairs, preferably near or as part of a hotel to facilitate working through the night) and invite:
- Tech-savvy educators with concrete ideas for mobile apps they desperately need for classroom instruction. (Up to 15 perhaps.)
-
Mobile app engineers and UX/UI designers interested in building apps for education.
(At least five developers and five designers, preferably more.)
Then, supply them with ample starting resources (notepads, coffee, sharpies, protein bars, etc.) for exploring and mapping ideas into concrete app designs. Offer sidebar presentation sessions like “understanding the education environment” for developers/designers and “what makes a great app” for educators.
Leave them to self-organize into work groups to explore the ideas and bring some into focus and definition and be ready to decide on the strongest concepts by late afternoon. Then let the developers take the drivers seat to bring the ideas to life (and educators begin working on content to include/embed in the apps).
The next day, while some might be finishing up their magical creation, let everyone peer review and make suggestions and ideas for the prototypes. Educators can then try out the working prototypes with their peers to practice/model how it would be used in the classroom. From there, the ad-hoc groups can decide if they want to pursue creating the idea into a commercial or free app.
In the end, everyone benefits from participating: educators learn more about the app definition/development process, and engineers/designers learn more about the constraints, challenges and opportunities for building apps for education.
Make your request today
If this sounds like something you’re interested in doing, (or are doing and just want a better domain name for it), please contact us! We’ll accept requests until 5:00pm PST, Friday, February 22, 2013 and choose the submission most likely to succeed.
Even though the problem remains two years later, it's finally getting the attention it deserves. We think more efforts like EdAppCamp are needed. Be the change and make this idea happen!
Terry Evers responds:
I would be very interested in participating in a session for EdApp Camp. Presently it seems that many educational apps are in a stage comparable to the late 80's and early 90's during the Apple II software era. There is so much potential and so much room to grow. Being part of the idea development would be a great opportunity.
Last spring I led our school in applying for an iPad Pilot Project in our school district (Newberg). The proposal was accepted and we were fortunate to receive two iPad carts of 30 devices each to be shared among four teachers. The pilot project is directed toward integrating tablet technology in grades 2-5 mathematics. Specifically our aim is to use the devices for assessment, skill reinforcement, intervention, and extensions. We also have used the devices for other curricular areas as well.
Throughout last summer and during the school year, I have been searching for and testing a number of apps that deliver content beyond the usual "drill and kill" approach (ie- math facts), and focus more on concepts and higher level thinking skills. There have been some good finds such as the Geoboard app which I used with students for area and perimeter concepts and will again for fractions. Socrative is an excellent free app to use for formative assessments, and it is one we have employed often. An app titled Splash Math has some potential but needs significant enhancement for teacher management. Areas which we have found a particular void of apps which focus on concepts in mathematics include area, perimeter, surface area, volume, and fractions. Science is another area that we have come up empty for elementary learner in areas such as engineering and life science (ie- food web, food chains, ecosystems).
If you have any further questions regarding our pilot project and how our devices have been used this year, feel free to contact me. I hope to hear from you soon.
Terry
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