The previous year I had created a simple, but useful app for iPhone. It's called MyAgenda. It's pretty much a virtual agenda. My thinking was that students lose a lot of things (pens, pencils, notebooks, h.w., classwork, etc....) One thing they clutch like their life depended on it are their phones. With this app students can access and look up H.W. assignments both past and present. The main thing is that not only are the assignments for each of their classes listed, but they are available for download. If a teacher gives a worksheet and you lose the worksheet, you can download and print it at home. If you have to do 20 math problems in your text book, but you forget your book, you can download those problems and still do them. These assignments are always available and update automatically. My favorite part is that parents can access it as well.
Here's a "common" situation.
Mom: Hey John. How was your day?
John: Not bad.
Mom: Do you have any English homework today?
John: Nope.
Mom: Oh really? I just checked MyAgenda and Mr. Rosario says you have to read Chapter One of
To kill a Mockingbird.
John: Oh yeah. The thing is I forgot my book.
Mom: Unfortunately for you Mr. Rosario posted a link to chapter one. Get reading you hooligan!!!
So, something like that. There's a lot that needs to happen before it can actually get on the app store. For now here are a few pictures to give you an idea.
Hey Dixon,
ReplyDeleteThat is so awesome! I would love to have an iPhone to use an App like that! I think this is definitely going to be a new wave in the Education Technology field.
Congrats on meeting Mike Myers, even if he's not the movie star :-)
Thanks,
Sean
Hi. I'd like to hear more about creating this app....it looks great. I'm on an ipad app team at the seidenberg school of computer science and i'm the content person and there are around 6 undergrad coders. We just did a bootcamp for objective c. How did you create this app? Can you tell me the process? I think the idea is really great. I'm wondering---it seems like everything the teacher does has to be on a computer--hence downloading lost hw. Is that correct?
ReplyDeleteWhen the iPad was introduced I saw so many applications for teachers. It could replace a grade book and having to carry around stacks of papers for starters. I would love to hear more about what you're working on.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the compliment on my app. I'm sort of a self taught coder. I bought a bunch of objective C and "coding for dummies" books, but they only took me so far. As you can imagine, MyAgenda crashes frequently. I've worked on it for countless hours over the course of 2 years, but I just don't have the hands on experience with the coding language to fix it. I know Pace offers courses and I will take them when I have the opportunity.
You are correct in that teachers have to upload assignments, classwork, and homework to a computer first. Think of MyAgenda like a Twitter account. Teachers can update and then all of their followers (in this case students) can access the information they upload. This of course means I have to create a website in addition to the app. Also, the two have to communicate with one another. This is waaaayyy out of my area of expertise. I am taking a class on HTML, XHTML, and website design. So, maybe it's not that far off.
Dixon