Create Your Own App Prototype - Flex Class!
What's included
Class Experience
**New course - currently offered at an introductory price of $30 US** This is a Flex Class and does not meet live or at specific times. It offers plenty of interaction, 1:1 teacher support by email, and engaging activities and collaboration with peers, with complete flexibility during the week. Who among us has not had an idea for an app? It’s something we can all relate to, and this course harnesses that natural interest and motivation to help students develop critical thinking skills and an innovative mindset. Over the course of 4 weeks, students will study the process of innovation and follow these steps in practice scenarios with partners. They’ll learn all about UX, or user experience, and how to take this into consideration when designing their app. In this course, we leave the coding and programming aspect for another time and focus exclusively on the logic and thought processes needed to design an app. Students will experience the importance of empathizing with another person (the user), identifying a need or problem, designing a solution in the form of a prototype, and then going through the cycle of testing --- getting feedback --- modifying and testing again. The transferable skills that are embedded in this experience will benefit your child in all subject areas. We will first plan on paper, and then create an interactive, clickable app prototype that students can test and share on Apple or Android devices, or on a desktop computer. Each Monday morning (eastern time zone) the tasks for the week will be unlocked. These include pre-recorded video tutorials, other subject-related videos, new templates and worksheets for planning the app, collaborative brainstorming, and work to share with peers, such as images of screen designs and links to allow others to try certain functions of the app prototype they're working on. Students are asked to choose certain parts of their portfolio to share with the class. These will be posted in the classroom. Part of our learning includes how to give effective and appropriate feedback, so each student will practice by giving feedback about their peers' work that is posted in the classroom. At the same time, each student benefits from receiving feedback on their own portfolio and the collaborative nature of that exchange. On average, students will complete 1.5 - 3 hours of work each week. I will provide feedback on these weekly tasks and can also be reached via Outschool's messaging system for any questions. ***Students should make their choice of the app they want to design before the end of the second week in order to have a working app prototype by the end of the course. I offer ideas for apps in the journal so that students can still create an app, in case they get stuck trying to think of an app idea. Course Plan: Week 1 Types of apps and the problems they solve Design Thinking Phase 1: Observing and Understanding User-centred design Week 2 Wireframes & User Flow Design Thinking Phase 2: Ideation Marvel Design and Prototype App Week 3 Special functions for your app Design Thinking Phase 3: Prototype Giving effective feedback Week 4 Testing methods Phase 4: Testing and Re-design Using and sharing your app Other platforms for creating apps
Other Details
Supply List
No special supplies or software will be required.
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Teacher expertise and credentials
Hello! I'm Jill and I'm a certified teacher in beautiful British Columbia and Ontario Canada. I taught in private, International Baccalaureate schools in a variety of roles for 10 years. I am deeply passionate about helping learners develop future-ready skills in a real-life context that matters to them.
I've taught English Language Arts, ESL, French, Special Education and I've been a librarian, technology integrator, and literacy specialist. I've also owned my own business running sport programs for children, worked as a consultant writing research and development grants, and I spent one glorious summer as a tour guide in the Rocky Mountains in Canada.
In my classes, I tend to anchor the skills I want students to develop in a real-life context. Some of the topics I focus on are environmental problems, social justice, neuroplasticity and memory, bias in the news, and entrepreneurship. Overall, I search for content that students can connect to and care about so that they are naturally motivated to learn, and I frame it in a way that they'll need to problem-solve, collaborate, innovate, and analyze. These are the transferable skills that will serve young learners in the unpredictable future that awaits them!
I'm a mother of two energetic (euphemism for wild) boys who have mastered the art of indulging their mom in her educational whims. Their curiosity and indomitable spirit has helped me as a teacher and learner. Our little family of four recently moved from Vancouver to Toronto, Canada, where we embrace a healthy, green lifestyle, and love to be as active as possible.
Reviews
Live Group Class
$8
weekly4 weeks
Completed by 10 learners
No live video meetings
Ages: 9-12