My App
Reflection
I consider myself someone who has a decent grasp of technology, but I was intimidated by the idea of building an app. The idea of building my own app to use in my classroom had literally never crossed my mind. I have used apps developed by other people in my classroom on our tablets, but I had no inclination to build my own.
I started by previewing all the app making sites that were provided. I decided to use AppMakr, mainly because it seemed to be the most user friendly and I thought ease of use would be important to success. I had several ideas of apps that I could try to create. I thought about a classroom information app, or an app that students could use at centers, but settled on making an app that would be an introduction to a unit on Plant Life Cycles.
My joys in creating this app were just the discovery that I could, in fact, build an app if I wanted to. I utilize a lot of different technology in my classroom so knowing that I am able to build an app if I wanted to is just another tool in the toolbox. When I finished, I was really proud of the fact that I was able to create this tool.
My challenges were that my brain somewhat outran my skill. I had a lot of ideas about what kind of app I wanted to build, but I found that a lot of what I wanted to do wasn't available in the free apps, or was outside my skill level to discover. Also, a lot of the ideas I had, I could find an already created free app that would run better and look better than what I was able to create, so I felt like I would rather utilize the already created apps.
I don't think I would build my own apps very often for use in the classroom for several reasons. First, as I mentioned above, there are already a lot of great apps out there for a variety of subjects and for various purposes that are free or reasonably priced. I have always been told "don't reinvent the wheel," and I think that sometimes building my own app would be doing just that. 2. Many of the ideas I had for apps, I could utilize another technology to accomplish just a easily. For example, the app I created was an introduction to Plant Life Cycles. I could have done basically the same assignment utilizing a page on my classroom website just as easy as creating the app was. 3. For the apps the be downloaded onto a device, you had to pay money. If I can't download it onto devices, it would be just as easy to create a webpage for the assignment.
I started by previewing all the app making sites that were provided. I decided to use AppMakr, mainly because it seemed to be the most user friendly and I thought ease of use would be important to success. I had several ideas of apps that I could try to create. I thought about a classroom information app, or an app that students could use at centers, but settled on making an app that would be an introduction to a unit on Plant Life Cycles.
My joys in creating this app were just the discovery that I could, in fact, build an app if I wanted to. I utilize a lot of different technology in my classroom so knowing that I am able to build an app if I wanted to is just another tool in the toolbox. When I finished, I was really proud of the fact that I was able to create this tool.
My challenges were that my brain somewhat outran my skill. I had a lot of ideas about what kind of app I wanted to build, but I found that a lot of what I wanted to do wasn't available in the free apps, or was outside my skill level to discover. Also, a lot of the ideas I had, I could find an already created free app that would run better and look better than what I was able to create, so I felt like I would rather utilize the already created apps.
I don't think I would build my own apps very often for use in the classroom for several reasons. First, as I mentioned above, there are already a lot of great apps out there for a variety of subjects and for various purposes that are free or reasonably priced. I have always been told "don't reinvent the wheel," and I think that sometimes building my own app would be doing just that. 2. Many of the ideas I had for apps, I could utilize another technology to accomplish just a easily. For example, the app I created was an introduction to Plant Life Cycles. I could have done basically the same assignment utilizing a page on my classroom website just as easy as creating the app was. 3. For the apps the be downloaded onto a device, you had to pay money. If I can't download it onto devices, it would be just as easy to create a webpage for the assignment.