Launching Apps for Academics
Last year I met a hero of mine, Jarrod Robinson. Jarrod (aka @mrrobbo) is the founder of the PE Geeks movement mashing together PE and Tech into some fantastic new territory. Jarrod ran a workshop at Yokohama International School talking and sharing his passion about the role that Apple products and apps are taking shape in his classes.
Inspired by his down to earth approach and my own desire to see great things in the classroom, I made the decision to make Apps for Academics to use in their classes with the goal to bring together Google Docs, Apple and to make things easier for teachers on the move.
Mobile Attendance
My first app project has been Mobile Attendance. This app takes class attendance and allows the user to create unlimited criterion to keep their attendance history. The app syncs with Google spreadsheets and can either be used off-line by saving data to a local data file or online to update your Google spreadsheet. Using Google has allowed for sharing or emailing of the class lists to your colleagues or administrators.
Mobile Attendance is on sale on iTunes now!
Give Away:
The first 5 educators/coaches to comment on this blog post about how they will use Mobile Attendance can win a free copy of this app to use with their classes. This app works with iPad, iPhone 4 and 5.
A big thank you to Clint Hamada (@chamada) for all his help in making this project happen. And to my family and friends who continue to support us from afar.
14 Comments
mhamada
Dan, thanks for the blog comment. Where do you do your Tech Coaching? I would love to get your feedback on this app and how it works in your field. I will send you the Promo code by email.
mhamada
Thanks Simone, I hope that you will find the app useful.
Dan
I am a district Technology Coach and have to keep attendance of workshops/inservices. I hate being a tech person and having to keep a paper-pen copy of sign-in sheets. This would bring this up to date, thank you!
mhamada
Thanks Adrienne, I will be happy to read how your work with your class goes on Mobile Attendance, it has been interesting to make this app and I can already see what we need to do to make it even more user friendly and advanced! I will email you the promo code.
mhamada
Brian, thanks for the comment – it is always great to hear from a #pegeek! I hope that things work out, I have a free copy here for you but would only ask that you give us some feedback to ensure things get better and we can best meet the teacher market! I look forward to hearing about what you think. I will email you the promo code.
simone
looks good. I have been looking for an app that will help record extra info on sudents such as injuries and no unform.
brian
Mel,
This is awesome. Congrats on creating such a useful app. No need to give me a free copy I just wanted to congradulate and tweet this news!
Brian
Adrienne
Oops! In my excitement I missed the requirement! Sorry! I’d use this to keep track of not only class attendance (I have one class) but also CCAs / extra-curricular stuff. I like the feature of being able to add my own criteria for an absence / lateness, etc. for kids who have been pulled out or aren’t attending for various reasons. We also use a mandatory attendance program (FirstClass), but I can see this being easier on iOS just because it’s much more mobile than our computers — much easier and more convenient when you’re moving around, and can always transfer later.
Adrienne
Ooooh am I in the first 5? 🙂
Looking forward to all your creations, Mel!
Matt
I can’t wait to try this out! Looks neat!
mhamada
Ian, thank you for your comment. I understand the use of a standardised school attendance system. We have one at our school too, but as PE teachers and coaches we find having to take attendance on our computers very difficult and so I have been trialling different attendance apps and decided to make one that worked with Google as this is my preferred place to store data for access on multiple mobile devices. This app does do the job, but I am the first to tell you it needs more functionality but we have struggled with the interface between Apple and Google not loving to combine forces, which for the greater population is sad! I would love to hear from your wife if she does use the app to see what she thinks and how we can assist her to make her attendance taking any easier. I will email you the promo code. Thanks again!
mhamada
Paul, thank you for your comment. I would really appreciate it if you could let me know how you find the app for this purpose. If you are using the Google spreadsheet to share, just be careful, as the link to Google and the issues between Apple and Google (their very fragile relationship) means that we couldn’t permanently use a Google spreadsheet that could be shared one time and then always be available. Each time the students take attendance and then share to Google the previous spreadsheet is deleted and a new one created, meaning you have to share or email each time. You could also take a screenshot of the CSV file and email that if you wanted to or leave the attendance locally on the app for you to check. I am hopeful with feedback to improve this app in time! But I do hope that you are able to use it for the students in your class! I will email the promo code to you. Thanks again.
Ian Sellwood
Looks great! Like the fact it can be customized to a point. At the moment the majority of secondary schools in Scotland use a system called Seemis so I would be duplicating my work! Once our dept invests in ipads then I will get a pupil to record the class on this system. My wife works as a PE specialist in primary schools though and may well use this! Any plans to put it onto android?
Paul
Will use on school based device and get students to mark the roll themselves as part of group work and lessons based on more self directed learning