Tuesday, February 6th
One of the student’s dad came to class today to talk to the students about the app project that they are starting. He is a software engineer and builds and fixes apps for a living. He talked to them about what he does everyday and the patience that it takes to make and app as well as the process that it has to go through before it can be given to the public. He told them what a patent is and how you would go about getting one. He also talked about the advantages of sharing your ideas with others so that they can help you work out the problems that your app might have and help you see if the app that you are making is actually something that people would want to use. The students were also given the opportunity to ask him any questions that they had about his job and making apps.
I think that it was awesome that he took time out of his day to talk to the class and I think it gave them an even better idea about what they would be doing in class with their apps. I look forward to inviting parents of people in jobs that go along with what I am teaching in class or a project that I assign in the future, because I think it gets the students more excited about what they are doing and learning. I think having someone who uses what the students are learning in the real world everyday helps to show the students that what they do actually means something and they will be using it outside of the classroom in the real world. To me that just makes the lesson or activity that much better and worth working hard on.
Wednesday, February 7th
Another student’s dad came into class today to talk to the students more about their app project. This parent is a manager at Sprint and is working on an app that would be able to unlock or start the car from your smartphone. Mrs. Tapp has some questions for the students to ask about making an app and advertising and working with others to improve the app. He talked about what it takes to make an app and what you have to do to learn to code and make a useful app. He told them about the importance of learning from your mistakes and using those mistakes to work towards doing better in the future. He went on to explain some of the legal side of making an app, like the restrictions on what you can name your app and the consequences of stealing someone else's ideas. He also talked about how to get a patent; what it is and how it works. He said that as long as your idea is not a carbon copy of another’s it should be okay. Then he told them about the importance of adding security to the app to make sure that it is being used for the intended purpose and by the person that originally downloaded the app.
Student Showcase
Mrs. Tapp asked me to come to the student’s showcase to see their projects and meet their parents. The showcase was set up sort of like how the CAPS showcase was set up for us. In the pod was the student’s ecosystem projects with a QR code that went to the videos that they made about their projects. The students brought their parents into the classroom and showed them where they sit and walked them through the daily routine. They told their parents about their ecosystem projects and watched the video with them. The students also read one of their papers to their parents and showed them the students favorite parts of the classroom. This night was kind of like a parent teacher conference, but instead of the teacher talking about the student and telling the parents what their child needs to work on the student is in charge and shows theri parents about what they have learned and what they know.