Making a Digital Doodle App

Digital Doodle is an app we developed in our Startup Tech class that let us draw or take a picture and draw on it. After we built the base app, we also added many more features. The app contains a canvas, which is a place to draw and the main component. We decided to add a camera that lets you take pictures and the picture will be on the canvas. This is the best feature because you will be able to have fun with the picture by drawing all over it. Another feature we added is color for the pen. We added the feature for the user to change the pen color. We also added the ability for user to draw a circle with many different sizes, which we did by using variables. One of the best features we added is accelerometer sensor that clears the drawing canvas when you shake the phone. 

Week 6: Introduction to App Inventor

This was an exciting week.  We made our first app in MIT's App Inventor (AI).  It was called "Hello, World."  In the first version, when you click on an icon, text appears that says, "Hello, World!"  In later versions, we used text to speech to have the icon actually SAY, "Hello, World."

Before using this app, I had never had any kind of experience with creating an app. I was very anxious to begin using it. The app we created had very basic functions such as: text to speech and reacting when a certain button was pressed. When I first saw how the app I created had worked, I was ecstatic! I saw that when I pressed the button, the text I had entered appeared.

For someone who never used App Inventor I highly recommend the use of it. I have never done anything like this so it was a new experience and I barely knew anything. I learned how to code our apps, how to use our diffrent types of buttons. With coding "Hello World," for me it was hard, but I got the hang of it. Before I started the app inventing, I felt overwhelemed because I knew nothing of entrepreneurship and I thought I was going to fail because of lack in experience. Well since we have a great teacher, it was really fun to learn because she took it slow with us.  It helped a lot, because this process is hard to understand if you go too fast. When I got my first app working, okay to be honest I was hype but when i learned that my app could talk. To me as someone who never did anything like this, I was really happy & excited.

The best part of the week was when the two gentlemen from Colonial School District came to see if they wanted to bring this program to their schools. They asked us many questions and Mrs. Costello got us to present what we have been working on to the gentlemen. This week was great - can't wait for next time!




Mrs. Costello's Corner

I've been teaching for 8 years.  The first time students tested their Hello World apps, I had students leaping in the air and screaming for joy.  That genuine exhilaration was the most amazing experience of my teaching career.

When I was told I would have visitors observing my class after we had been on AI for just three days, I was beyond nervous.  I didn't even know what my visitors were going to ask, so I couldn't prep the kids.  But my students rose to the occasion.  Their poise, confidence, and mastery of the course content and objectives made us all forget that they were only 13.

Today, we celebrated with cupcakes in Startup Tech colors.  My students are right.  This was a great week.  I can't wait for next time, either!

Week 5: Customer Surveys About Our Wireframed Apps

Customer surveys are important because they can collect a lot of data about what you're surveying about. So this week we surveyed people in our Startup Tech class to collect information about the app we created. If you survey a small amount of people, you might survey all of the same people and they might put all of the same answers. Your data might not be accurate. If you survey a lot of different people you might get different results. And you can get an accurate understanding about how you can improve your app and to see what people like. The types of questions that are important are the ones that have to do with the features of the app. The most useful questions are the ones that ask yes-no & scale questions. 

Our worst questions would be "Would you buy this app?" The reason why I don't like that question is because no matter what, people will probably buy it just to check it out and you don’t know why they are buying or not buying it. I would like to add more words into the questions.  I would ask more detailed questions in more formations and on more different topics. I would make them better by saying them in different words and sentences. The best way I know to revise my questions is so put them in a way anyone would understand them. Doing this project really helped me see that you have to put the questions and sentences in very well detailed words.

Week 4: Wireframing with POP 2.0

Wire Framing is a process in which you design the outline of your app. Like imagine someone building a Ginger bread house. You use candy canes as the support/outline. Well that's just like wire framing.  You're making the outline of your app. 

Wire framing is a important steps for app development. Wire frame is to create the model or prototype of the app. After the first step which is to come up with the idea for the app, the next step is to wire frame. Wire frame is to test your app and try it. You will create a prototype of the app you developing and see how it work. Its also a process to develop the  and the feature of the app. This is a great way to test the app and improve it. In wire frame you also creating the foundation for the app.

The last wire framing project impress me a lot. I feel like a real app developer and I know more about app developing. I like this project because it give me more experience about app developer and let me get used to the app developing process. This project make me more confident about my app because I can fix the mistakes and make my app better.

Week 2: The Innovation Game

This week we are learning about Innovation. Innovation is a new method, idea or product. Many people make new products because they want to make more money or to make the world a better place. It can also be to solve a problem or to help people with something that they are having problem with. Some people find this really interesting other people may not. I think is interesting because you can make a lot of money and you can help other people. And it can also make you famous. I think the entrepreneurial mindset skill that is important to an innovation is Critical Thinking and Problem Solving and another one is Initiative and Self-Reliance. I think that they are more important because you need to know what other people think about your new product and know other opinions not just your own. And i think you should have the Initiative to do something because if people didn't do that, we wouldn't have all the things we have today.

One way we demonstrated innovation was through the game we played (the innovation game). In this game we were divided into groups by our special playing cards. Each group was given a certain amount of materials. With these materials, the groups could create a new product, improve an existing one, or trade materials with another group. We then had to create a pitch, and present our products to the class. There were many exciting products created.

We also had to recognize as a class that creating a product takes more than just an idea. It was very important that we recognized a problem and then worked as a group to solve it. We also had to ensure that we knew how to use innovation to our advantage by thinking our product over a few times before publishing it.

First Week of Class: What is Entrepreneurship? 

What is entrepreneurship? Why are entrepreneurs important to the community? What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur? These are questions that used to run around my head when we were first introduced to NFTE Startup Tech, but not anymore.

Entrepreneurship is the process of beginning your own business. The entrepreneurs are important to our community because if we don’t have people trying to better our community by adding more food sources or by adding more home shelters, our community would be completely lost. People wouldn’t want to be in our community, nobody would want to visit their family members just because of the neighborhoods poor quality. There would be people without jobs and lots of beggars. It would be an awful environment.

 A successful entrepreneur would have some specific mind set. One of mindset includes opportunity and recognition. In other words you should know when you need help and when you should take it. Another one would be communication and collaboration. You should be able to communicate and help each other to actually have a successful business. Initiative and self-reliance is also important. You should be able to trust your self to get your job done correctly. And finally, critical thinking and problem solving. Try to handle a situation as mature as possible.

Mrs. Costello's Trip to New York

During the week of  August 10-14, 2015, Mrs. Costello and Ms. Christidhis went to New York City with 9 other teachers from around the country to learn about the Startup Tech program.  

We learned all about entrepreneurship - the art of starting your own business.  Entrepreneurs are different from the rest of us because they think about problems differently.  They see problems, not as challenges, but as opportunities.  They look for new products and ideas that can solve problems and make them a little money at the same time.

We also learned how to use several programs to build apps for phones and tablets.  We learned that making an app starts with a wireframe - an outline or plan of what the app will look like.  That only takes a few minutes.  Then, it's time to spend hours writing the code to actually make the app work.  It's a lot of work, but it feels really good when your app works just the way you imagined.

It was a really intense week, but Mrs. Costello and the other teachers came home really excited to teach their students how to create apps and plan app-based startup businesses.