Is There an App for that?

Today, I read the blog, How We Developed a Mobile App for Our School District, You Can Do It Too. The Judson Independent School District used Conduit to create a mobile app (JISD Connect) that aggregates several of their online sites. By using Conduit, the app pulls from existing resources such as Facebook, Twitter, Picasa images, RSS feeds, YouTube, and more.

Since the author claimed that I could ‘Do It Too’, I decided to try and create an app for the district. Right away, I ran into problems. The district web site does not provide RSS feeds. I could pull data from Facebook and Twitter — but those accounts are for Nemaha Valley High School and not the district. So, I started working with a Nemaha Valley High School app that would pull the Twitter and Facebook feeds. Knowing that there are great articles on the NVHS side of the district web site, I investigated converting the site to an RSS feed. I was able to do that with a trial account on Feedity. That allowed me to add the web site to the NVHS app — with some issues. Unfortunately, the ‘read more’ links at the end of article blurbs show up as feeds. Eliminating these detractors will take more time and possibly a more expensive account level.

 

Link to trial mobile app for NVHS: http://mob.conduit.com/e8fd1280-84df-4455-af21-cceb264110f5

My second trial at app creation was using a teacher blog or web site. Knowing that my blog had RSS feeds enabled, I experimented with it. I was able to add the blog and my twitter account to the app.

Link to app created from my blog and Twitter account: http://mob.conduit.com/00bda316-0a4d-4339-b53e-05b9a5e2353b

Since most of our teachers are now using Google Sites instead of the wordpress blog, my next experiment was to see if I could turn a teacher site into an app. I found one teacher, Kelly Williams, with RSS feeds enabled on two sections of his site. I was able to use those feeds to create his app — but it isn’t pulling the feeds from his home page.

Link to mobile app for Kelly Williams’ web site: http://mob.conduit.com/86513feb-8a6c-4c4b-97ee-2d6dde6b6d04

So, can we do it too? Yes — But. In order to make this work, we need web sites with working RSS feeds or access to a feed converter such as Feedity ($39), active Twitter accounts, active Facebook pages (not accounts), etc. We will also have to register to be an app developer for both Apple ($99) and Android (Google Play $25).

Thinking that I could easily create an app from the NV Forensics Facebook site, I played with that one only to discover that it won’t work. I’m guessing it isn’t working because NV Forensics is a ‘person’ that has to be friended — not a page.

Is this worth pursuing? YES! Even though there are issues, having an app for the district, building or teacher web site will be worth the time, effort and cost.

QR Codes

Have you seen these funny looking square boxes around? Do you know that they are actually a type of bar code?

These QR codes or Quick Response codes are 3D bar codes. They can be read with a bar code reading app on a smart phone and have a wide variety of uses.

The blog, QR Huh? What the heck is A QR Code? provides a good explanation of these codes and how to generate one for yourself.

So how can they be used? Armed with the website URL and a code generating site such as QR-Code Generator, one simply pastes the URL into the blank and clicks generate to create the code. The QR code can then be copied into a document.

One use that I’ve found for them is to make bulletin boards and displays interactive. By adding a QR code linked to a book trailer, those with smartphones can use their phone to quickly link to the trailer and view it. This is an easy way to teach students about this new technology. Since we currently don’t allow students to have their phones in school, I’ve had to get creative and create a ‘duplicate’ display in a public area accessible to the students outside of the school day. Thus, I’ve adopted a wall just outside of the gym for these displays.

For more information on QR codes and ideas on how to use them, check out Steve Anderson’s QR Codes in Education.

Catching Up

My tech skills are severely lacking when it comes to mobile technology! Hopefully, I’m going to be able to catch up. As a new droid user, I’m just beginning to figure out which apps I want to use. While on vacation in Texas, I found the following apps to be useful – especially while sitting in the airport wondering when/if our plane would arrive.

• Southwest (to check in and to check flight status)
• The Weather Channel (could look at radar and see why an airport was closed)
• Twitter (could search for tweets about said closed airport)
• Airport Info Lite
• Android Power Control (allowed me to quickly turn on/off wifi, bluetooth, gps, & syncing and adjust brightness)

For fun, I downloaded the following apps

• c:geo (geocaching)
• Google Sky

The c:geo app allowed me to use my phone as a gps and go geocaching with my brother and family. My phone worked almost as well as their portable GPS’s. I didn’t actually use the Google night sky because the trees and/or clouds hid most of the stars.

I had tried to find an app to locate restaurants, etc. However, my nephew (in law) pointed me to a better app: Yelp

Today, I added two apps to my knowledge base:

• Microsoft Tag Reader -
• Key Ring Reward Cards – entered my library card, reward cards and professional org membership #s – VERY USEFUL

I’m sure these apps are just the tip of the iceberg as I learn how to use this new technology. It’s a fascinating new world.