Creating an edtech app

For a while now, I've been trying to work on and create my own little edtech app as a side project/hobby. I wanted to take everything I've learned and play around with it in my own little sandbox. And, as an extra benefit, I get to do some coding again.

I’ve decided, as a way to try to hold myself accountable for working on it (and to remember why I’ve done what I’ve done), I’m going to use this to keep track of my progress. What I’m working on, why I’ve made decisions I’ve done, and the research I’ve done along the way.

I’m very much focused on the “make it work” and trying hard not to get caught up in the “make it pretty” (a very bad rabbit hole for someone not artistic).

For this app, I’ve decided to stick with the topic I’ve been more closely working around, which is reading. But I’m taking a bit of a different tack than I have in the past. Instead of focusing on kids (k12 is my favourite area), I’m going to focus on adults. And I’m going to focus on the foundational skills around decoding. That means helping people to understand the link between letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) such that they have the skills needed to approach a new word and figure out what word it is (decoding).

I did work in this area almost 10 years ago (wow time flies), and at that time, I was focusing on young kids. There were certain things that needed to be taken into account with that audience that I aren’t true with adults (and vice versa).

For example, with the app for kids, there was an assumption/expectation that the kids were in school and thus supported in their use of the app with in-class learning. With adults, I’m going to assume that they would be choosing to use this on their own and have no support outside of the app.

With kids, there were issues around fine motor skills (would they be able to successful drag and drop with a mouse?) that should be less of an issue with adults.

And with kids, everything needed to be very fun and colourful. Now, I’m not saying adults want or appreciate being bored, but I do think the expectation level on fun (and what counts as fun) is different.

I’m assuming (and hoping) that adults who would be interested in what I’m creating, will be more self-motivated. And so I can structure the app and learning process with different goals than I would for kids. But… this is something I will need to explore more as I work on it.

Next post, will be about the basics I’m starting from.