Whats next?

These past couple of days have been interesting. I got a different perspective of how to look on creating an application and also different points of views on teachers who could use the application. I had to ask myself so many questions and look at the big picture here. Who were the main users and what do they want? How can I make this a place that they will use in their daily platforms that they already use? These are just some of the questions that I've been thinking about after speaking to teachers and an expert.

My first approach when creating this app was to have a platform for only teachers and parents to use. Having a specific login and password. You know all that user information that you need to input and having them use something new. This might not lead that why for now, but instead something more simple and integrated with platforms that they are already using today.

Also who are the ones that will be using it more. Of course the teachers. The parents are the ones that will be receiving notifications from annoying teachers (no offense to you all great beautiful teachers). With a simple SMS they will be notified with anything that the teacher sends them.

How can I make this a place that they will use in their daily platforms that they already use?
I come to this question because what is the best place to have this integrated and I also ask, what's the place where teachers spend most of the ime inputting information about the students. Not only should this be an easy feature to use, but also a feature that they will use frequently.

The best way to find out about all this is by Designing and Prototyping. For the past two days I've been filming teachers go through this process. For most of the teachers it was there first time doing the process of Design Thinking. It's a process that gets you thinking of course, but more than that it gets you to innovate a tool for users. I was speaking to an expert of design thinking and she gave me a great idea. Thanks Leticia!

Naming an Application

This has been bothering me for awhile now and I need to come up with a name. It's like when your having a baby. You and your suppose have to choose a name for the baby. Something its easy if it's a boy and simply name it after the dad, which makes him a Jounior. Or name it after your grad parents, the month it was born on or after a beautiful flower. I'm not saying that I'm having a baby soon, but there is a application that will be born soon and it needs a name.

I want something that people will like and remember when they read it the first time. Something fun, short and easy to remember. So I ask you if you can give me any names. Your idea can spark other ideas and the more ideas in names we have the better, so just leave one or a few application names in the comments section.

Enjoy your weekend!

(Oh, one more thing. SFSU gave me this Gator. It's a patch!)

remind101

I passed by this website (remind101) and it almost has something simliar to what I am working on. It has texting and reminding. This is great when students have so many tasks to get done and there isn't enough time or just forget to do it on time.

I say it's similar because my application will have texting involved and some other things that I will not be sharing out yet.  One thing is does not have is having parents and teachers involved. What about for the students that hate doing their homework and studying. Well my app will notify the parent so they can tell there student to do there homework and also study for finals exams. Then again there are students that are responsible for themselves, which I respect. ultimately, if you want to be reminded about your homework assignments you might want to check out remind101.

(I love Balsamiq Mockups. I've been exploring the application which is why my blog posts are late.)

Balsamiq Mockups

I spent the day at Google yesterday. This was my first time on Campus and I really enjoyed it, so many things to see and games to go and play with. Well thats not the reason I went. I meet some awesome people today and I got different perspectives on my project, which is great for me. After today I thought, well I think I might need to throw all the ideas that I have out the window, which happens but maybe not delete them just for future reference.

I was also introduced to an awesome application called Balsamiq Mockups. (Click on the link for more information) It's a great tool to have and I will definitely use it a lot. Thanks Suz!

So after a day of talking and telling what my plans on my app, I need to make some changes. I was thinking to hard about this app, when in reality technology makes it so easy. Why I hate when that happens. There are still features that I need to think of and clarifications. This weeks goal is to target the teachers user interface.

Create Account

Most online social or non-social sites allow you to create an account for free or with a subscription. This will have neither. In order to have an account you will need to be apart of a school and the administrator will create it for you.

The reason that this was chosen was because this is a place where teachers and parents can connect. What if a parent wants to connect with a parent but he/she does not have an account, well then it makes it challenging for the teacher or vis versa. So having this open to everyone with a simple setup will get people to use it more.

Teachers and parents will receive a URL to log-in if it's their first time. They will also be given a temporary user-name and password. Once they entered that they will need to setup there own user-name and password. Along with their new user-name and password they will need to input their phone number and email.

The administrators will be in charge of organizing each student from grade to classes he/she are in. This way the parent knows which subject and the teachers name.

Login UI

Hope everyone is having a great time. 

Meanwhile I am working on this application, which I've been thinking and working on really hard. This weekend I spent some time to sit down and think about the login page. In order for me to start off the brainstorm I cleared a whole wall to dedicate a wall for ideas and brainstorming. I thought that instead of writing or typing everything I do, I can just post it up in a larger scale for me to see. Here is an image of my brainstorming wall, as I call it for now.  

For the most part I have a first draft, but of-course it will be changing . I still need some features to work on, but there miner details so I will come up with it later or during the process.

I think this is awesome. I am using a smart pen to record and write all my information. After I have it written on a special kind of notebook I connect the pen to the computer and then it will have all the things that I wrote in a document. I can then save it in almost any format that I want. Below is an example of my layout page and some ideas that I have in mind. I might be sharing more of these. By the way this is a Livescribe smart pen. I find this to very useful when it comes to writing down ideas or just recording a class. 

My goal for this week it to have one prototype to test and test it on a teacher and then from the feedback redefine it. I will do this by the end of this week, so next week I can move on to the next task. 

Appreciation

Busy busy busy...

This is what I have been thinking in and out of my head. The end of the school year is approaching and I still need to accomplish many tasks. On top of all these things I’ve had non-school projects. Some I’ve started and some I will not have time to get to. Editing video is not as easy as it looks or sounds, but most people think it’s an easy thing to do. Especially when it’s a solo project. 

When I get home all I do is work on the projects. The next morning I go to school and then home again and the same routine continues. Same goes for the weekend. This weekend I went out into the community, because it was school related, but if it wasn’t then I will be home working. I love what I do, but when people do not appreciate it then I won’t either. 

I’ve done to much and for the appreciation that I have received it has not satisfied me. From now on I will only work for the things that I will gain something in the end or get appreciated from it. Having a “talent” does not mean we can all approach him/her and make them do it all. 

I like being busy, but not to much or when it comes to the point where I can’t see the light. I’ve learned so much from all of this and I will take it as a learning experience. 

It’s been a stressful month and I got to say I am more excited in graduating then sad. I am ready for this summer and this application will be awesome!

Please excuse my grammar. My writing skills aren't so great. 

POV

Point Of View

__________ is a __________ who wants __________ and needs__________ because__________.


Using this method will get us to know exactly what the Teacher/Parent wants and why it will be useful. 

Teacher

Mr. Barajas is a teacher who wants to communicate with the parents of students and needs it to be easy and fast because he wants parents to be involved.

Parent

Gloria is a parent who wants to be updated with her students grades and needs to have easy access to the teacher because she cares about her child grades.

These are just some examples of what a teacher or parent might say. This is useful so I can know what the user wants and how this can benefit there needs.

If your a teacher or parent please leave your POV below.

Features

Listed below are the features that I work on so improve and make better. I will design a prototype and then test it and from there I will redefine it with the feedback given. 

Week 1: Login UI

Week 2: Send/Receive message

Week 3: Instant search

Week 4: Translation 

Week 5: Parents or Students name

App Project Background

Creators
This project was started by a group of 4 students (Francisco Ramirez, Jose Rosales, Karen Sandoval, Tiyla Vauss) at East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy. ECC (Extra Curricular Course) was a after school program that was focused on Design for Current Technologies.

Project
We spent some time brainstorming what we were going to do and in the end we came up with make an application that will allow Teachers and Parents to communicate in a fast and efficient way. This application will allow teachers to communicate with the students parents via text or email within the application to notify them about their students. We wanted to create this because we realized that most parents do not communicate with their student teachers as much, so using technology will allow this to happen.

Mission
This summer I will continue working on this project to having it accessible in the near future. During that time I will want to have several features to accomplish.

• Help support 
• Send/Receive messages 
• Instant search
• Translations
• Groups of grades 
• Unsent messages - Draft
• Subject line
• Student name or Parents name in "To" line
• Templates for messages
• Who to notify - Both or single parent 

Subscribe to my blog to keep up with my progress while I work on it this Summer (2011).