In Action

I am starting to use Bio on the Go this school year as a continual review and differentiating tool.  Because we have already covered cell chemistry and cell structure, students can be challenged at the beginning or end of class with Bio on the Go!

Promo Codes

Each time you release a new version of an app. Apple allows you 50 promo codes. I am in the process of getting these promo codes to science teachers around the state. Hopefully by giving it to teachers for free, they will see how useful it can be for their students.

However, it is much easier for teachers to ask for promo codes than to redeem them and actually try out the app. I have given away about 45 promo codes and only about 14 of them have been redeemed. I am looking at ways to increase this percentage.

I do enjoy having teachers email me from around the state and giving me information about what types of technology are being used in their schools. There is so little school to school contact, it seems as though technology has not helped our schools share good ideas, yet.

How I made the app

Here is a brief overview of the steps I went through to make my app...

1.) Identified a problem that could be solved by using a hand-held touch screen device.
My problems are...
Student Engagement until the end of the period
Reviewing for a standardized test
Giving students immediate feedback
Having students feel success while studying
Having them have positive associations with science language

2.) Created questions, answers, false choices, and standard correlations with those questions. (This took a long time, my wife deserves a ton of credit for editing the questions). I did this step while doing step 3. (December 2010-May 2011)

3.) Brainstormed a series of touch screen interfaces that may be used to solve the problem. I put them on paper and "played" them. I had my friends, play the paper version. I slept on it. In the end, I created a youtube video where I showed how I thought the app would look. Paper and pencil and youtube. This gave me something I could show developers and they could give reasonable estimates. (May-June 2011)

4.) I originally thought I knew a guy who could write the Objective C code once I developed the biology content. About half way through developing the content, he backed out. Therefore, I was in need of a programmer. I emailed regional college campuses for students who were looking for work, but no luck. Then I called app development companies with my idea. They were generally out of my price range. I then posted my development needs and budget on Craigslist Chicago. This created many leads (some proposals were very interesting). I then worked with a start up developer out of Chicago who was excellent to work with. I was flexible in my time frame, so I was paying for this developers free time as a side project. (Time frame: July-September 2011)

5.) The app went live in October 2011. I started the pricing out at 3.99. In future posts, I will let you know the impacts of price changes on download numbers.