Richard Jones

EdTech 534

App Design Proposal

Please use this template to help you plan for your app design.
It is recommended to think through your design and include as many details as possible.
App Inventor Name: Richard Jones

Submission Date: November 5, 2014

I. Planning Table (30 points)

The Name of Your App

Details

Notes for Yourself

Current Speak

Category of
Your App Education

Learning/Communication/Gaming/Productivity/Others
Learning/Communication/Productivity
1. This involves learning as students read about the
news.
2. This involves communication and productivity as
students create videos with their devices camera
(launched from the app).

Why are you building this

app?

For example, what

kind of contextual
problem (daily
life, learning,
instruction, work
etc.) are you
solving?

One of my main concerns as a social science instructor

is getting students to pay attention to current events as
they relate to government, economics, and major
historical happenings. I emphasize the need to stay
current on these articles because they often provide
students with a real-world context for many of the topics
that we cover in class. That said, students consistently
complain that they do not know how or where to locate
current events. This app would allow users to quickly
locate news articles in each of these subject areas. My
hope would be that they could open the app and access
articles in these areas in less than a minute. This would
make it much easier for students to focus on reading the
news as opposed to wandering the internet in search of a
news website. Also, this would help to ensure that the
articles they locate are from reputable sources.
The app would also assist with efforts to increase the
number of opportunities students have to speak about
educational topics. This would be made possible by
adding a feature, within the app, that enables students to
record a video summary of what they read in the articles.
Ideally, students would then be able to share that video
via email, text, and/or social media.

It might be a good idea

to locate Common Core
standards as they relate
to Literacy in Social
Studies. It would be
good to include them in
Learning Log Post as
well as any future plans
to disseminate the app.

Possible Features to
Consider/Explore:
1. ListPicker for
websites
2. Webviewer to display
news websites
content
3. Camcorder feature for
students to record
summary videos
4. Possible feature for
students to share the
video via email, text
and social media

User Group(s)
(age/job/education level
etc.)

User Test Plan

This app could be used by all students depending upon

their reading levels. It is being developed with high
school students in mind, but could be adapted to other
grades based on student abilities.

Who are the testers?

o Fellow EdTech 534 students
o Students in the classes that I teach
When and where do you plan to test your
app?
o BSU Students will be able to test the
app by the middle of November
o Students will be able to test in my
classes starting in the middle of
November
How do you plan to test your app?
o I plan to test it on my own devices
before having others test it
o I will then allow the BSU students to
test the app for bugs and other issues
o I will then allow my students to test
the app to see if there are inherent
flaws in understanding how to actually
use the app (features and functions)
What do you want your testers to do with
your app?
o Verify that all of the features work as
planned by locating an article,
recording a video, and sending/posting
the video
o Highlight any areas that need to be
addressed in terms of instructions for
using the app
o Provide suggestions for additional
features they would like to see in the
app
What do you want to learn about your app
from the user tests? (e.g., fun factors, visual
appeal, navigation, buttons, colors, etc.)
o Do all of the apps features work on
their devices?
o Does the app provide a simple method
for locating articles?
o Does the camera feature allow users to
record a video?
o Are users able to save the video and
send it via email/text/social media
post?
o Does the layout of the app make
sense?
o How would they rate the visual quality
of the app?

I may want to look at

other subject areas
beyond my own (like
science) for future app
projects

Rough Timeline to
Remember:
Nov 9: ADP Due
Nov 16: Interface and
Component Design Due
Nov 23: Coding
Behavior in Block Editor
Due
Dec 7: Revision and
Debugging Time Period
Ends
Dec 12: Final App is
Due

A template designed for BSU EDTECH534 Mobile App Design Course by Yu-Chang Hsu, Ph.D.
2011-2014

How does this app work?

Provide one-paragraph narrative below to briefly

describe how users interact with the app.
The basic idea behind the app is to create several screens
(based on subject area) where users could quickly locate
an article relating to that field of study. The websites
would be linked via a ListPicker component. The users
would find an article and read it via a Webviewer. The
user could then launch their devices camcorder and
record a video summary of what they read. Finally, the
user would be able to save the video and share it with
others via email, text, and/or social media. Thus
students will have found a way to speak about current
events. The summary and recording will take place on
the final screen within the app.

Dissemination Plan

To whom and how do you plan to promote/distribute

your app? Do you plan to use it with your students or
at work?
The initial focus of my app development efforts will be
dedicated to making sure the app works as planned and
all bugs have been eliminated. After that, I plan to share
the app with other teachers at our school. I would like
them to test the app before I allow students outside of
my class to download it. From there, I will post the QR
Code for my app on the school website and will
encourage teachers to share it with their classes.
Students are the target audience for the app.

I need to make sure I

understand how to
launch the hidden
elements within the
screens. It would be
smart to build one
subject screen
completely, and then
copy the blocks to the
other subjects.

1. I need to plan out

which teachers I want to
roll this out to for testing
and early use. It might
be best to choose a target
sample as opposed to the
entire teacher
population.
2. I need to do more
research about how apps
can make it to Google
Play Store. Are there
costs involved?

If the app successfully serves its purpose, I would like to

investigate the process of getting it into the Google Play
Store. I have very little knowledge of this process and
would likely need to seek advice and guidance from
other app developers.

Future development plan

for this App

(e.g., features or function to add; reasons for future dev.)

As mentioned previously in this ADP, I hope to include
a feature that will allow students to email/text their
videos and/or post them to social media websites. I am
hoping that my efforts combined with the advice and
guidance of the instructor and fellow classmates will
help me achieve all of these design goals. If not, I will
continue to work on the app until my expectations are
met.
Future app development could take place by expanding
this app to other disciplines. In other words, this one
could be called Current Speak: Social Science Edition
whereas another might be Current Speak: Science
Edition.

It might be necessary to
contact subject matter
experts from other
disciplines to see which
news sites they feel are
the most reputable for
their subject areas (as
opposed to just going
with major national
news organizations in
general). I could also
expand the offerings to
journal websites as well.

A template designed for BSU EDTECH534 Mobile App Design Course by Yu-Chang Hsu, Ph.D.
2011-2014

II. Instruction for App Component Map and App Behavior Flowchart
Please use concept map tools (e.g., Gliffy, Google Drawing, or Bubbl.us etc.) of your choice to create the following to explain your proposed apps.

Sketch it out!
1.

App Component Map (i.e., explain what you plan to have on the Component Designer; You can also consider providing a screenshot of your working
Component Designer to help your explanation.)
a.

What are some visible components you plan to have on the user interface? (e.g., buttons, labels, images, animations, textbox for input..)
i. Buttons
ii. Images
iii. ListPickers
iv. Webviewer
v. Labels

b. What are some Non-visible components you plan to have on the component designer? (e.g., sound, location sensor, TinyDB etc.)
i. Camcorder
ii. Sounds
iii. Sharing
iv. ActivityStarter
c.

Why do you need those components mentioned above (aesthetic, relevance function etc.)?
i. Buttons: for navigating between screens and camera
ii. Images: for visual appeal, but this will be limited to the Title and Instructions screens
iii. ListPickers: for selecting the different subject areas and news sources
iv. Webviewer: for viewing the news Webpages within the app
v. Labels: for writing instructions and other text features
vi. Sound: for creating a vibration when buttons are clicked
vii. Camcorder: for capturing the students video summaries
viii. Sounds: for when the user submits a video
ix. Sharing: for sending the video with a message (via email, social media, or messaging)
x. ActivityStarter: for launching the sharing feature

A template designed for BSU EDTECH534 Mobile App Design Course by Yu-Chang Hsu, Ph.D. 2011-2014

Insert the images of your App Component Map and Behavior Flowchart below.
II-A. App Component Map (30 points)
Screens 1-2

Click Here for Access to Original Map (for Screens 1 and 2) on Google Drive

A template designed for BSU EDTECH534 Mobile App Design Course by Yu-Chang Hsu, Ph.D. 2011-2014

Screens 3-7

Click Here for Access to Original Map (for Screens 3-7) on Google Drive

A template designed for BSU EDTECH534 Mobile App Design Course by Yu-Chang Hsu, Ph.D. 2011-2014

Screen 8

Click Here for Access to Original Map (for Screen 8) on Google Drive

A template designed for BSU EDTECH534 Mobile App Design Course by Yu-Chang Hsu, Ph.D. 2011-2014

II-B. App Behavior Flowchart (i.e., plan and present the behavior logic/flow you would like to have on the Block Editor)

Your Own Flowchart Here!

Click Here for Access to Original Map (for Flowchart) on Google Drive

A template designed for BSU EDTECH534 Mobile App Design Course by Yu-Chang Hsu, Ph.D. 2011-2014