GreatSchools app “3R Radar” takes 1st prize at SLC Camp Bay Area
A team of four from GreatSchools won first prize for the best open source app at the Shared Learning Collaborative (SLC) camp and code-a-thon January 12-13, 2013 in Silicon Valley.
The SLC is an alliance of states, foundations, educators, content providers, developers, and vendors working together to improve and streamline the "plumbing" of education technologies using a cloud-based data store. At SLC code-a-thons, educators are invited to speak about the hurdles they face; developers then work with them to design potential solutions using fictitious data.
In 30 hours, our team built a working prototype for an app to facilitate personalized parent-teacher collaboration. Drawing on assessment and roster data from the SLC, the "3R Radar" app—3R refers to the classic three R’s: reading, writing, and arithmetic—gives parents an idea of what areas their child can improve on within a subject and what Common Core-aligned terminology means in plain words, and provides parents with actionable tips, strategies, and activities to do with their child. Teachers, meanwhile, can moderate the content and receive feedback from parents.
"3R Radar" App Presentation
Beating out 11 other teams, with employees from Google, NASA, Bay Area tech companies, and educators from a variety of backgrounds, including a teacher panel from Palo Alto Unified School District, our team's app was cited by judges for incorporating "multiple stakeholders" and "great UI".
The GreatSchools "3R Radar" team
(From left to right: Samson Sprouse, Mitchell
Seltzer, Patti
Constantakis, and Michael Hicks)
The SLC event marks the second time in recent months that a team from GreatSchools has been recognized for education innovation. GreatSchools previously took 2nd place at "HackEd," a Facebook-Gates education hack-a-thon in October 2012.
We learned a lot last weekend, and are busy applying the lessons to a new product currently in development. We’re also gearing up for our first internal hack-a-thon at the end of this month – stay tuned for pictures and highlights in a few weeks!
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Related Links:
Summary of the event and list of winning apps - SLC Camp Bay Area
What teams of educators and developers can create in 30 hours - Thinking Out Loud
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