A child goes for a walk in the nearby forest… all of a sudden she realizes that she has lost her way. How can she alert her guardian that she may be in danger, especially when she has a mental handicap? A challenging situation no doubt, calling for a practical solution… which came in the form of the “NeverLost” app, designed and coded by a group of students from four collaborating schools in Corfu, Greece.
As the website is in Greek only, I will attempt here to present an overview of their work.
The four schools met and got down to work on their first task: to roll out a plan. Here are the steps:
- Investigate application requirements.
- Carry out market research to explore the competition in apps designed for kids.
- Design functions.
- Delegate tasks to the individual schools.
- Code app in App Inventor.
- Design app in Photoshop.
- Transfer design to App Inventor.
- Publish app in Google Play Store.
- Design and develop webpage.
Next they decided which school would be responsible for each stage of the plan; “Kato Korakiana Vocational High School” would work on the design of the app and the webpage, and Amfipagites Middle School, the 2nd General High School and the 4th General High School of Corfu would collaborate on developing the app and writing the code in App Inventor.
They concluded that the app should include six functions:
- Make phone call (e.g. dad, mom, guardian)
- Send message (e.g. dad, mom, guardian)
- View your location on map
- SMS your location (Latitude and Longitude coordinates)
- SMS your location on map
- Settings (assign phone number to receive calls and messages)
Finally, they decided that a short video would help explain the concept to potential users, so they filmed a “trailer” for their app.
The project was presented with great success at a Computer Science Teachers Conference in Northern Greece and received wide appraisal in the national press and the Internet. Μore information is available on their Facebook page or directly by email: scroll to the bottom of their webpage for details (I have checked that their admins are eager to answer questions and provide info in English).
We would really love to see more great projects like this: the students and teachers involved deserve all the credit in the world for their social awareness, teamwork abilities, app market savvy and competitive design skills. Keep an eye out for this year’s video competition of the CSTA Equity Committee themed around Computing for the Common Good: dates and guidelines to be announced soon!
Mina Theofilatou
CSTA International Representative
Kefalonia, Greece
