By: Alefiya Master, Founder & CEO, MAD-learn
Pillar 4: Customer Awe
This is my favorite pillar, by far. We have learned everything about our industry, our product, our curriculum, our impact, and our potential, from our customers. The ones that love us AND the ones that don’t. From Day 1 to today, we have shared some amazing moments with students and teachers around the world when students finish and present their apps to an audience to get real, honest feedback. Here are a few of my favorites from the last 5 years:
- 2014 – Rainbow Loom was created by a 5th grader in Melbourne, FL. She was one of our first pilot students to ever use MAD-learn, and she ended up creating an app that hit 100,000 downloads on iTunes and Google Play! http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2014/06/13/brevard-students-work-app-ealing/10512571/
- 2015 – Soccer Time created by a 4th grader in Atlanta, GA. He created his app as a “coach in your pocket” to help kids remember drills and practice even on days where they weren’t with their coach. He not only spent an amazing amount of time creating videos for his app, and creating all the content and designs that he wanted, he also pitched his app alongside students from across the state at a MAD-shark tank that we hosted for the US Department of Education EdTech Developer’s Tour.
- 2016 – Enough and iCare are two apps that came out of @coolcatteacher Vicki Davis’ amazing global app collaboration project. High school students from schools around the world collaborated to build #appsthatmatter. Such great inspiration for the potential that can be unlocked in our kids today when we give them opportunities to build things that are meaningful to them.
- 2017 – 2 Voices was the product of a History teacher in Canada allowing his students to create an app for a period in history that they learned about that year. These 7th grade students blew us away with their creativity and ingenious use of app templates to create a “choose your own fate” app about the Holocaust to experience such tragedy from the perspective of a 42 year old man or a 12 year old girl.
- 2018 – Lost in a Book is a book report app made by a middle schooler in Monroe, NC and is a great example of how something like app development (or any creation technology for that matter) can and should be used effectively to engage students with core content and allow them to experience it and dive deeper into it in ways that are meaningful and relevant to them in today’s mobile-centric world.
This is what we live for. This is why we are. This is what keeps us going. We need to always remember that. Pillar 4: Customer Awe
BONUS: Since we love YOU, our amazing customers so much, we have to listen to what you are asking for. You wanted more creative ways for students to make magic in their apps, you wanted easier ways for students to collaborate and share their work, you wanted a streamlined design thinking experience. We delivered. With your support, we always will. Check out some of our newest releases here – http://www.mad-learn.com/blog/