e-learning @ bgs It’s all ‘appening at BGS! Left: Thomas Banfield (Year 3) and Scott Collie (Year 10) test the new app.
“We believe it is an Australian first to actually have one group of students build an app for other students.”
Below: Luke Marget, OB95 with our app builders.
13CABS visit The Year 10 boys involved in our iPad app building project, Scott Collie, Hugh Petrie, Nick Fulkoski, Carson Lewis and Campbell Beveridge were fortunate to learn some programming tips from a commercial app developer recently during a visit to 13CABS’ Head Office. As a result of an invitation from 13CABS CEO and Old Boy Andrew Skelton, the boys spent an hour with Mikhail Raskine, the person who built 13CABS’ enormously successful taxi booking app. Mikhail talked about the processes he went through when designing, building and testing the app which has now been downloaded by 70,000 Melbourne iPhone users!
During the visit to 13CABS, the boys were also fortunate to be amongst the first in Melbourne to play with Telstra’s new T-Hub, a mix of a traditional telephone with internet capabilities, and see how 13CABS has been able to adapt their iPhone app for this new device. Of course, a tour of 13CABS would not have been complete without a look at the call centre and accompanying technology infrastructure which was indeed another highlight of the visit. Particular thanks to our newest BGS sponsor 13CABS for offering our boys this wonderful real life opportunity.
Meeting a person with Mikhail’s skills has already proved useful and inspiring as our boys continue to develop apps of their own. Boys building app for Nutrient Water In another Australian first, our Year 10 and 11 app builders are about to start work on building their first commercial app for well known beverage company, Nutrient Water.
Year 10 boys build app to teach Year 3 boys fractions Hands on learning has been lifted to a whole new level with a group of Year 10 boys Scott Collie, Carson Lewis, Nick Fulkoski, Campbell Beveridge and Hugh Petrie designing and building a mathematical app to be used to teach Year 3 boys fractions. The app, Fraction Frenzy, was built over 12 weeks during lunch times and afterschool. The boys explained half that time was spent studying the Year 3 Maths book to understand exactly the concepts that needed to be taught. 4
Brett Fitzsimmons, teacher of music and IT taught the boys the necessary programming language and guided them through the project. The boys were thrilled when they ‘launched’ the app with the enthusiastic Year 3’s and are now busy refining the app and ironing out a couple of glitches. We believe it is an Australian first to actually have one group of students build an app for other students. Their next project is to build a commercial app for Nutrient Water, a national enhanced water company owned by three of our Old Boys.
This opportunity followed a visit to Nutrient Water’s headquarters where the boys met with one of the founders of the company, Luke Marget (OB95) and pitched an idea for an app to him. It is fair to say that Luke was very impressed with the ideas presented and has given the green light for our boys to start work on building an app for his company which they hope to finish by Easter 2011.