Blippit! is a new online tool that allows teachers and pupils to create apps that will run on mobile devices.
You won’t find Blippit in either Apple’s App Store or the Google Store as both these routes are frought with problems for schools. It costs, takes too long, apps need approval by Apple/Google and it’s highly likely that apps made by students woudn’t get approval. Hardly a motivator!
Blippit! gets around all that by making apps that work online which users can then add to their phones from there.The software generates a QR code and a web link to allow sharing of any apps created. Schools have their own web address for their apps and teachers have full control over whether apps are published or not.
I started my exploration with Blippit! earlier this week and have to say that it is a very easy piece of software to use. You create the app by dragging a set of widgets where you want them, and that’s pretty much it. If that sounds so simple it won’t be challenging for pupils, think again.
Much of the work is in thinking about and planning what your app has to say and what it looks like: It’s been designed so that the students can think about content, audience and purpose. Further down the line things can get more complex when users begin to do things like:
- add a few more footer icons for quick app navigation
- display some app widget content ‘inline’ interspersed with buttons
- nest multiple Writer widgets together for deeper apps
- add html to Writer widgets to embed video and so on
Blippit has been priced, I think, very attractively for schools at only £49 for a primary and £149 for a secondary.
If you’d like any further information about Blippit! please contact me.
I’m still learning about Blippit! and suspect I will be for a while, but once I’d got the basics, I created a very simple app, which you can access either vis this link or by scanning the QR code below. I feel my WrightICT app needs further development before it’s published!
I can already see the potential for pupils creating apps on particular topics and having the QR codes round the school.
6 Handy Things to know About Blippit!
Update: June 2013
I had a Twitter request from Ainthorpe Primary asking if I knew of any decent app creation software. I suggested Blippit and very swiftly, the Ainthorpe App had been created.
To see other examples of what can be created, follow this link to the Planet Blippit site.
