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Edison Preparatory School introduces its own iPhone app.
You know it’s 2010 when your iPhone notifies you about canceled classes at your son or daughter’s high school. And that’s just what happened in May when severe weather preempted evening events at Edison Preparatory School.
“With this new app, we were able to quickly notify parents and students about the canceled events,” Edison Principal Stacey Vernon says. “We received a lot of great feedback about this. Most users learned about the schedule changes from their phones sooner than they heard through the traditional media.”
The new application is a piece of software developed for the iPhone by Tulsa’s Anyware Mobile Solutions.
“We think this may be the first application of its kind in the country,” says Clint Parr, president and CEO of Macrosolve Inc., Anyware’s parent company. “It’s a new idea, pushing public high school information to mobile devices. And the app itself can be customized for any type of business that wants to maintain regular contact with its customers.”
iPhone applications, colloquially known as “apps,” are software programs built specifically for use on Apple’s popular mobile device. The iPhone’s multi-touch screen allows users to easily navigate multiple levels of navigation and interface types. Users can search the iTunes Store with their computers or App Store directly on their iPhones, which contains a library of more than 100,000 applications, including the new one built for Edison, which is free.
“The Edison app came about because Clint and I are alumni, and we recognized the need for parents and students to be more connected to the school,” says Barrett Waller, president and CEO of Waller & Co. Public Relations. “We started with the iPhone because of its relative popularity, but the app will eventually be available across a variety of mobile platforms, including Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Android. Eventually we’d like to support a national roll-out of this app.”
The Edison app is organized around a series of categories: Activities, Administration, Calendar, Foundation and Alumni, Partners in Education and the iPhone Survey. In Activities, the user can drill down to a specific activity type to find information about upcoming events and accomplishments for various Edison groups and teams. The Administration category provides contact information for school officials. Other categories offer valuable information about alumni events, the Edison foundation and Tulsa Public Schools’ Partners in Education program.
“The application has already proved immensely beneficial, even though it’s still somewhat in the developmental stages,” Vernon says. “We posted the survey to get a better idea of what information parents and students would like to see. The positive feedback has been overwhelming, and we’re excited to expand it further in the coming school year. It’s much more cost effective than traditional communications channels and will reduce the use of paper.
“What we’re most excited about is the opportunity for students to manage the content of the app. Not only does this help maintain student interest in Edison events, but it will also provide valuable real-world experience with cutting-edge technology.”
