State of Save Tuba – Blog #1 FALL 2021

App development 

• Coding 

Most significant milestone: Fully coded level 5, which was used as a demo for the Kazakh officials that will help integrate the app into middle school curricula

Current state of the work: Implemented graphics for the home screen and levels 3 through 5, implemented 3 different types of educational games (word search, true/false, and MCQs) for the aforementioned levels, added camera function to capture real-life activities 

Milestones for this semester: Finish coding levels 1 through 4 (realistic goal), finish coding all levels (ambitious goal) 

• Design 

Most significant milestone: The graphics that will be used for each level have been finalized (with the exception of the Achievements & Badges graphics)

Current state of work: Designed graphics for each level, implemented updated design for home screen, working to figure out how to make educational videos

Milestones for this semester: Finalize educational videos for first four levels (realistic goal), complete graphics for Achievements & Badges section of the app, finalize educational videos for all levels (ambitious goal)

• Curriculum

Most significant milestone: Developed a full curriculum for the app

Current state of work: Created a spreadsheet that outlines the whole curriculum, finalized educational content for levels 1, 4, and 5, finalized MCQs and Action Tasks (3 and 5) for every level

Milestones for this semester: 1. Finalize the rest of the action tasks/educational content   2. This ties in with the following “validation” category, but our biggest goal would be to further develop the curriculum under the guidance of experts at the Ministry of Education, and have a final version that matches their vision by the end of the semester 

Validation/implementation

Focus groups for Beta version will be conducted during the Fall semester. After completing the coding for levels 1 through 4, the team will execute on the Beta version focus groups.

Establishing ties with the Ministry of Education

Continued partnership with AlmaU colleagues to finalize design, app content, and focus groups.

IRB – application was finalized over the summer and will be submitted in the early Fall to ensure we can collect data via the Beta focus groups that can be used to publish progress and lessons learned with the app.

Teacher Manual – a new component of our venture! In preparation to engage and support teachers with adopting the use of the app, we completed a draft guide for teachers to use as they plan to implement the app in their classrooms. The manual provides background on the venture, full copies of the scripts for each level, vocabulary lists for each level and subtopic, and detailed descriptions of the various Action Tasks at each level.