The product of this project will generate a well designed app that will allow the user to practice reading faster. The user will either pick one of the already made short stories, or they would paste a paragraph of their choice into the console. Once the written text that the user would like to practice with is recorded, the app will generate the selected quantity of words at a time at the selected speed. Over time, the app will train readers to read faster by displaying the words in the text.
Why would you need to increase the speed of your reading? If you struggle to keep up with your acquaintances, you’d want an efficient way to easily increase your skills and abilities in order to overcome your challenges. If you seem to waste a lot of your time simply reading and trying to understand the same paragraph, you’d want an efficient way to increase your abilities. If your standardized reading tests aren’t going well because you take too long to read, you’d want an efficient way to easily increase your skills. Well, how could you easily increase your reading skills and abilities to make them more efficient? You would have to be forced to read at different speeds and different quantities of words at a time. Match this up with practicing everyday, and you have yourself a speed reader. You will be able to read faster at an outstanding speed in a matter of weeks. At the end of the project, there will hopefully be a usable app where someone could easily and efficiently improve their reading level.
My initial resources in order to get the project going would be to learn the specific codes that will allow me to have the computer read the words to the user at different quantities and at different speeds. I will also have to understand how to make an app, which I have never done before. My plan, as of right now, is to make a Google Website, title it and make it presentable, and then turn it into an app using an application called Thunkable. Thunkable is both a website and an app that you can download in order to turn your website into an app. I researched and played around with the controls on the application and I understand the steps I need to take in order to turn the Google Website into an application. I am going to use Thunkable because its seems like an easy and efficient way to make an app. Originally, I was simply going to make a website, and I would just have to learn how to code the part that tells the computer to switch between the words; However, I have always wanted to learn how to make an app so I looked into it and realized that you can turn your website into an app easily.
Thunkable - App making website
Thunkable Help - Thunkable help website
Domhnall O' Hanlon - A great youtube channel that has multiple videos about Thunkable
Make a Thunkable account on computer and bookmark the page.
Download Thunkable on Iphone.
Watch this video on how to turn a website into an app
Create a practice website to make sure you understand how to turn the site into an app.
Create a website for the project using Google sites.
Title it a creative name and make it pleasant to the eye.
Research how to code the basic information needed for having the words appear one by one.
Write the basic code on a Thunkable sheet
Export it the code
Organize it onto the Google Site
Using the same code that you used to create the first console, code practice problems for the user who wants to use the practice short stories. Code the practice problems, and also have them be able to appear one by one.
Code the part of the project that displays the words on the user’s screen
Successfully make the Google Site into a downloadable app.
I am choosing the resilient, persistent, and adaptable achiever as one of my learner outcomes. Being able to adapt and be resilient with your learning will allow you to learn how to overcome and take control of the area that you are trying to learn. I want to be able to be persistent with my learning. I want to see something that I really don’t understand, and actively try to overcome it. For the evidence of my growth I will be screen recording my process of learning how to insert my code with Thunkable. In the past I haven’t been so persistent with my learning, and if I wouldn’t understand a topic I would simply give up on it. So far I barely understand how Thunkable works, so if I’m able to be persistent with the application and learn how to use it, and well, then I think it will show an immense amount of persistence on my part.
I also plan to learn how to be an insightful and strategic researcher. I am choosing this LO to focus on because if you can successfully research alone, without help, you will be able to accomplish almost anything alone. I want to be able to be a successful independent learner and I’m going to need it when having to research new codes for my project. Because my project requires me to write a few lines of code so the computer will be able to display the words I want on the user’s screen, I will have to learn those specific codes. Also, because my previous background with coding isn’t very thorough I am hoping that actively researching ways to write and improve my code during this project will help me grow. In order to prove my growth over the project as an insightful and strategic researcher I am going to be taking screenshots of my search history. These pictures will allow people to see how long it is taking me to research new code, and how far I’ve come with my understand of code.
Important events or changes in the Speed Read project in order to help the understanding of the project's timeline.
Timeline
September 23, 2020 - Finished Initial Research & Project Proposal
September 25, 2020 - Posted first blog post titled, "Murphy's Law Comes to Play"
October 3, 2020 - Made my first code for SpeedRead
November 2, 2020 - Posted second blog post titled, "Progress at its Finest"
November 23, 2020 - Posted third blog post titled, "In a Bit of a Stump"
December 4, 2020 - I renovated my app's screens
December 11, 2020 - Posted fourth blog post titled, "A Second Start"
January 6, 2021 - I finally found out how to split a sentence into text and have it display on the screen.
January 15, 2021 - Finished all of SpeedRead's Code
January 18, 2021 - Downloaded App on Phone
January 20, 2021 - Presented the final Comp Apps Presentation
January 27, 2021 - Posted fifth (final) reflection titled, "The Finale"