'Lightbulb' App Wins Pearson Coding Contest
A
University of Texas Austin student who designed
an app that remembers her "Lightbulb"
moments has won Pearson's third annual
Coding Contest.
Anisha
Srivastava won the contest by writing the
code for an application programming interface (API) that creates a
"lightbulb"
moment whenever a concept clicks for a student by either recording a
concise
summary, a video URL or an article link that clarifies the concept.
Srivastava,
who won the $5,000 first-place prize
when winners of the competition were announced, was one of 21
semifinalists who
presented the APIs they wrote the code for to a group of judges who had
told
contestants to focus
on the goal of producing "a positive, measurable
impact on learning" and use
Pearson APIs "to identify, collect and utilize data to demonstrate
learning
outcomes."
"This contest has been a transformational
experience in my coding journey," Srivastava
said. "Moving forward, I feel much more confident and
better equipped to take on bigger development projects and more
effective
learning ideas."
The
$2,500 second-place award went to a team of
students from Troy University who used mnemonic devices such as
imagery
and keywords with ClassMap to create course and
subject learning paths that can
be used by other students and instructors.
Third
place and $1,000 was won by a team from
Cornell University who created an essay app that searches for
new content on the same page as a writer edits an essay, reducing
unnecessary
movement from page to page or search engine to search engine.
"I
was really impressed with the students'
designs, in terms of technology skills and the creativity of ideas,"
said Emily
Reid, one of the judges and education director for Girls Who Code. "I
was
amazed to see how the students are using their apps to solve important
problems
in education."
Pearson partnered
with Girls Who
Code,
the Hour of
Code and the National
Center for Women and
Information Technology to encourage more
students to participate in
the contest.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.