It Truly Takes a Village ...
Academia is individualistic and communal; we rarely write papers on our own, but collaborate with co-authors across the globe. We always stand on the shoulders of giants. We meet at conferences and seminars; good research rarely stems from a single brain. Yet we are fiercely protective of our individual reputation, teach classes mostly on our own, and are known and promoted for our 'own' research. Academics can be self-centered, but I have found my job to be most fulfilling by thinking more broadly. Tenure does give us the freedom for that.
My interest in building educational apps was always driven by the notion of community. With a network of developers, we can build on each other's code, share expertise, and grow a larger catalog of educational apps for others to use. These are the foundations of open source development. I am glad that this community is taking shape. The amazing Julie Niederhoff (https://www.linkedin.com/in/julieniederhoff/) just sent me three of her classroom simulations. They are simple, relate to practicing newsvendor-type decision-making and forecasting methods, and are very useful in an undergraduate teaching context. I am keeping a catalog of all apps so far here:
I know that several other members of our community, such as Vince Castillo, Ahmet Agca, Sunny Hasija, and Kostas Stouras, are developing new applications as we speak. I will add them to the catalog once I get their green light. I have also developed a new app, together with Craig Froehle, to simulate staffing and sequencing decisions in emergency room management - testing it out with my class tomorrow, and stay tuned for the release.
If you are building apps or just interested in joining the community, please subscribe to the blog or sign up for the community at https://edutool.org/community. If you want me to host a workshop for your faculty, to teach them how to vibe code, or hold a tutorial at a conference you are organizing, just send me an email (esiemsen@wisc.edu).
