On Saturday, December 12, the App Inventor team got together to watch CodeGirl, a documentary that follows high school girls participating in the Technovation Challenge - an international competition where girls from all over the world develop apps to change their communities. Many of the girls who participate in the competition use App Inventor to develop their apps, and our team was so happy to see the impact that App Inventor is having on girls all over the world.
Aubrey, a Masters student, was impressed by the cohesion of the teams and how effectively they collaborated. I agree - the girls in this documentary showed an exceptional amount of maturity and teamwork as they created their apps and business models. Though many of the teams didn't qualify for later rounds in the competition, they all demonstrated a strong work ethic and a desire to shape their communities. Tiffany, an undergraduate researcher, said, "I thought that it was neat to see how all of the teams had such different journeys and in the end make a positive impact on their communities."
Of course, many of us were impacted by the use of App Inventor in this film. Our team strives to make coding more accessible to people (especially young people and women) all over the world, and it makes us so proud to see that many of these amazingly talented young women were using App Inventor to reach their goals. Kristin, another one of our Masters students, said it best: "It was really inspiring to see the way App Inventor and similar tools can be used to enable people with great ideas to see them through. Opening that door to the world brings a greater diversity of problems and ideas to the table that we can only solve by working together, making the world a better place as a result."
To learn more about CodeGirl or to buy a copy of the film, visit their website:
www.codegirlmovie.com.
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