The virtual classroom can be very versatile with many resources to engage your students from Powerpoints/ Google Slides, and Prezi presentations to the pandemic distance-learning craze, Bitmoji classrooms, that are full of digital libraries and activities.
According to Gamifiy.com, gamification can be defined as “the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts. It can also be defined as a set of activities and processes to solve problems by using or applying the characteristics of game elements.”
camSKOOL is a webcam teacher toolkit that enhances the virtual classroom through sports games, themed rewards, and learning materials such as audio flashcards.
In this guest post/ interview, camSKOOL founder, Idris Kamara, shares his stories of travel as an ESL teacher, and his journey of entrepreneurship and becoming a software designer.
Tell us about your background (as an educator and a software creator).
While completing my last year of college at the University of Minnesota, I developed a curiosity for the idea of developing apps. The thought of creating my own app and being an entrepreneur excited me. Fresh out of college, I also had an appetite for traveling the world. I began applying for teaching jobs in Asia. I wanted to explore and define my own experiences as I developed professionally and personally. Furthermore, I didn’t think I would have the time and opportunity to dive into entrepreneurship if I had stayed in the United States and hopped on the corporate wagon. In the summer of 2013, I accepted a position as a Politics and ESL teacher at a private boarding school in South Korea.
My first year of teaching focused on adapting to South Korean culture and enjoying my new role. Although not without challenges, it was an amazing first year. In my second year, I left my small town and moved to Busan, which is the second-largest city in South Korea.
Living in a bigger city with more expatriates, teachers, and business-minded individuals meant more collaboration. I reminded myself to look for opportunities where I could transition into tech and app development.
Life in a society different than your own brings many challenges. As an ex-pat, I was able to identify many of those challenges that foreigners experience living abroad. One major issue was the ability of ex-pats to find the locations of services they needed due to the language barrier.
Most people utilize Facebook groups to share information. Unfortunately, that information was not centralized or updated frequently. I realized that this problem could be solved by creating an app that allowed for all of the information to be in one place and easily accessible. The app would also be collaborative with the entire ex-pat community.
This was the opportunity I was looking for! I began learning how to code but quickly concluded that I didn’t have the aptitude or the passion for it. I was talented at drawing, painting, and sketching, so I decided I would get into UI/UX design. I didn’t have the funds to pay an experienced designer to bring my ideas to fruition, so learning how to do it myself felt more realistic to get my goal accomplished. I took a few UI/UX courses on Udemy for several weeks and started designing my first app by creating a wireframe and mock prototype.
Coincidently, the city of Busan was hosting the 2016 Hackathon for entrepreneurs, developers, and anyone into tech. I got the opportunity to connect with a group of teachers and locals who were developing their IT skills as coders, programmers, and designers. I approached them with my idea and the mock prototype. The individuals interested in my app soon became members of my team.
In the end, we came in first place in the category of originality and execution. Unfortunately, the team I had put together quickly disbanded due to differences in intentions. From that experience, I learned that I would not get far with limited experience, no capital, and more importantly, no team.
In 2017, after five years in South Korea, I decided I needed the time to explore entrepreneurship and transition out of teaching. I wanted to leverage my time to invest in the areas I cared about most. Within the next year, I got a job teaching online with VIPKID and moved to Vietnam with hopes of creating my next app.
What inspired you to create camSKOOL?
Moving to Vietnam gave me the chance to have two part-time jobs: online teaching with VIPKID, and planning my startup. I also had high hopes to find an outsourcing team that I could afford to make my idea a reality. With VIPKID being my only source of income, I always had to bring my best and make the lessons a fun experience for my students. I had many negative experiences using different online apps and games in my classes. The problem with using multiple techs in a lesson was that it caused my computer to run slower and made transitions and engagement more difficult. Also, as a digital nomad, I did not want to carry a “classroom” with me. I noticed that many other teachers with the same lifestyle as me had a similar sentiment. These insights led to inspiration. What if there was an app that had all the rewards, games, and educational information that I needed for my lessons?
At this time, I gained more experience as a UI/UX designer. So I started to put those skills toward my interest. I began to design the user experience and interface for a webcam software that would allow teachers to reward their students with an animated gamification system right from within their camera. Soon after, my girlfriend introduced me to Vinnay and Simon, two software developers in Thailand who would become my partners and have a major role in creating the app. And that was how CamSKOOL, originally named Reward Panel, was born.
The prototype was ready, and I began testing the app in my classrooms. My students loved it! Their enthusiastic reactions only motivated me more to see this project to fruition.
What makes camSKOOL unique in comparison to other camera software?
Dynamic Webcam Software
CamSKOOL is a more dynamic webcam software compared to all its competitors. We strive to offer teachers many options to choose from to engage their students. Not every teacher or teaching style is the same, and both will require different tools to complement their needs. The online teaching community brings native speakers and non-native learners together. Our reward games, flashcards, and application program interfaces (API) are frequently updated and are diverse and relevant to multiple cultures and current events. For example, you will find reward games for Christmas and Chinese New Year. Additionally, CamSKOOL is open to suggestions from community members on what new tools, plugins, or webcam apps should be created.
What special features are included in camSKOOL?
Truthfully, many digital assets were not designed specifically for online teachers. There is a broader end-user in mind. CamSKOOL is for online teachers, created by an online teacher.
CamSKOOL offers unique features to serve the need of online teachers who seek to actively engage their students. Here is a list of some of the features included in the beta version:
Animated Reward Games
Our reward gamification system is displayed within the teacher’s camera frame. The games and animations include sounds, which the student will hear when they are rewarded. The teacher can download a new reward game directly from our store to the app on their desktop.
Each reward game has the following:
- Reward game mini-intro
- Five animated reward sequences
- Reward game Conclusion
Built-in Audio Component
The built-in audio component allows the student and or the teacher to hear any audio that is transmitted through the app. For example, we have flashcards of many animals. With the audio component, the teacher can play the sound of that animal for their student to hear while displaying the visual image of the animal right into their camera frame.
Custom Control Panel
CamSKOOL provides many reward games, webcam plugins, and digital assets for teachers to operate while on their virtual platform.
For ease of use, we designed an intuitive control panel for teachers to be able to use multiple functions at once.
The Multi-Classroom
There are only so many items and assets a teacher can have operational in their camera frame at a time. Overcrowding the screen is something to avoid. The multi-classroom feature allows teachers to create a preset tab of their digital items to add to a classroom. The teacher can create a new classroom to add more items.
What video platforms can camSKOOL be used on?
CamSKOOL is programmed to function on any Windows/PC or Mac operation system. CamSKOOL can be used on any video platform such as Skye, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, [embedded browsers] Google Chrome, Firefox, etc.
The software is a core video and audio component. When you download CamSKOOL, you download a video and audio package that can access any platform that lets you choose a virtual webcam camera and a virtual microphone.
What additional information would you like to share about camSKOOL?
CamSKOOL is for the online teaching community, and we want that community to be with us as we continue to grow. We encourage our new members and prospective users to use camSKOOL in their online classes. Your perspective matters! We want to know: What do you need? What would you like? What tools can we create to make your online classes more engaging, inspiring, and exciting? Please provide us with feedback on ways to improve the software or add new features.
We want to be the number one source for digital online teaching tools. We believe that the possibilities are endless. With CamSKOOL, bring your virtual classroom to life and become an awesome teacher!
