So a few months ago I heard about Glide - this super simple way to create an app from a Google Sheet. I made a note. This tool came up again in the ISTE EdTech Coaches PLN that I am part of...so I explored it a bit and then I had an idea! I do love all things Google...and I do love a good spreadsheet. I also had an app to make for our district's Summer Institute for Instructional Innovation. I also had a budget of $0. Last year, I used Awesome Table - perfectly functional, searchable by credit type, and easy. But I will admit - I was lured to Glide because it provided something more: visual pizzazz! So I dove in. I mean, I already had the spreadsheet with the data required to get started. Glide builds the apps from a spreadsheet with a little bit of creative scripting - which they provide! You just need to find the right functions for your app's purpose. Reason number 327 why I love a spreadsheet. So one morning, while I worked at home as carpet was being installed (thanks Hurricane Florence - repairs may actually be completed before the next hurricane hits our town) I started to play with Glide. I was super impressed with how easy it was! Spreadsheets are magical. I was also delighted with how speedy and just all around supportive their tech support was - I asked a ton of questions and they were so helpful. I could tell that they were passionate about their product. I created my own image files using Canva so that the images in my app were unique to the content I was sharing and the color scheme of our event. I also had the event team try it out. They felt it was easy to navigate and helped me identify glitches and helped me troubleshoot when it didn't work - and it didn't at times. But all I needed to do was make the edit on my end and the end user's experience was promptly up to date (with a refresh on their end, of course) One of my favorite things about working with new technology services is that they often add new features in those early stages - this was no different. Once I made the app, they added another feature so I tried it out. It ended up not working as I thought (it worked correctly, I might add - just didn't work for my purpose) and I was able to easily delete the info and my app was beautiful again! I am not going to lie: Creating this app made me feel like a rockstar. The end product not only was a useful tool for our attendees, it looked great! It also let me know how many people had used it! I needed that affirmation that my work was useful. It's good to know that my efforts were not in vain. Below are some screenshots of what I created with Glide. You can access the app here: https://nhcssi2019.glideapp.io
Feel free to take it for a spin! Better yet - get on over to Glide, log in with your Google account, and make your own app!
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AuthorJeannie Timken Archives
March 2023
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