Be The Buffalo How a Simple, Teacher-Facilitated SEL Curriculum Sits Without Student Accounts

I realized that SEL/Character Education software was often too complicated or slide-driven. I also found that many of them included student accounts, measurement metrics, and graphics. I wondered why an SEL/Character Education application needed to have separate student accounts and metrics. I decided to use my UI/UX passion and redesign a curriculum that required no student accounts, no complicated metrics, etc. I spent a great deal of time asking end users (teachers, parents, etc.) what frustrated them about the current curriculum software. Complicated and unintuitive was the biggest complaint. So, I did competitor analysis and looked at the current landscape around SEL and Character Education curriculum. I made notes of likes and dislikes among the major competitors according to end users; then took that analysis and created my software around the customer pain points. I also kept a close eye on the state of ed-tech currently. A growing concern has been forming around tech in classrooms and the use of AI in ed-tech. I made sure that my application included zero AI and that it was a teacher-facilitated learning experience rather than something that students did alone looking at a screen.

One growth tactic that works well is free teacher resources that are shared on Facebook groups and have a separate page on the website. I started to do heavy research into SEO and marketing; then, I learned more about my target audience. For this application, the target end users are teachers, parents (especially homeschooling parents), school counselors, and social workers. All of these end users appreciate free resources. So, on the landing page for the application, I placed three separate resources that end users could access completely free, a printable, a projector activity, and an interactive story. I then cross-posted these free resources on Facebook groups, Instagram, etc. I started to create additional printable resources for educators, printed them, laminated them, and set up a professional 'set' where I could take professional images and videos of the free resources being used. Additional pages on the landing page were created for these new printables, and again, I cross-posted to Pinterest, Facebook, etc.

I don't have any complaints yet on the current app; however, I did have a suggestion. The suggestion was something that I had not thought of and was genuinely helpful for the app. I ended up implementing it in a day. The biggest complaint by teachers in general is that the current offerings are just "too much." Too many buttons to click, too many pages, too much content that is either extremely outdated or that misses the mark for students. Many of the existing solutions are slide decks (think Google Slides), and when you are attempting to "teach" a classroom of 3rd graders, slides are not exactly something that children are going to find interesting or interactive. They wanted something interesting and unique that children could connect with and enjoy. This is exactly what I started to design the app around, teacher-led, highly interactive content that uses all of the amazing technology that we have available.

Ed tech assumes that more technology makes the product better, but my experience is the opposite. Educators want simple, easy-to-use, and intuitive software; not something that takes a 40-page manual to understand. I understand that user metrics are important to a degree, but not every app that exists needs to have tracking metrics and student logins to use. This curriculum is Social Emotional Learning, the key word being "Social," meaning that these kinds of lessons should be done with others, not alone in front of a screen. The entire application was designed to be taught or facilitated by the teacher, and the children work together as a team or group to complete the content. If you take the "Social" part out of social-emotional learning, then it is just emotional learning without the nuance of human communication. Therefore, a child will understand the definition of empathy, but they won't understand the body language, facial expressions, etc., that are part of human communication and empathy.

Completion of the 40-week curriculum, growing teacher adoption, and strengthening school and district evidence, research pilots, and expanding licensing. The most important growth metric is research pilots and customer feedback. Currently, I have the free trial live for the first four weeks of content for the application. The limited release will happen in the next week with 16 weeks of content, and then the remaining 24 weeks of content will roll out on a weekly basis. Safety content will then follow.

80 custom interactive projector activities; 120 custom printable activities; 120 custom interactive stories.

I am a former application and embedded developer who came from an enterprise environment. I had experience building on-premises custom applications and software. I have also built learning apps in the past in embedded and gaming subjects. My first learning application was for IoT and embedded systems, and my second application is a game development learning application for K-8 students. I have been creating learning apps for several years now, so BeTheBuffalo was something that I could create, having experience in game development and application development for larger applications. It gave me a great deal of prior knowledge of all the different frameworks and options that exist to make truly interactive and interesting content for children.

My biggest mistake was starting the project as a large and sprawling app with student, parent, district, and teacher accounts. Once I realized that what I was building was NOT what teachers and counselors were asking for, I pivoted and removed everything that they did not want or need. Ed tech apps that are created for children 13 and under have additional scrutiny with FERPA and COPPA laws. I decided that student accounts were not necessary, and removing them meant that we no longer had to worry about student data, because we do not have or store student data. It's a win-win for everyone involved.