Vidrio

Vidrio is a web conferencing app for schools. Unlike Zoom, we don't force teachers to choose between impersonal all-class lectures and isolating break-out-rooms; we create real classrooms instead!

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Inspiration

We were honestly inspired by the overall negative experiences we have collectively shared during our time remote-learning. Zoom is better than nothing, however, classes taught through the app are either impersonal and isolating or overly hectic. We wanted to create a virtual learning experience where students felt like they were back in the classroom.

What it does

Vidrio allows students to move around and get personal. Each student has a video screen that they can place around different table locations. Similar to really being in a classroom, students can only hear the other students around their same table, but can still see the whole classroom and are free to move to other tables to ask their friends questions, switch group, or privately speak with the instructor. The teacher can address the class all at once or table by table, but never has to sacrifice keeping an eye on their students just to speak with one group at a time. Moreover, with screen sharing capabilities, students can look over their teacher's shared notes and each others work at the same time. Essentially, this app makes it look, feel, and function that students are back in the classroom.

How we built it

We built this application using HTML, CSS, sass, Javascript, twilio, Node.js. socket.io, python, flask, Google Classroom API, and Heroku.

Challenges we ran into

We knew how to use very few of the tools that ended up being integral to our project. We did not know how to use twilio, Node.js, or socket.io going into this project and did not have a great grasp on Javascript either. It was very hard to make one person's moving video screen appear on another persons computer.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are firstly proud to have competed in all of our first Hackathon. More than that however, we thought of an idea and went about completing it they way we believed a professional programmer would have. We were not afraid to move past our comfort zone in an attempt to create something truly great.

What we learned

We learned how to use twilio, Node.js, socket.io, Google Classroom API, and because much more familiar with all aspects of full stack programming.

What's next for Vidrio

We want to fully flesh out our app. We are proud of what we accomplished but we still have a ways to go until we have a finished product.

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