Apps don’t just make a difference in our lives. Our use of apps can make a difference to others in some significant ways. Such as making someone’s dreams come true or even keeping a person fed for the day. Some apps are even for your own wellness. Coding can be and is heroic, in a sense. And maybe, coding these kinds of apps is in your child’s destiny. But first, let’s check out some of the existing apps that have significantly changed people’s lives.
Kickstarter: kickstarting a dream into a reality worth having
Have you heard of Kickstarter? It’s a crowdfunding site with an app. The premise is simple. A prospective person or business with the ambition to produce anything from a game to a movie, or even consoles and electronic devices, presents a video with a description of it.
Kickstarter requires you, as the prospective entrepreneur, to set a budget for the project’s production. If the goal can be reached within a certain number of days, you get the crowdsourced backing to make your product. Crowdsourcing can be satisfying too. In the case of games, you may even have a character with your name.
Some real success stories came out of Kickstarter. The game Divinity: Original Sins 2 gathered four times its required goal and turned into one of the most popular games of the 2010s. Thus far, it has been ported to three console systems from PC. It brought studio Larian Studios much fame and fortune.
Using the app means you get to contribute to projects you’d love to be able to experience in the real world. You get to be part of the dream the creators have. And that means you get to help it come true. Nothing is more satisfying than helping a great idea come to life.
Apple App Store
Google Play Store
TED: this app is a great idea
You can watch TEDtalks on your laptop, but the app has many valuable features. For the uninitiated, TED is about spreading interesting, thought-provoking, and sometimes life-changing ideas about any topic. Each talk is presented by an expert in the field in question. And “question” is the appropriate wording to use. Because often, the speakers present questions directly or indirectly about the subject matter they are speaking about.
What’s excellent about TED talks is that it covers every topic under the sun. Everything is covered, from insights into why work is not your family to how procrastination can be beneficial. But what’s most interesting are the talks you can watch on your tablet computer with your kid. There’s a bunch for aspiring young minds. If you want to encourage your child’s curiosity, these example talks will leave them in deep contemplation. Which is a good thing in our book. So why not inspire your young ones with some of the best TED talks for kids:
Science is for everyone, kids included — Beau Lotto and Amy O’Toole
Neuroscientist Beau Lotto believes all people, including children, should participate in science — and experience a change in perception through the process of discovery.
In the internet age, dance evolves — The LXD
This is a fun one! The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers makes extravagant moves on the TED stage to demonstrate an emerging global street dance culture. What’s causing this phenomenon? An evolution propelled by the internet!
A performance of Mathemagic — Arthur Benjamin
What’s a mathemagician, ask you? Someone who captivates you not with arcane words but dazzles instead with mind-blowing numbers. Watch one of the best, Arthur Benjamin, as he demonstrates his skills in a race against a team of calculator users. He’ll also guess a couple of birthdays. And he’ll explain the “mathemagic” behind it, too.
Hands-on science with squishy circuits — Annemarie Thomas
Bet you didn’t know that playdough has some serious electrical properties. Like lighting up LEDs. Or spinning motors. And turning your child into a little circuit designer. Watch these and other exciting talks with your child to stimulate their minds and bond with them while doing it.
Essentially, having the TED app on your mobile device means convenient access to some of the world’s leading thinkers. With talks designed to get you thinking critically about the reality around you, it’s too important of an app not to have. Especially since your child can benefit from the mind-blowing ideas presented in these talks.
Apple App Store
Google Play Store
ShareTheMeal: helping to fight world hunger
ShareTheMeal is from The United Nations World Food Programme. It allows you to help solve one of the world’s biggest problems: world hunger. It’s been so successful that it won the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for the program.
How it works is quite simple. You can feed a child for less than one US dollar daily with just one tap. They have support in over 30 countries, like Kenya and Rwanda.
The facts of the app are heartwarming:
- Over nine million people are being helped from hunger through ShareTheMeal.
- Together, we’ve shared 162,985,335 meals.
- The United Nations World Food Programme shares these meals, ensuring they go where they’re intended.
- It’s a user-friendly and uncomplicated app to use. Sharing meals is simple and will leave you feeling like you’ve made a real difference, and that’s as simple as clicking a button.
- The UN World Food Programme is a trustworthy part of the global organization doing its part to end world hunger — through your help.
- Your payment info is entirely secure.
- The WFP monitors the situation to make sure everything is above board.
So, what are you waiting for? Be part of the solution to a decades-long problem! You’ll be a hero to someone, somewhere in the world. And you’re only an app download away from being one.
Apple App Store
Google Play Store
Talkspace Therapy & Counseling: You’ll always have someone to talk to
Mental health has become very topical lately. It’s come up repeatedly; many people were made aware of how severe your mental health is during the COVID-19 global pandemic. People in hard lockdown got depressed with minimal social interaction. On the other hand, being stuck in a confined space with their families for long periods… in other words, “cabin fever.” It’s a serious topic. Maintaining your mental health can be problematic in our fast-paced, demanding world.
Which is why an app like Talkspace is so essential. You get matched with a qualified therapist with whom you can have an online session whenever it suits you. You are free to message your Talkspace therapist about issues as and when they arise. Generally, responses, within reason, are prompt. It’s actually within a service-guaranteed amount of time. So, if something terrible does happen that shakes you, you don’t have to wait “till next Tuesday’s session” to discuss it. Text responses can help you through the rough patch until your next session. And sometimes, that’s enough. Knowing someone out there cares enough about their clients that they make themselves available almost always to offer support.
It works by entering data specific to you and your needs. Say you suffer from the difficulties that come with being a high-functioning autistic. That data would match you with a therapist who deals with lots of autistic clients and has a great understanding of the condition. This means you’ll always have a therapist best suited to your particular mental health challenges.
Sure, there are rates that you have to pay. It’s not a free app, but experts deserve to be paid for their time. This could be a very convenient alternative to seeing a therapist in the real world, who might not be as well “matched.” The app’s algorithm helps you find the right mental healthcare giver.
It’s an especially great app for those living in out-of-the-way places like small mountain towns or rural areas like farms to get the mental health help they need when there’s none nearby. Nobody should be left to feel like there’s no one to talk to about their mental health distress. And this app ensures nobody goes through the pain alone.
Apple App Store
Google Play Store
Make your child a force for good
Yes, you can turn your child into a future coding hero. All they need is a STEAM-based academy education conveniently done once a week for an hour. Through live online classes, your kid can learn the fundamentals of coding apps to become a developer. So, if they have ambitions to change the world (and make their parents proud — it’ll make for significant bragging rights!), there’s only one place to go. With our expert, kind, and patient instructors, we make learning to code a fun experience for your child. One where they start as absolute beginners and, if they pass through our series of courses, become master coders.
So, enroll them in one of our Tekkie Uni code-related courses today because maybe they’ll be the change our world needs most.
