These days everything from the calendar to the internet has been converted to a mobile technology. Now it’s the school directories turn to make its way into your pocket.
MobileArq is an automatically updating mobile school directory app available on any mobile device or computer. It gives parents instant, portable access to school, teacher and parent contacts, saving trees and money in the process.
The app works with the other programs on your phone, so parents can email, call or text directly from the directory listings. Similarly, events can be imported into calendars and contact information incorporated into other, private lists or groups.
LocalArq CEO and Founder Niru Mallavarupu attributes 20 years of tech work and the experience of raising to children for the idea, but really, MobileArq could have been thought up by any number of people, for any number of reasons. PTAs will find themselves without the headache of committee-designing a massive printed book. Cheaper overall costs and a variety of innovative funding models — including an ad-funding campaign designed to generate community involvement and boost local economies — means that they’ll be saving, or even making, money, too.
Environmentalists will have reasons to smile, too. According to Mallavarupu’s figures, schools use 4.5 trees per year printing directories that are only valid for a few months. Even using conservative estimates, she says, switching to digital could save 225,000 trees annually in the United States.
Then there are the parents, who are the most obvious benefactors. Working parents tied-in to work and already living off their smartphones will welcome MobileArq as a convenient fit for their busy daily lifestyle.
There’s nothing particularly flashy about the product, just a smart, simple design that makes sense no matter how you look at it.