The Teacher as App Developer: Rethinking Productivity in the Age of Vibe Coding

What happens when teachers move from using productivity tools to building their own?

Teachers have more productivity tools than ever. Learning platforms like Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams organize assignments and communication, while Nearpod, Edpuzzle, Kahoot!, and Wayground turn lessons into interactive experiences. Canva speeds up the design of classroom materials, and AI assistants like MagicSchool AI, Brisk Teaching, Diffit, Microsoft Copilot, and NotebookLM help teachers plan, differentiate, and create resources in minutes. More recently, vibe coding, where you describe an app in plain language and AI writes the code, has opened another option: teachers can now build their own tools, including productivity tools designed for their own classrooms.

As a former software developer turned math teacher, I wanted to explore both paths on one of teaching’s most valuable tasks.

The Task: Feedback That Moves Learning Forward

After every unit assessment, each student needs to know what they mastered, what they missed, and what to practice next. Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning, especially when it shows students where they are and how to move forward (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). For a class of 30 students, doing that well takes hours.

I completed this task three times: by hand, with Wayground, and with a custom app I built using the Artifacts feature in Claude. I measured time, setup effort, and how closely the feedback matched each student’s needs. These criteria reflect what researchers value in productivity tools: ease of learning, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness (Kipps & Jones, 2020).

Trial 1: By Hand

I reviewed each test, wrote comments, and created practice problems, success criteria, and a self-assessment for every student in a class of 30. I estimated four hours, but it took about six.

Trial 2: Wayground

Wayground made it easy to group students by the skills they needed and build a follow-up lesson for each group. Its multimedia features stood out: I combined a website, a video with embedded questions, and practice items into one engaging experience. I estimated an hour and a half; it took about two and a half.

Trial 3: Building My Own Tool

Next, I used Claude’s Artifacts feature to build an app that reads a PDF of class results and creates individual feedback and follow-up review for each student. To protect privacy, students appeared only as codes, never names. Including the time spent building the tool, the entire process took about one hour, which was less than my initial estimate of two hours. I reviewed every response before sharing it.

What I Learned

Building my own app took less time than I expected, while working by hand and with Wayground both took longer. Still, both tools saved significant time and offered different strengths. Wayground excels at rich, ready-to-use group lessons, and a custom app shines when every student needs a personal path. In both cases, my judgment remained essential. As Pathak (2022) argues, technology should assist teachers, not replace them.

My Recommendation

For individualized feedback, I recommend building your own app. It matched my workflow, saved about five hours, and is ready to reuse after every unit. You don’t need a developer background: vibe coding tools turn plain-language instructions into working apps, and block coding platforms offer another starting point. Two habits matter most: protect student data and review AI output before students see it.

A Look Ahead

The future of teacher productivity may not depend on finding the perfect app. Increasingly, teachers will design the perfect app themselves, alongside platforms like Wayground. Today’s teachers are not just users of technology. We are becoming its creators.

If you could build one tool for your classroom, what would it be?

References

Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112. https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487

Kipps, K. L., & Jones, A. K. (2020). Things are looking up: Using cloud-based technology tools in collection management workflows. Serials Review, 46(3), 215–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2020.1806646

Pathak, T. (2022). Innovative technology in higher education: Opportunities and challenges. Journal of Management & Public Policy, 13(2), 4–15. https://doi.org/10.47914/jmpp.2022.v13i2.001