Interns with the Microsoft Garage program came up with a very unique way to help students with learning disabilities. This was a particular point of interest for Claudia Vormbaum, one of the interns who deals with academic difficulties due to ADHD. For many people it is difficult to know where to start when writing a paper. However, Write Ideas gives the student questions to prompt ideas and know how to start the writing process. Moreover, the app gives a basic outline for the thoughts that you generate, so that you do not have a blank page. Mike Tholfsen, the program manager for the education team at Microsoft, pitched this idea to the interns who then took the project and added their own taste to it. In Tholfsen’s words, “They went way beyond the original prototype and what we expected.” The most satisfying part of the whole process for Vormbaum was watching everything come together from start to finish. She said that this app would have been very helpful to her while writing and dealing with earlier struggles.
This is such a great idea. Personally I have always struggled with beginning portion of writing, just getting the first sentence down is always the most daunting part of a paper. I think it is interesting that Microsoft is not just providing a workshop to write a paper, but is actually helping you become a better righter through using their software. I think this is a great feature which proves Microsoft is not only keeping up with its customers but is still a leader in innovation.
This really is such a good idea. I know for me personally writing has never been my strong suit. I would find great use with this app and what it has to offer me. I like how it just doesn’t give you topics but asks you questions to spark your mind. It is engaging you mentally to come up with the idea yourself!
While Write Ideas is certainly an interesting and impactful idea in itself, I find Microsoft Garage to be a much more fascinating concept. Microsoft itself being such a monumental and expansive company, it is impressive to see how they manage to offload and promote experimental projects using Microsoft Garage. As a sort of incubator, the program fantastically allows Microsoft to build new projects and foster entrepreneurship, without any harm or risk to their larger business model.