lernapps.net — Vision
Small learning apps that work, found in minutes, used without doubt, kept alive by thanks.
This is the short why. The platform design works out the product in detail: roles, what they exchange, the experiences and the MVP. The organisation behind it, with its objectives, risks and capabilities, is described in the business model. Where they differ from this vision, they apply.
The problem: good apps exist, they just don't arrive
Germany's schools have a digitalisation problem, and it is not about Wi-Fi or tablets. It is about fitting solutions.
Fitting solutions exist. People build small learning apps for their own class or their own child, often in a weekend with an AI assistant: an app to try out fractions, to practise percentages, to play with probability. These apps help where they were made. Then they stay there. Nobody else finds them, and their makers never learn whether they helped anywhere else.
On the other side, a teacher has to take over a class at short notice, perhaps outside their subject; a parent sees their child struggle with a topic they cannot help with. They need one app for one topic and one grade, now. What they find wants an account, shows ads, or sends data to servers they cannot judge. Is it allowed in class? Checking that alone takes longer than the lesson. So they take the worksheet again.
Building got cheap. Getting an app into use did not.
What lernapps.net does
lernapps.net brings the two sides together.
- Adults find an app in minutes. They search by topic and grade, see at a glance that the app may be used, and bring it to their class or child by link or QR code. No account, no installation.
- People who build apps list them in minutes and hear when their app helped a class or a child beyond their own. They get guidance their AI assistant can follow, so the next app is built faster and works for others too. The app stays theirs.
- Learners try things out themselves instead of only watching. They need no account, and nobody knows who they are.
Principles
| Principle | What it means |
|---|---|
| Free | No fees, no ads, no premium tier. The platform and the apps run in the browser, so there are almost no running costs. |
| Thanks keeps it alive | A thank-you after use is the currency. It shows creators that their app helps, and it shows that lernapps.net is worth keeping. |
| No hidden data collection | Nothing is collected without people knowing. The apps can be used entirely without tracking. On the platform's own pages we only count visits, as totals, to know whether anyone uses it; no cookies, no profiles, no tracking. |
| Trust is built in | Only apps that run without an account and installation, and that send nothing to third parties without a click, are listed. Having no server is necessary for that, not sufficient: what an app loads is checked, not taken on trust. |
| Active learning | Learners do something themselves: try out, practise, decide. |
| The creator stays the author | The creator keeps the authorship, the licence and their own repository, and decides on new versions. lernapps.net serves a copy of every listed app under its own address and privacy notice, so schools deal with one provider. It does not own or change apps. |
| Open | Everything is built in the open on GitHub and can be read, checked and copied. |
What lernapps.net is not
- Not a content platform or an LMS. No courses, no class management, no student records.
- Not a certification body. It makes visible what an app does; it does not approve apps on anyone's behalf.
- Not a business. No one earns money with it. If it takes off, it may become a registered association (Verein), owned by those who fill it with life.
How we start
Small and testable. A first draft with the apps of people the owner knows: listing, an overview to find apps, links to pass them on, and a thank-you. Then a first group of teachers, reached through people who pass the platform on, without being told how it works: if they use apps and say thanks, the idea holds. What exactly is tested, and how we know, is in the platform design's MVP.