madebydouglas-blog

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Process Journal: Process Reflection

The design process is very helpful in keeping creative teams on track and moving forward to find solutions. There are different challenges for individual creative work and team creative work, and the design process helps both in different ways. 

For the individual, it keeps a person motivated and gives them guidelines when they might otherwise feel stuck. Its helpful to go back and look at the stages so remind oneself what they should be focusing on at this moment and what they need to do to move forward. It also helps prevent someone from getting stuck on one stage for too long and remind them to move onward.

For teams, it gives a team focus and direction in the chaos. Juggling the ambiguity of a creative project and trying to do something new while also coming at it with different perspectives from teammates is very challenging and it would be even easier for teams to get lost or focus on certain aspects of a problem and not move forward with out a process that guides everyone along. Its almost like the law, or constitution, which sits above everyone’s opinions, so that teams can move forward together.

When thinking about the 7 step design process we used, I think its helpful some stages are well defined but its also a bit verbose. To me, it seems the core important steps are Analyze, Define, Ideate, and Implement. That expresses the constant flow of a design project which expands and contracts, like the double diamond approach. You really can do design work without analyzing the situation, seeing what approaches are there, and then understanding the problem well enough to define an accurate problem statement. That is really the crux of good design, truly understanding the problem. If you don’t get this right, everything else will be off. Then once this is done, you can move forward to come up with lots of ideas and ultimately implement them. Afterwards, do it again, test, iterate, and improve the solution. All of this depends on a solid understanding of the problem to begin with.

While I appreciate the added details of the other steps, and they are important to think about, they seem not quite as practically important. For example, the Accept Stage is really prep for the Analyze Stage, and inferred when anyone starts any project. The Select Stage, likewise, is essentially the beginning of the Implement Stage. I do appreciate the added details here on the process itself to pick an idea, but its basically how do we implement the best solution. Finally, evaluating is critically important, but it could also be assumed and implied in all the steps that we will go back to previous stages in an interactive process. Thats just part of the design process.

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Process Journal: Evaluation

We used a number of techniques and approaches over the various stages of the project. As it comes to the end, the final stages of implementation and evaluation we can review and see what was effective particularly in the implementation stage.

For implementation we met several times on zoom to sync up and then would hand off specific tasks to team members. In this way we divided and conquered to get all the tasks done. We would sync up when we needed help or to check in on others status. This proved effective if one of us got stuck creatively we could bounce ideas off each other and then come up with new solutions together.

To assess all the stages of the project, lets look back through them all and see how things progressed. There are 7 stages to the design process which we followed, Acceptance, Analysis, Definition, Ideation, Selection, Implementation, and Evaluation.

For acceptance we simply prepared for the task ahead, analysis we sought out all kinds of information which might be helpful in just understanding the problem. Then we defined the problem and focused in on what we would be trying to solve. Afterwards, for ideation, we expanded divergently again to come up with all kinds of possible solutions. Then we narrowed again, picked a few options, did further research and got more feedback, and picked just one solution to pursue. Then we began to think how to implement it and build prototypes and concepts and test them along the way to see what is working. This implementation stage has parts that are both divergent and convergent.

One thing I noticed looking back, we probably could have done more research in the selection and implementation stage. We did lots of research to define the problem, but more research and testing could help us iterate the solution faster in the future. Also with this evaluation page more outside evaluation on the solution would be helpful. We are planning to do this next.

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Process Journal: Implementation

We discussed implementation strategy together on zoom and talked through the various parts of the business model canvas. We let our business expert Oliver do the first draft of the business model canvas and then talked it over. We then added our own personal ideas and added pictures and other content to add detail to the ideas and prepare for what wireframes or content we might create in the next stage. After some individual time we came again to discuss what everyone had and summarized the results in a presentation. We put this in Prezi for extra presenting effect. Some of the interesting ideas were on how we might monetize the idea and which stages we should focus on first to get traction the soonest.

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Process Journal: Choosing a Solution

We got together on zoom and reflected on the feedback from class on our 5 suggested solutions. We used the storyboard and discussed different ideas and combination of ideas. We then talked with teachers we knew and sent out surveys to gather more information. We also researched competitors in the space to see where we could contribute something new. This provided new insights and we went back to discussing further combinations of ideas.

Finally another zoom call and more chats and discussion we were close to an idea but it was still hard to define. Lots of things already existed, so making another platform with material for teachers to learn didn't seem useful. So we decided to instead make a platform that consolidates and organizes all the various technology options. It connects with your school and gives teachers and administrators personal recommendations on what solutions already exist and how to integrate them. See a prototype below.

https://sketch.cloud/s/MGZ7z/a/Ldoax5/play

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Process Journal: Ideation

The methods we used included using storyboard to write sticky notes of ideas together while on a zoom call. We did an initial zoom call, placed stickies, then we worked independently to come up with more ideas and add them to the board. We called again to sync and check on progress. We also organized the different ideas that had similar topics. Then we called a 3rd time to compare and analyze the different options and narrow them down to 5 choices for class. So we did group and solo brainstorming. Some of the ideas include virtual assistants to help teachers, a platform with training material for all software tools, in person training seminars, local experts on hand to ask questions as they arise, experts to help schools pick what technology to use in the first place, crowd sourced training material online, and partnerships with tech companies for special support for products the school uses. The standout ideas seem to either be an online platform for learning material, or partnership with companies or experts for on hand training. Maybe there’s a way to do both.

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Problem Definition (Group Assignment)

Final problem statement (decided after class June 26)

How might we advance the technology training needs of early education teachers?

How similar were all of the definitions?

We all hit on topics such as lack of funding and resources for the schools, teachers being hampered by low salary, classrooms being too big, and lack of training for technology.

How different were they?

Some different items that people brought up were the environment and temperature of the classroom building. Others included questioning the validity of standardized tests, the existing curriculum, and assessing school outcomes.

What were the patterns and what were the outliers?

We talked about different major problems and realized many of the big ones are nebulous and touch on several other factors such as policy and politics. Teacher salaries and school funding for example, require policy changes and we weren’t sure if they were appropriate problems to pursue within the scope of this project.

Problem Statement

The problem we want to solve that affects K-8 schools and students is lack of proper training and empowerment for teachers. If teachers even have access to proper technology tools, they are not well trained on how to effectively use it. The crux of the problem therefore is lack of proper technology support for teachers.

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Process Journal: Definition

Team Process to arrive at problem statement.

One of the major themes we talked about as we each consolidated our research was picking not just the biggest problem but a problem which we could have the biggest impact. This helped us filter through the many different possible problems to tackle. One area I still feel strongly is analyzing the curriculum, which we didn't look at as much, although within the context of technology training for teachers I think elements of the curriculum will present itself.

We all hit on topics such as lack of funding and resources for the schools, teachers being hampered by low salary, classrooms being too big, and lack of training for technology.

Some different items that people brought up were the environment and temperature of the classroom building. Others included questioning the validity of standardized tests, the existing curriculum, and assessing school outcomes.

We talked about different major problems and realized many of the big ones are nebulous and touch on several other factors such as policy and politics. Teacher salaries and school funding for example, require policy changes and we weren’t sure if they were appropriate problems to pursue within the scope of this project.

The methods and techniques that my group used to define the problem were Morphology, Idea Dump, Look It Up, and Force-Fit. First, we utilized the techniques of Morphology and Idea Dump.  We begin by breaking our sub-topics into more digestible pieces.  This included each of us writing down everything that was in our heads that could be a possible solution.  We sorted the possible solutions, compared the attributes, and looked at areas we possibly weren’t thinking about.  

My Proposed Problem statement

The biggest problem with K-12 is that the curriculum and structure kills creativity in students, does not properly teach problem solving, and demotives teachers from being passionate about their craft by over emphasizing standardized tests.

The biggest problem with upper education is a strong man approach to funding which leaves state schools without the necessary resources to prepare practical curriculum to prepare students for the modern workforce.

It seems both have money problems, the difference is with College top tier universities have figured out curriculum which works and puts students in the work place. With K-12, even successful people lament school and it seems there is not yet a curriculum in place even in elite schools which properly excites and unlocks the creativity in children and teenagers.

Notes and Research

Alternate Education Ideas

Musk sees a fundamental flaw in how schools teach problem solving.

“It’s important to teach problem solving, or teach to the problem and not the tools,” Musk says. “Let’s say you’re trying to teach people about how engines work. A more traditional approach would be saying, ‘we’re going to teach all about screwdrivers and wrenches.’ This is a very difficult way to do it.”

Instead, Musk says it makes more sense to give students an engine and then work to disassemble it.

“How are we going to take it apart? You need a screwdriver. That’s what the screwdriver is for,” Musk explains. “And then a very important thing happens: The relevance of the tools becomes apparent.”

https://venturebeat.com/2015/05/23/elon-musk-didnt-like-his-kids-school-so-he-made-his-own-small-secretive-school-without-grade-levels/

https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?referrer=playlist-the_most_popular_talks_of_all

Biggest problems for college We dont spend enough on colleges for middle class and poor students We dont demand accountability from colleges Graduation rate is low

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/opinion/college-middle-class-poor-students.html

Poor graduation rates Faulty incentives Lopsided priorities, money goes to the wrong places Willful blindness - no way to track data to see what jobs graduates get Restructure loans

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-biggest-problems-with-americas-colleges/

Biggest problems for K-12 Classroom size Poverty Family factors Technology Bullying Student attitudes and behaviors No child left behind - aka teaching for testing / standardized tests Parent involvement Student health Funding

https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/10-major-challenges-facing-public-schools

Funding School safety Pressure - affect on students mental health Discipline practices unhelpful Students missing class Getting help from ESSA act Supporting undocumented students Seeing past the hype of technology Tension with private and charter schools Electing better lawmakers

http://neatoday.org/2018/08/03/10-challenges-facing-public-education-today/

Kids not in school for enough days compared to other developed nations Lack of respect for teaching profession Lack of regards for the arts education

https://www.theedadvocate.org/3-issues-that-are-hurting-the-american-educational-system/

Parents not involved Schools closing Schools are over crowded Technology comes with downsides Lack of diversity in top schools School funding is stagnant Using outdated teacher training methods Lack of innovation for teacher education School to prison trend in urban environments Nationwide college gender gap High school dropouts are not taken care of No education equality Technology and cheating Is tenure helpful or harmful to teachers and students? What about year round schooling? Achievement gap How does school security affect students Improve assistive technology for students with disabilities

https://www.theedadvocate.org/10-reasons-the-u-s-education-system-is-failing/

“Despite these well-intentioned programs, including No Child Left Behind, Race To The Top, and the Every Student Succeeds Act, public education is more broken than ever. The reason, as much as we hate to admit it, is that we've disobeyed the cardinal rule of success in any industry: treating your workers like professionals.”

There are a few qualities universally ascribed to the best teachers, and the lists almost always include the following traits:

a passion for their chosen subject, a deep, expert-level knowledge of the subject matter they're teaching, a willingness to cater to a variety of learning styles and to employ a variety of educational techniques, and a vision for what a class of properly educated students would be able to know and demonstrate at the end of the academic year. Yet despite knowing what a spectacular teacher looks like, the educational models we have in place actively discourage every one of these.

In public education, if teachers do that, they are penalized to an extraordinary extent. Passion is disincentivized, as whatever aspects you're passionate about take a back seat to what will appear on the standardized test.

Until we abandon the failed education model we've adopted since the start of the 21st century, public education will continue to be broken. As long as we insist on telling teachers what to teach and how to teach it, we'll continue to fail our children.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/12/06/how-america-is-breaking-public-education/#67dd53007f18

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-little-hundred-million/id1119389968?i=1000372836942

Is it better to help the education system by improving the top even more or by helping raise the bottom? Should more money be given to the top elite schools or to the lower schools?

It would seem we should treat education like soccer and help the weakest link, but right now we dont, we treat it like basketball.

People need to think about improving the education system, not just donating to top universities.

Environment and Economonics play a key role in childrens education and must be improved.

The resources are not distrubted properly to provide adaquate resouces to America’s schools

The current education system doesnt scale.

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Process Journal: Conjunction Junction

The box I made is fuzzy and made of foam and irregularly shaped and fun to throw.

The box I made is fuzzy but made of foam but irregularly shaped but fun to throw.

My friend Ralph is tall and kind and intelligent.

My friend Ralph is tall but kind but intelligent.

My MacBook is metal and nice and shiny and works pretty well.

My MacBook is metal but nice but shiny but works pretty well.

The revisionist history podcast is interesting and educating and Malcom Gladwell is well spoken

The revisionist history podcast is interesting but educating but Malcom Gladwell is well spoken.

Silicon Valley is innovative and crazy and exciting and ridiculously priced and always changing.

Silicon Valley is innovative but crazy but exciting but ridiculously priced but always changing.

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Process Journal: Analysis

I looked on Google and found several interesting articles about the future of education and different ideas from STEAM to modern apprenticeships practiced by tech companies. The findings are helping me formalize ideas and think about defining the problem better as well as jumping ahead toward possible solutions.

Here is the group’s morphological analysis after we compiled all our research.

My specific notes and links are below.

Research Notes - Education Paths and STEAM

Non traditional education

https://response.com/non-traditional-education/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/will-traditional-colleges-universities- become-obsolete-180967788/ https://evolllution.com/attracting-students/enrollment_strategies/strategically- planning-for-the-future-of-higher-education-the-importance-of-non-traditional- markets/

Coding academies Online 6 months $6k In person 3 months $12k

Internships

Future internships may be remote

https://theweek.com/articles/545755/virtual-future-internships

Internships are key in getting experience to get full time role

https://medium.com/dreamcatcher-its-blog/5-reasons-why-an-internship-is- important-for-your-future-career-d398608ca973

Apprenticeships

For tech jobs and for manufacturing Companies increasingly report that “the jobs are there, but the skills are not.”https://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2018/06/05/ manufacturing_talent_the_future_of_apprenticeships_110281.html

California wants to increase apprenticeships by 500% in next 10 years

https://www.jff.org/resources/closing-gap-future-apprenticeship-california/

White paper attached

Industry 4.0 and gig economy Globalization, AI, structural adjustment, labor movements, all affect apprenticeships and their affects will be drastic on the future

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijtd.12145

Apprenticeships reimagined from university alternative centered on trades to alternative career path with greater breadth and depth.https://www.pareto.co.uk/blog/technology-and-the-future-of- apprenticeships-120742/

Apprenticeships should come back to tech jobs to help the skill gap

https://www.cio.com/article/3138042/back-to-the-future-apprenticeship-in-the- modern-era.html

Connects tech apprentices with jobs

https://www.peatworks.org/apprenticeship

Apprentice programs at tech companies help some become full time employees

https://www.fastcompany.com/40482650/these-top-tech-companies-are-hiring- first-training-later

Apprenticeship program with IBM for new collar jobs

https://workingnation.com/tech-apprenticeship-coalition-ibm-cta/

Tech apprenticeship program

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-world-work-apprenti/living-the-tech-dream- thanks-to-a-novel-apprenticeship-program-idUSKCN1P91CY

STEM vs STEAM

https://educationcloset.com/steam/what-is-steam/

Science Technology Engineering The Arts Math

STEAM takes STEM to the next level and added key missing ingredient: creativity. Importance of STEAM

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-importance-of-steam-l_b_9488898

The arts are crucial to engage of a person and get kids excited about technical things

https://leftbraincraftbrain.com/what-is-steam-and-why-is-steam-important/

STEAM related jobs will increase 14% this decade

https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/621170/critical-importance-steam- education/

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Contingency Management

1. Collective capabilities & team rules

Would like to set guidelines for meeting, being prepared for meeting to ensure they are quick and productive

Being honest about something that you may like or not like

Freedom to communicate honestly, no one is trying to hurt feelings, we all want to support each other

Rotate speaking so no one person is dominating conversation

Fairly and clearly divide work and responsibilities

Weekly rotation who is the scribe / PM

Rule: Agendas to keep meetings concise and on-topic

Rule: Clear starting and ending time for meetings. Make sure that time is clear of distractions.

Rule: Make it fun. When things get challenging, make light of it!

2. Reasonable and feasible goals/standards, team’s intentions:

The team’s intention is to disrupt the traditional education system, to create a platform to embrace a progressive/advanced learning experience.  The gaps that the team may experience are differences in background and skills, if we have a solid and deep trust in each other and in the team's purpose — we will be able to freely express feelings and ideas.

3. Scope and Team Expectations:

To stay within scope, we can stick to the process, schedule, and the goals we set. Each team member will carry his or her own weight and respect the team process to ensure everyone is working toward the same goals. If everyone understands both the team and individual performance goals and knows what is expected, we will succeed.

4. Rewards and Consequences:

Incentives for the team will be a celebration (possibly a meet-up) at the end of our journey.  If we accept the motto that “our team is only as strong as the weakest or least powerful person” we will understand that is someone is not performing, we will need to work together to uplift and guide that individual. The success of the team depends on the success of each individual member of the group. If one person fails, the whole team fails.

Team Norms

Respect each team member and the schedule

Communicate – No Questions or Concern are Invalid

Set achievable short- and long-term goals

Use Google Drive to organize/ Slack or Group Text to Communicate

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Destination and Journey

Douglas

We are seeking to reinvent the education system for children across america to give every child the resources they need to thrive as adults. This will require detailed research, focus from our team, and inspiration as we dive into a very tricky problem. I anticipate we will discover numerous techniques which others have tried already and will need to find unique combinations and also a plan to execute them to be successful. I believe I bring a number of expertise and contributions. First, being rather bored in school as a child and only discovering that I love learning later in life I wish I could change that for other children. I am quite motivated to improve an education system which has remained static for 100 years yet a society which demands more from the next generation.

Expertise

Design Thinking, I have done numerous design sprints and feel comfortable with the process to collaborate creatively.

Visual design, I know my way around color theory and typography, and am very proficient with Sketch, Principle, and Invision. I can prototype and iterate and conduct usability tests.

iOS development, I can make iPhone apps and am familiar with many programming and computer science topics.

Technical background, I studied engineering and so am familiar with advanced calculus, physics, computer hardware, network security, and other technical topics.

Entrepreneur at heart, I am a self starter and eager to try new things. I’ve formed an LLC, had several sole proprietorships as a freelancer, and am familiar with basic marketing, taxes, and accounting.

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PROCESS JOURNAL: ACCEPTANCE

Success in solving this problem looks like coming up with an innovate solution to provide to American school districts to make immediate change to their children’s education. We envision a country where every child, no matter their skin color, no matter their neighborhood, no matter any other socio economic background they will have equal and quality education. The education of the future will be holistic, engaging and challenging every part of the child. 

We expect outcomes to be immediate improvement in test scores, followed by higher college admittance and other education opportunities outside traditional means including online education and technical bootcamps. We see new skilled workers entering the work force as a direct consequence of this effort making employers think twice about outsourcing. 

This will benefit my portfolio and showcase what my innovative and leadership skills can bring when working with exceptionally talented teammates to create world changing solutions. 

This project means a lot to me, as I have never been satisfied with most of my education. As a child, I was often bored in class drawing characters and brainstorming ideas in the margins of my math and English homework. I didn’t fit in totally in the sciences or in literature, but thrived the most when I could draw and let my imagination roam. I wish there was more understanding, as now only as an adult I see my strengths where squashed for so many years and labeled as weaknesses just because they didn’t fit the standard mold.

I think this is a supremely important issue to tackle, as evidenced by the worlds most popular TED talk “Do schools kill creativity” by Sir Ken Robinson, which talks about how even “good” education is destroying children’s creativity. It will be very exciting diving into this complex and messy problem and coming up with key insights to develop solutions.

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CREATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING INTERVIEWS

Will - Marketing

Look at other people work on Pinterest and create an art board to see how things relate to that. 

Take breaks, do something different, walking let your mind wander get your mind off of it. Relaxing. Healthier to walk away for a little bit. Or seek the advice of someone else.

Process - have something written out

What is the problem? Whats the real issue? How do I move from problem to ideal solution and what change is needed to enact. List out tangible tasks to be done and re assess as you do them. Will always be more problems as they come up. Helpful to take breaks to get different perspective to help the process keep moving forward and not get stuck.

Ralph - UX designer

Ideas come when I’m not focusing on something specific, when I’m not working on something. When I’m running ideas come most, mind is able to wander and the good ideas come.

Too much coming at me always can have some input coming in and I want to consume those but those are obstacles to actually being creative.

Process

Thinking about what I’ve encountered in the past and thinking if current situation is similar and apply what worked from the time before.

For new kind of problem, zoom out see the 30,000 foot view of the problem to see all the things in context. Find the greater context in their life and see connections in that context. Otherwise might miss what’s really going on.

Emiliano - Engineer

In a relaxed state of mind to just think about the ideas not a pressing task or passing an exam. Breathing techniques to overcome mental blocks. Too much time on social media which got in the way of ideas, so focus to not do that. Avoid social media even when bored. Sometimes when you are bored you get creative to get motivated.

Process

Write down what do I want, because there are too many things I want to do. I keep procrastinating to the next week and didn’t measure how long it take. Now the approach write down  what I want and then break it up into sub tasks and write those down and take them down. Writing down ideas also helps solidify them and makes them more specific.

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Defining Creativity

definition for creativity

innovative, clever, smart, intuitive.

someone who can connect the dots between existing things to create something new.

Someone who keeps trying different and unusual things to see what new combinations can be made

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First week at USC

Just started the masters of Design program at USC, will update my process journal here.