Week 5: Gathering Inspiration Part II

Learning from users, experts and online research

Last week you created a Google Doc (Sample) that listed the main questions that you have, the people you need to talk to, and the websites that might help you answer the questions that you have. This week you are going to talk about this Google Doc with your mentor and Bill and then begin your research.

I. Mentor Check-In

It is often helpful to get feedback and additional insights when we start to look at a problem. For this week, make a time to talk with your mentor about the issue that you are interested in and show them the Google Doc that you have developed. In addition, you will have the chance to talk with Bill by phone to further define the problem that you want to work on and the research that you need to do.

II. Interviews and Research

After you have brainstormed your questions, defined the users and experts related to your topic, found inspiring websites and talked with your mentors it is time to do some research.

First, you will need to talk to people about the issue that you are working on. You should talk to people that are your target audience (users) and also people who are experts in the area that you are working on. Let´s use Grant and AK as an example:

Grant and AK are looking at the question ¨How might we facilitate interaction between kids from diverse socioeconomic groups that might not interact otherwise?¨ To do this this will need to talk with their target audience (high school students) and experts, such as people from Breakthrough or Live Oak that are already working on this issue. They will also need to keep in mind that when talking with their target audience they should select students from many socioeconomic groups, not just one, since they are working to facilitate interaction between groups.

Second, you will need to find websites that will both inspire you as well as give you related information about your topic. Let´s use Leah as an example:

Leah is looking at the question ¨How might we change the school credit curriculum/let students build their own curriculum?¨ To help her with this, she might visit sites such as Hundred.org and look at Project Defy which seeks to build a culture of self learning. Or, she may try to learn more about the Sudbury Valley school where students design their own curriculum.

When you are conducting your interviews and doing your online research you will want to capture what you learn. You can do this by writing things down in a notebook or on your computer, or by voice recording your interviews with your phone and listening later to pull out relevant details. The example below from IDEO gives you one idea how you might capture your observations.

From the Design Thinking for Educators toolkit: https://www.ideo.com/post/design-thinking-for-educators

Assignment:

For this weeks assignment you will need to do three things:

By Sunday, October 15:

1. Speak with your mentor about the Google Doc you created which has your questions, key people to talk to and key websites to visit.
2. Schedule a time to talk with Bill about your project (see your email for how to schedule this).
3. Interview the people you listed, visit the websites you mentioned and write down your observations and what you learned to use for the next step.