In week four, my team and I worked on the Experimentation Phase of our Design Thinking project. As usual, we communicated through text, phone calls, emails, and on our shared Google doc checklist. We also met in person and through Google Hangouts. We did not encounter any problems this week and I think this part went really well. I wouldn’t make any changes in our approach this week.
We began this phase by revisiting our newly revised focus question of: How might we provide all students access to online homework? We mulled this question over and concluded that one possible solution we wanted to experiment with was putting internet capable devices in the hands of all students through a 1:1 Program. As we discussed this process, it became clear that some districts have fared much better than others while implementing such a program. I work in a district, which has seen mostly great success (along with some setbacks) in our 1:1 roll out, which is now in the fourth year of implementation and not set for completion for a two more years. We decided that before jumping to the portion of a 1:1 program where students have access to their internet capable device to do homework we needed to back up the bus and look at what makes a 1:1 program successful. We determined that providing districts with a Guide to a 1:1 Program would be beneficial in helping districts be successful if they choose to go down this road.
Our prototype had emerged and we set to work interviewing key personnel in schools that have seen success with 1:1 programs. My team members and I asked:
We shared this prototype with our colleagues and are awaiting feedback. Once our feedback is collected we will reflect upon it and determine any necessary changes or additions. Stay tuned for this update!
We went through this process under the assumption that our cohort (future district leaders) were actually the district leaders wishing to implement a 1:1 program. If we actually had presented this to end users I think the process would have been very similar. In order to create our prototype we used the very same 21st Century Skills of collaboration that we wish to foster in our students. We had to set-aside our judgement in order to be open to looking into possible solutions to our problem. We had to ask lots of questions in order to gain knowledge so that e might create product that would meet the end users need.
We began this phase by revisiting our newly revised focus question of: How might we provide all students access to online homework? We mulled this question over and concluded that one possible solution we wanted to experiment with was putting internet capable devices in the hands of all students through a 1:1 Program. As we discussed this process, it became clear that some districts have fared much better than others while implementing such a program. I work in a district, which has seen mostly great success (along with some setbacks) in our 1:1 roll out, which is now in the fourth year of implementation and not set for completion for a two more years. We decided that before jumping to the portion of a 1:1 program where students have access to their internet capable device to do homework we needed to back up the bus and look at what makes a 1:1 program successful. We determined that providing districts with a Guide to a 1:1 Program would be beneficial in helping districts be successful if they choose to go down this road.
Our prototype had emerged and we set to work interviewing key personnel in schools that have seen success with 1:1 programs. My team members and I asked:
- What worked?
- What didn’t work?
- If you could go back a do something differently how would you do it?
- What advice do you have for others seeking to implement 1:1 programs?
We shared this prototype with our colleagues and are awaiting feedback. Once our feedback is collected we will reflect upon it and determine any necessary changes or additions. Stay tuned for this update!
We went through this process under the assumption that our cohort (future district leaders) were actually the district leaders wishing to implement a 1:1 program. If we actually had presented this to end users I think the process would have been very similar. In order to create our prototype we used the very same 21st Century Skills of collaboration that we wish to foster in our students. We had to set-aside our judgement in order to be open to looking into possible solutions to our problem. We had to ask lots of questions in order to gain knowledge so that e might create product that would meet the end users need.