Week 5 of the Design Thinking Process was the final phase, Evolution. This week my team and I worked on the Evolution Phase and communicated through various google platforms: google hangouts (face to face videos), email and shared google docs. This week was a much easier week in regards to completing work and communicating with my team as it was my first week of vacation. We began the phase by creating a shared checklist through google docs so we can organize the steps of which we need in order to complete the phase. We began by revisiting our Design Challenge and we felt satisfied with the progress and purpose. We know some of it was less detailed than it would need to be but we intended on using our feedback to refine our ideas and improve the process. We also shared our prototype with several people outside of our normal end users through google forms. We wanted a fresh perspective from people that were not directly affected by our design challenge. Our ELLevate parent nights (prototype) was well received and appeared to meet a genuine need. We believe we met our goals because the respondents mentioned the importance of getting parents involved that normally do not due to communication barriers which was our intention. The feedback was extremely useful to us as it helped us refine our product.
My contribution during this phase was to collaborate with my team on the checklist and I helped identify and establish indicators that made our project successful and helped answer all other questions on the checklist. I also created our Pitch through google slides and began adding all aspects needed to pitch to our end users why our ELL parent nights is needed to improve student performance for ELL’s and parent engagement. Once I shared it with my teammates, they followed up by adding their thoughts, revisions and edits. From there, we created a video version of The Pitch. Some of the challenges was time and scheduling our google hangouts to collaborate. Mornings worked best for me but most of my teammates were only available at night. We also struggled with receiving responses to our prototype and survey as we only received 2 respondents out of the 4.
The evolution phase was a process that required teamwork and collaboration from all of my teammates. Full participation and flexibility helped us ease through the process and develop an understanding and the purpose. Everyone was able to not only answer but respond to the feedback from their own perspective and draw from their experiences as well. As a future leader I would use the evolution phase to help solve our parent engagement issues at our school. To implement a solution, test it and collaborate to see what worked and what didn’t. What ideas we would move forward with and which we would eliminate. An evaluation of the process and decide how our research/ideas can further evolve to help solve the challenge of parent engagement.
The characteristics of asynchronous communication the relaying of information, there is a lag time such as email and/or discussion forums. We have implemented asynchronous communication as we were working together to achieve and complete all phases of the design thinking process. As a team of 4, we emailed each other shared google docs that we were able to add or respond to at our convenience and deadlines we set. We have also used discussion forums on blackboard where professors posed a discussion question and students responded at different days and times, lag time. The characteristics of synchronous is a team that is working together at the same time and online chatting. We have implemented synchronous communication when we met virtually (face to face video chat) to talk about our assignments and our plan of action. We also chatted via google chat where we were logged on at the same time. Another example is adding to a shared google doc as we can all see each others additions and comments in real time. I believe a balance of both types of communication is needed to be successful in the 21st century learning environment.
My initial understanding of the Design Thinking Process was non-existent. I had never heard of it until I took this course but what better way to learn a process than to immerse ourselves into it by solving a real issue that affects student achievement and learning. I was also interested in seeing how each phase would play out step by step and week by week while working with a team in a virtual setting. Google documents made this process easier to work, communicate and understand each phase as it allowed us to work/communicate synchronously and asynchronously. Working online and virtually was not a challenge throughout this process, it was a strength. I loved how every phase depended on teamwork, communication within the team, equal effort, our individual strengths of each team member and the feedback of end users. We were proud of our end product but there was true fulfillment throughout the process/journey.
I also initially wondered how we were going to manage all the work in the time provided. When I looked at the high level of work required for the Design Thinking process, even though it was a lot, it this seemed reasonable to complete each phase in a week. When I saw all the other course work as well, I quit frankly had a melt down. My team (and my dear family) really helped me through this process through their encouragement, dedication to the process, and guidance. I am so glad I powered through and it really was the Design Thinking project that was the highlight for me. I wanted to see it through to the end and see what our end product became. The Design Thinking Process required high levels of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication and it’s a process that all grade levels can benefit from to develop their 21st century learning skills.
My contribution during this phase was to collaborate with my team on the checklist and I helped identify and establish indicators that made our project successful and helped answer all other questions on the checklist. I also created our Pitch through google slides and began adding all aspects needed to pitch to our end users why our ELL parent nights is needed to improve student performance for ELL’s and parent engagement. Once I shared it with my teammates, they followed up by adding their thoughts, revisions and edits. From there, we created a video version of The Pitch. Some of the challenges was time and scheduling our google hangouts to collaborate. Mornings worked best for me but most of my teammates were only available at night. We also struggled with receiving responses to our prototype and survey as we only received 2 respondents out of the 4.
The evolution phase was a process that required teamwork and collaboration from all of my teammates. Full participation and flexibility helped us ease through the process and develop an understanding and the purpose. Everyone was able to not only answer but respond to the feedback from their own perspective and draw from their experiences as well. As a future leader I would use the evolution phase to help solve our parent engagement issues at our school. To implement a solution, test it and collaborate to see what worked and what didn’t. What ideas we would move forward with and which we would eliminate. An evaluation of the process and decide how our research/ideas can further evolve to help solve the challenge of parent engagement.
The characteristics of asynchronous communication the relaying of information, there is a lag time such as email and/or discussion forums. We have implemented asynchronous communication as we were working together to achieve and complete all phases of the design thinking process. As a team of 4, we emailed each other shared google docs that we were able to add or respond to at our convenience and deadlines we set. We have also used discussion forums on blackboard where professors posed a discussion question and students responded at different days and times, lag time. The characteristics of synchronous is a team that is working together at the same time and online chatting. We have implemented synchronous communication when we met virtually (face to face video chat) to talk about our assignments and our plan of action. We also chatted via google chat where we were logged on at the same time. Another example is adding to a shared google doc as we can all see each others additions and comments in real time. I believe a balance of both types of communication is needed to be successful in the 21st century learning environment.
My initial understanding of the Design Thinking Process was non-existent. I had never heard of it until I took this course but what better way to learn a process than to immerse ourselves into it by solving a real issue that affects student achievement and learning. I was also interested in seeing how each phase would play out step by step and week by week while working with a team in a virtual setting. Google documents made this process easier to work, communicate and understand each phase as it allowed us to work/communicate synchronously and asynchronously. Working online and virtually was not a challenge throughout this process, it was a strength. I loved how every phase depended on teamwork, communication within the team, equal effort, our individual strengths of each team member and the feedback of end users. We were proud of our end product but there was true fulfillment throughout the process/journey.
I also initially wondered how we were going to manage all the work in the time provided. When I looked at the high level of work required for the Design Thinking process, even though it was a lot, it this seemed reasonable to complete each phase in a week. When I saw all the other course work as well, I quit frankly had a melt down. My team (and my dear family) really helped me through this process through their encouragement, dedication to the process, and guidance. I am so glad I powered through and it really was the Design Thinking project that was the highlight for me. I wanted to see it through to the end and see what our end product became. The Design Thinking Process required high levels of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication and it’s a process that all grade levels can benefit from to develop their 21st century learning skills.