Working on the interpretation phase helped my team make meaning of the data we gathered from our end users and experts during the Discovery phase. We each told our story, of the end users we worked with, to build empathy. We collaborated through a Padlet which allowed us to share our findings. All team members contributed their piece of the puzzle.
The more we contributed to the Padlet, the easier it was to start seeing emerging themes such as time constraints, very limited or no access to the internet or to a device, technical issues, confusion or misunderstandings over online homework expectations, and how much time students are spending in front of a computer. As the different themes started to pop out at us, we started to group them. Using Padlet as our main collaboration tool facilitated the process of being able to group our “sticky notes” according to the themes that were emerging. Collaboratively, we agreed upon the categories that we were going to use to group our “sticky notes” that we each contributed to the Padlet technological organizer. Everyone contributed at least one “How might we…” question to our padlet that supports our thought process towards trying to find a solution to our social justice challenge.
My individual contribution to this week’s work included adding my findings to our group Padlet and looking for patterns and emerging themes. I was very pleased with how everyone in my group was adding their information to the Padlet in a timely manner. This allowed me to start comparing my collected data to theirs throughout the week, instead of waiting till the last minute to try to make sense of it all in one day. Although everyone works at their own pace due to other priorities in their schedules, for the most part, everyone is contributing in a timely manner and this really relieves the anxiety of having to depend on one another.
This week we faced the challenge of not being able to interact through google hangouts. Although this week we were not able to meet for a google hangout session due to schedule conflicts, we were very proactive in communicating through text messages, e-mails and sometimes even phone calls, if necessary. Everyone came through on their end and we moved smoothly through the week checking off our checklist. Speaking of checklists, that was another challenge we had. For some reason when we tried to copy and paste our checklist onto a google doc, we were having formatting issues.
Something I would do differently for next time is create a google doc with time slots and send it out to my group so that everyone can write their names in the time slots that represent when they will be available throughout that week. I think that if I take the initiative to create this google doc, it will increase the possibility that we will all be able to agree on a time to meet through google hangouts. Not that we had a bad week without meeting through google hangouts, but it definitely helps to all be on the same page, live, rather than communicating through so many e-mails and text messages.
I would apply this process with my students probably during math, science or social studies lessons. Students can go out and collect data, through interviews and other means, then come back and write their data on different post it notes. Then they can start to see what patterns emerge. As they look for emerging patterns, they can start to organize the data in categories that make sense. This process will prove to be very useful for students to realize root causes of a challenge they may be interested in solving.
Of the eight tenets of critical thinking, I found the following to be relevant to this process: open mindedness, deferred judgment, empathy, humility, questioning and reflection. We had to keep an open mind in order to approach this without any preconceived bias. We had to defer judgment while we went through the process in order to understand our end users. We created empathy through the “telling of our story” of our end users. It takes humility to go out into the community and collect data on an issue that is clearly impeding the success of certain students. Questioning was an essential part of this process to help us come up with the right questions that would yield helpful information. Without reflection no learning or growth takes place.
The more we contributed to the Padlet, the easier it was to start seeing emerging themes such as time constraints, very limited or no access to the internet or to a device, technical issues, confusion or misunderstandings over online homework expectations, and how much time students are spending in front of a computer. As the different themes started to pop out at us, we started to group them. Using Padlet as our main collaboration tool facilitated the process of being able to group our “sticky notes” according to the themes that were emerging. Collaboratively, we agreed upon the categories that we were going to use to group our “sticky notes” that we each contributed to the Padlet technological organizer. Everyone contributed at least one “How might we…” question to our padlet that supports our thought process towards trying to find a solution to our social justice challenge.
My individual contribution to this week’s work included adding my findings to our group Padlet and looking for patterns and emerging themes. I was very pleased with how everyone in my group was adding their information to the Padlet in a timely manner. This allowed me to start comparing my collected data to theirs throughout the week, instead of waiting till the last minute to try to make sense of it all in one day. Although everyone works at their own pace due to other priorities in their schedules, for the most part, everyone is contributing in a timely manner and this really relieves the anxiety of having to depend on one another.
This week we faced the challenge of not being able to interact through google hangouts. Although this week we were not able to meet for a google hangout session due to schedule conflicts, we were very proactive in communicating through text messages, e-mails and sometimes even phone calls, if necessary. Everyone came through on their end and we moved smoothly through the week checking off our checklist. Speaking of checklists, that was another challenge we had. For some reason when we tried to copy and paste our checklist onto a google doc, we were having formatting issues.
Something I would do differently for next time is create a google doc with time slots and send it out to my group so that everyone can write their names in the time slots that represent when they will be available throughout that week. I think that if I take the initiative to create this google doc, it will increase the possibility that we will all be able to agree on a time to meet through google hangouts. Not that we had a bad week without meeting through google hangouts, but it definitely helps to all be on the same page, live, rather than communicating through so many e-mails and text messages.
I would apply this process with my students probably during math, science or social studies lessons. Students can go out and collect data, through interviews and other means, then come back and write their data on different post it notes. Then they can start to see what patterns emerge. As they look for emerging patterns, they can start to organize the data in categories that make sense. This process will prove to be very useful for students to realize root causes of a challenge they may be interested in solving.
Of the eight tenets of critical thinking, I found the following to be relevant to this process: open mindedness, deferred judgment, empathy, humility, questioning and reflection. We had to keep an open mind in order to approach this without any preconceived bias. We had to defer judgment while we went through the process in order to understand our end users. We created empathy through the “telling of our story” of our end users. It takes humility to go out into the community and collect data on an issue that is clearly impeding the success of certain students. Questioning was an essential part of this process to help us come up with the right questions that would yield helpful information. Without reflection no learning or growth takes place.