Team

Gavin Cosgrave

20:41, Jun 20, 2015

Hi Selassie,
I'd love to hear more about what you're doing! Thanks for your interest!

Team

Selassie Amenorhu

04:00, Jul 08, 2015

Hello Gavin, Sorry for my delays. We are a group of seven (7) people from the Netherlands, France, Ghana and the United State. We got to know each other through the online course of NovoEd/ IDEO on Human Centered Design. We want to teach entrepreneurial skills (online) and build a strong supportive international network as a base for an independent future for refugee. The reason for this idea is that we believe refugees can bring along any kind of education from their past and still not always find work in his or her field when he or she enters a new place to live. But he or she can always set up a business of some kind. So having good skills in this field betters the chances of success. This will enlarge the chances of building up an independent and sustainable living in many different places (as it is unsure where his or her future settlement will be). Hence, we are challenging the status quo of saving refugees passively, the way we challenge the status quo is by empowering refugees to help themselves in a creative way by providing the basic knowledge and the support network to experiment with entrepreneurship. We think building a strong entrepreneurial culture among the youth can reduce unemployment. Currently, my team is working on step by step easy worksheet to guide young people and refugees learn entrepreneurial skills. IDEO and the IDEO community will be helping my team with the ideation worksheet. Will keep you posted of any development. Thanks for your response.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

17:37, Feb 11, 2015

Hi Ana, thanks for sharing!

I think that using Preflight challenges in youth detention centers and prisons would be great! The combination of much-needed inspiration (especially if the professional could empathize with the situation of the youth, ie a tough childhood themselves) and getting the youth to build skills would be awesome!

Have you heard of Defy Ventures? (link to website: http://defyventures.org/)
They have entrepreneurship programs for ex-criminals and have many successful graduates. One of their graduates would be the type of person who could really identify with the youth in these situations.

I'm excited to see where this will go! Do you have any ideas for moving forward?

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

21:20, Sep 03, 2014

Thanks so much Kedar!
I'll try to get teacher feedback up by the weekend.


Would anyone be able to talk, or ask someone you know for feedback about the professional/business side?
As a professional, would you host these type of challenges? Why or why not?

Team

Luisa Fernanda

22:06, Sep 03, 2014

Awesome convo and action items! Excited to hear the feedback and insights you get! You might also want to think how to get a teacher, a student and a professional – mentor – in one room/ video chat and discuss the idea at the same time. You might get different feedback if you have everyone discussing at the same time as opposed to individually. Keep up the great work!

Team

Meena Kadri

00:57, Sep 04, 2014

Can you tell that Luisa is excited by her use of 3 exclamation marks? :^) I'm digging this discussion too – and am loving Luisa's build on Kedar's fab provocations, around talking to a teacher, student + mentor at the same time. (!!!)

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

17:09, Sep 04, 2014

Having all three parties would be a great way to test it out!

The use of exclamation marks in OpenIDEO comments far exceeds that of the average body of text.

Team

Bettina Fliegel

Edited on 18:32, Sep 08, 2014

Hi Gavin et al. I have been checking the comments. Great conversation around the 3 stakeholders in your project and how they can be engaged.
I reached out to some folk in my network to see how they felt about the proposal as professionals. I did not mention design thinking specifically as the tool for the challenges. I focused on participation as a first line of investigation.
#1 - Are professionals compelled by your idea and willing/motivated to participate?
#2-Will they take the time to come to the classroom, share their experiences and set up a problem/challenge and follow up?

This is what I said via email.
"Reaching out for your opinion. I am helping a teenager develop an idea he has and would like to ask you some questions. His idea is called PreFlight. As an exercise to engage high school kids with real world problems, as they are exposed to different career options, the student proposes bringing professionals into the classroom where they can:
1)Share what they do.
2)Proceed to suggest a "challenge"
Each challenge is a problem/question which the students would work on, in small groups, over a period of time with their teacher as a facilitator.
Each challenge would be related to the professional's work/industry. The student also proposes that the professional return at the end of this challenge to review what the students have come up with.
Would you be motivated to participate? Why or why not?
If no would you consider it if it was only for one visit?
(I let them know that this is hypothetical at this moment and that I was not asking for a commitment to anything.)

Here are the answers I have received so far;
1)Yes - "Happy to participate as long as travel is local. Two visits is fine." Director/Management/Political Organization - Boston.
2) Yes - "Sounds great. I'm in." Physician/ Chair, Cardiology Dept. - NYC
3) Yes - Art Historian/ Museum Curator/Director- NYC
She had questions about time commitment overall and teacher buy in. She suggested looking at the parents of current students and the school's alumni network as resources for professional participants.
4)Yes - "I would do it. It's a good idea. Two visits is no problem." Surgeon
"I would be concerned about what 'project' the students would work on and how the teacher would go about leading it..... the specialist might need to be involved with the research input......"
5)Yes - Retired audiologist, Jerusalem.
6)Yes - "Sounds interesting" - Artist and Educator.
7)Yes -"I think it is a great idea! Of course. I am very committed to high school students being introduced to real problems.... it is important that they leave the frame of the academic world and are truly exposed to life problems. I think it is very good to have the second visit for feedback. "
Physician and Scientist -Medical Oncology/ Molecular and Cellular Biology, Cancer, Madrid, Spain
8)Yes - Professional working in the field of medical recruiting
9)" I would do it as a personal favor - otherwise I am too busy." Therapist and Business Owner. She stated one visit and email follow ups would be preferable.

There have been four no answers -
Reasons - Time issues and one stated she was uncomfortable speaking in public but supports the project.
One person stated she could only commit to one visit due to time constraints - Sales Director - Social Media Industry (She pointed out that there are business challenges in high schools in Atlanta.)
One - "I might be able..." Graphic Designer/self employed

If I receive more responses I will post. Hope that helps.
Bettina

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

14:53, Sep 07, 2014

Bettina,
Thanks so much for reaching out to your network! All of the feedback is awesome!

It sounds like overall, there is lots of support! The main concern seems to be time, which is expected.

One thing I know is that kids are required to take a quarter of Health in 7th grade and one semester in 9th... Normally, kids really don't like the class. The challenges could help that problem.

Do you think it would be a good idea for us to compile an empathy map similar to the teacher one I posted? I could start something and send it to you.

Team

Bettina Fliegel

Edited on 17:06, Sep 14, 2014

Hi. I agree that there seems to be overall support for your idea! (Sorry about the late response. I am in a location with very limited online access. I won't be able to review anything until later in the week. If you would like to do that sure, send it to me. I will post more feedback as well. )

Team

Bettina Fliegel

Edited on 08:36, Sep 15, 2014

More Feedback from professionals:

1) Yes - “I think it is a good idea. Better than just a coming in for a show and tell.”
MD – Specialist in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation, NY (would attend several sessions.)

2) Yes - “I would be happy to participate as a volunteer and I am sure others would too.” Environmental Consultant, Tel Aviv (would attend several sessions)

3) Maybe - “I like that it is more than the professional coming in and talking “at” the students about their profession. The challenge idea is great as it gets the students thinking and doing.” The spacing between the first and second meetings could affect the willingness to participate.”
Educational Consultant, NJ

4) No - “Many companies would also support programs like this. I currently volunteer at a pre-college program at The Young Women’s Leadership School of Harlem….They ask for volunteers through corporations as a one time commitment, but most people sign up every time there is an event because it is so well organized and the students are so well prepared by the school….. Also participants enjoy the personal one to one interactions they have with the students.”
“I don’t think I would want to sign up for something that I had to specifically present what I do.” Reasons – pressure to prepare and fear that her presentation would not be exciting/interesting, hard to talk about oneself. Would prefer for the students to prepare and to use her as a sounding board for questions and to help them explore their ideas etc.
Associate Planner/Retail Corporation, NY
http://www1.macys.com/store/about/community/index.jsp


The folk I reached out to are in my personal network. The majority are mid career but there were some that are just starting out, let's say on their 2nd or 3rd job, out of college or grad school 5 years - and some retirees. No real trend regarding years working - the no's included a recent grad, a retiree, and mid career.
18 total responses - (There is one below.)
13 yes/maybe
5 no
and I would be a yes! as are several others on this site!
If more come in I will add.

Team

Meena Kadri

16:44, Sep 14, 2014

Awesome feedback, Bettina!

Team

Bettina Fliegel

17:05, Sep 14, 2014

Thanks and I have one more good one....

5) Yes/ sort of - "It sounds like a good idea, and could be an interesting way to spend a few hours - one or two sessions . That said, I really don't know what it is that motivates people to participate in things like this. I could see being willing to do it if the appeal came from someone I knew, or it it came to me at a time where I was a bit less busy. ...... I tend to shy away from this kind of thing when I am feeling stressed about my workload.....there are not enough hours in the day....." Director of Communications/ Non Profit

This is the second response that indicated they would do it as a personal request. This could be important feedback if the program is to rely on networks built from within the schools themselves. Schools in more privileged communities may have access to different professional networks than those in low income communities.
Interesting that he brought up the subject of motivation - big question throughout this project.
Thoughts?

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

20:22, Sep 14, 2014

Bettina,
Thanks again for your feedback!

I think it is interesting and important to focus on individuals rather than organizations. Patrick talked about that in the early comments.
Organizations don't have altruistic motivations the same way individuals within the organization would.

Schools in privileged neighborhoods would have much more access to larger networks. How could we reach out to less privileged schools? Often times, in cities, there is a mix of rich businesses and poor communities. We could encourage these city professionals to participate with lower performing schools.

Team

Bettina Fliegel

Edited on 22:09, Sep 14, 2014

I think including schools in all communities in PreFlight's program is an important goal.
How to engage professionals individually if schools do not have these networks? Something to brainstorm on. It might be easier to reach corporations as they are already engaging in some locales through their community outreach. See #4 in the feedback above. I reached out to two people I know who work in corporate to ask them how these programs work - do schools reach out to them for volunteers or do they approach schools? Not sure if they themselves know and am still waiting to hear back. Figured this info could be useful. Perhaps others on this team that work in corporate would know?
One approach to reach individual professionals for PreFlight would be via the businesses in the areas as you suggest, and also non profits that work in these communities. They have board members who have connections in their networks for example. Not sure how receptive people will be but perhaps a place to start?

Team

Åselinn Heimdal

22:50, Nov 05, 2014

I believe that some of the people willing to do this form of commitment, have close relationships to the respective schools. I am sure that, by reaching out to previous students, who now are positioned in different jobs in different industries, would be willing to "give something back" to their old school. Surely I would.

Could each school create some form of community for previous students, that reaches certain criteria? That the schools create a "pool" of experience, in which they have close relationships too, that would be willing to guide these students into different career paths and design thinking. It would make more sense for the student, why they learn the things they do in school.

Team

Åselinn Heimdal

22:52, Nov 05, 2014

Being a substitute teacher in high school during my studies made me realise that there is so much I want to teach these students, that has nothing to do with that exact algebra formula or science project, but the reasons behind why they learn all this. What paths it could lead them to in the future. And I think your idea is great in the sense that it can lead them to a different way of thinking, realising at an earlier stage what they want to do in the future. I remember we had a project in school called "My future". I wanted to become a Nutritionist, with specific focus on athletes. I was 15 at the time, and I soon realised that whatever expected of me for being admitted to this study, was far from what I was able to do (Top grades in maths and chemistry). I ended up doing a bachelor in International Marketing, and I know that this is the perfect way to go for me. If I knew this in High school, I would never have chosen to struggle through those (for me) very hard subjects. It is a lack of knowledge among young people today. Still, most of my friends and family keeps asking me what I can do with my undergrad in marketing followed by an MBA. To be honest, I still don't know, but I'm sure i will find out someday. And when I get that job, I would gladly go back to my old school and talk to them about their future, and what opportunities they can get from choosing the path that requires the skills they are good at.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

16:33, Nov 06, 2014

Aselinn,
Thanks for sharing your story, that's awesome!

I agree that having school's reach out to their alumni network (also, parent network) is a good way to recruit professionals, and even adds a personal school feel to the whole thing. I think that, as a student, it would be cool to know that someone with a cool career went to the same school as me.

I think there is possibility for both schools to reach out to professionals, and for professionals to reach out to schools. I think that Preflight challenges are so beneficial for both parties... The challenge is getting the word out, and overcoming the busy schedules of both of those groups.

Check out the new website, and feel free to give ideas and feedback anytime!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

11:08, Sep 20, 2014

Thanks for your input throughout the idea, Shane!

Team

Åselinn Heimdal

Edited on 00:35, Oct 30, 2014

I totally agree with Shane. As a new member of OpenIDEO this is one of the best ideas I have come over so far. Keep up the good work!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

21:46, Oct 28, 2014

Thanks Aselinn, and welcome to OpenIDEO! I should have some progress updates soon, and a new website. I always appreciate feedback!

Team

Åselinn Heimdal

22:27, Nov 05, 2014

Hi Gavin,
Thank you!
How is your website going? is it up and running yet?

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

14:45, Nov 06, 2014

Just got it up!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

14:41, Nov 06, 2014

Hi Rong!
Thanks for the feedback, I just got the website up!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

16:19, Oct 16, 2014

Hi Paul! Thanks for chiming in and welcome to OpenIDEO!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

19:20, Sep 27, 2014

Thanks Pri,
It was awesome to see how much your idea evolved as well! Congrats, and have fun in California! Thanks for all of your feedback and good luck moving forward!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

13:51, Sep 25, 2014

Hi Jes!
I'm excited too!
We're working on getting a challenge going at my school. A good number of people have expressed interest in possibly implementing with their company or program. I'm excited to move forward. It was definitely interesting to learn about the perspectives of different groups.
Thanks for pitching in!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

15:55, Sep 19, 2014

Thanks, Diane! How do you envision prototyping where you work?

Team

diane walton

23:26, Sep 20, 2014

I have shared with people who work with youth service providers and await their response! I want to have two community-based organizations that serve kids with a job angle, use the model, see what works for them. Will keep you/all posted.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

08:54, Sep 21, 2014

Awesome, Diane! Thanks for taking action! I'm excited to see what happens!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

14:50, Sep 20, 2014

Thanks for your support Vanessa!
The next step for the idea is to test in classrooms. You had a great idea for a challenge as well as the way you would implement. Would you be interested in working with a local school to run a challenge, or developing training materials?
I'd love to get in touch, feel free to send me an email at gav.cos10@gmail.com

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

13:49, Sep 18, 2014

Thanks Rebecca, I appreciate the feedback!

Do you think it would be good to have a required teacher training on hosting a challenge? That would probably improve the experience, but it would also add to the time on their part. Maybe if it was just like a 1 hour toolkit pdf, something they could just read...

I like the idea of basically just having schools participate in OpenIDEO challenges. I don't think it would be realistic to create a new platform, but that would be an awesome way to learn. There are some types of challenges out there: robotics, Google science fair...

I also like your idea of having students present to each other! Thanks for the support!

Team

Rebecca Grubman

22:11, Sep 18, 2014

Hi Gavin,

I agree that a required training could be burdensome (particularly in person), but teachers will likely feel more confident and empowered to lead challenges if they receive some preliminary coaching and support. Rather than a PDF, a training with short and engaging video clips could work well (e.g. by topic such as 'Getting started--how to use the platform'; 'Choosing the right challenge for your students'; 'Supporting your students through the challenge'; etc.).

There is a platform I stumbled upon a few months ago that is similar to your idea. I'll get back to you if I remember the name of the company. Congrats on the challenge!

Cheers

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

09:28, Sep 19, 2014

I think short videos would work great as a way to train teachers!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

13:41, Sep 18, 2014

Thanks Kedar,
I've loved working with you, and I can't wait to keep going!

Team

Bettina Fliegel

04:52, Sep 19, 2014

Great job leading the team to develop the idea Gavin!
Go Preflight! Congrats all!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

13:40, Sep 18, 2014

Thanks, Leigh!
Your dedication, collaboration and action on Pop Up Bus really inspired me!

Congratulations to you as well! I'm excited for the next steps as well!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

Edited on 10:08, Sep 12, 2014

Vanessa,
That is definitely an important issue. The conversation just below is kind of focused on a similar topic; you might want to check it out.

I think there are multiple options for how "John learned about the program", which I talked about some below.
I like your suggestion that the HR departments of organizations could help spread the idea.

I think that it might be better for professionals to contact schools than the other way around. I think a school would be more likely to get on board if a professional said "I want to come to your school".

Maybe, professionals could sign up as a "Preflight instructor" (not quite sure what the requirements for that would be).
After they actually host a challenge, they could be asked to reach out to 5-20 people they know that might be interested in this initiative. They could share their experience. Even if just 2-3 of those people actually followed through, it would still spread rapidly.

The "Preflight team" would answer questions and help professionals and schools with the process.

In this way, it could start small with just a few professionals, and spread exponentially. The important part for using this system would be having a really clear website and resources to ensure that the challenges actually work.

What are your thoughts on this? How could this work with all the differences between schools and professionals?

Team

Vanessa Counaert

11:20, Sep 17, 2014

Hello Gavin,

I like your idea of the "Prefilght instructor", if this could be backed up by some type of recognition for the individual that would be great. I'm actually thinking about leveraging Linkedin for example.

I also like your idea of spreading the experience. I think the Preflight instructor could indeed talk to colleagues of different departments about his experience (HR could be a partner here).

I also agree that developing a digital platform (website, blog, social media) would be key to the project at many level (branding of the initiative, leveraging material, experiences,...)

23 hours to go... I cross fingers!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

17:15, Sep 17, 2014

Vanessa, thanks for sharing!

I like the idea of just certifying people based on experience. Maybe just like 5 years industry experience... I don't want to make it difficult or involve much effort.

Let's imagine a professional says, "Great, get me involved!" What would the next step be?

Maybe:
1) Contact local school and say "I'd love to come to your school and do a Preflight challenge. Check out the website to see what it's all about."

2) Then, the professional could say "I'm interesting in hosting x type of challenge because ..... Where could that fit into one of your classes?"

3) Preflight team, professional and school collaborate to determine schedule and specifics.

I think having the professional contact the school and working from there makes it more real and credible than some unknown "Preflight team".

What are your thoughts on that method?

Team

Vanessa Counaert

01:08, Sep 18, 2014

Hi Gavin,

It would be nice if participating schools would be listed on the website so that the professional can easily find the school. This would also participate to the creation of a network for teachers.

Cheers,
Vanessa

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

15:41, Aug 08, 2014

Aaryaman, Thanks for sharing! I checked out your profile, and I'm interested in a lot of the things you talked about.
The case comps sound like a great way for businesses to get new ideas and for students to build skills.
Also, I should have shared this in the research phase, but there's this thing called "Linked Learning" where high school students enroll in a career pathway (engineering, medical, arts) and take electives specific to that pathway. It also connects them with professionals and helps them get internships.
Check it out here: http://linkedlearning.org/about/

Team

Aaryaman Singhal

22:00, Aug 08, 2014

Hey Gavin,

I looked at linked learning. It's pretty cool. I know in my city, they had magnet high schools for different professions like health and engineering so it's similar.

I looked at your profile as well. I think it's great that you're already thinking about issues like this in high school and have a good sense of what your interests are. As someone in a business school full of ambitious students, I have to keep reminding myself that life isn't all about money. Keep finding ways to do what you love.

I thought I'd answer some of your questions as well:

What would be the best way to test this? Go to your favorite teacher who likes you. Give him/her a lot of context about what OpenIdeo is, this challenge, your idea, and how it was featured because a global community thought it was valuable. Ask if they'd be willing to try this. If they say no, go to your second favorite teacher and try the same. Don't get discouraged. Try your third favorite after that.
With "so many standards to teach" how would teachers fit this into their class plan? I know how high school can become all about meeting the standard. This is tough. I think your best bet is to start with a few teachers who are really good. The ones who don't teach to get their kids to pass but their kids do great because they make learning so much more exciting than knowing the right answer. Even if every classroom doesn't bring in professionals, even 3 or 4 of these experiences in high school would be great.
What classes would this go well with? I don't think there is any reason to limit this by class. But try to match contents to careers. So math and engineering, biology and medical, history and politics, English and journalism, etc.
Would businesses really get involved? I think you might a hard time convincing a large company this is a good idea right off the bat but you'd have a good chance of convincing one professional this is a phenomenal IDE (which it is!) and getting them to volunteer for this with their career.
What do you think? Don't be afraid. Go for it. Make it happen. It's totally possible. You might hit a person who stiffs you but if that happens, try to work through another person.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

22:21, Aug 08, 2014

Thanks for all the encouragement Aaryaman! I really appreciate it.
I'm actually pretty confident that I would be able to get support at school. My school is a smaller (120 per grade) and uses a project-based learning model, so they already focus on teaching soft skills and getting kids "career ready." I mentioned the standards thing, but luckily for me, that doesn't really apply to my school. Also, I'm pretty sure I could find some professionals, just in friend's parents. I live in a college town, so people are pretty learned. So, I don't really have any excuses! :) I'll keep working on it!
Want to be on team?

Team

Aaryaman Singhal

19:02, Aug 09, 2014

I'd be honored to be on the team!

That's awesome Gavin. My university curriculum is very project, paper, and group-work based. I think the group-work aspect really make the curriculum far more valuable than other curricula but projects and papers add a lot as well.

If you don't mind me asking, how did your school come to be used a project based model and avoid the standards?

I love college towns. I lived in one until I was 13 and my life has always been oriented around a university because my dad's a professor.

Team

Aaryaman Singhal

19:03, Aug 09, 2014

Also, projects and group-work go together most of the time.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

22:09, Aug 09, 2014

Yeah, so my school is a free public charter school started ten years ago. Everyone gets computers. English and History work on the same group projects most of the time, and there are about 6 during the year. The first week or two of each project is mostly just learning the content/reading the book, then the next few weeks are making the final product (could be video, powerpoint, scrapbook, website, trial (courtroom-style), speech, museum exhibit, etc) Instead of tests, we have presentations. We still write some essays in English, and writing is often incorporated into the project. There are mini-assignments throughout the project, and sometimes even one week mini-projects, but the biggest grade is the final presentation.
Math and science are a little more traditional, although there are a few projects in science.
For grading, there are like 6 categories: curricular literacy, critical thinking, written communication, oral comm., and collaboration. There are plenty of individual assignments, but the final projects are a group effort.
I like it; it allows for more leadership, creativity and soft skills.

Team

Aaryaman Singhal

19:15, Aug 11, 2014

Good to get that background from you. It sounds like it's much more "real-world" than a lot of other schools. :)

Team

Aparna Bhasin

06:32, Sep 11, 2014

Hi Gavin,

I'm brand new to OpenIdeo and am just getting caught up on the challenge. I found your idea both exciting and practical and was hence lured into the conversation.

I work with teachers and schools in urban and rural India, and have spent alot of time focusing on project-based/activity based-learning. One of the universal problems cited by teachers on integrating new ideas is the lack of time and the need to "complete the syllabus". I've found that integrated learning serves as a useful tool, and may fit well with the idea. As Aaryaman mentioned, matching the career/professional challenge to perhaps multiple classes; this would spread the time across multiple classes and the workload across multiple teachers.

Also would be happy to talk a teachers from a variety of schools in India on their thoughts and suggestions.

Excited to see how this unfolds :)

Team

Bettina Fliegel

07:04, Sep 11, 2014

Hi Aparna, Aaryman and Gavin.
Sounds like the teachers in India are faced with the same time constraints regarding fitting things into the syllabus as they are faced with in the US.
I did not read Aaryaman's post until now. (sorry Aaryaman) Integrating a challenge into several class subjects sounds very interesting. It is also lends itself to bringing in a few different professionals across disciplines as well. Very real world! Logistically this sounds more difficult to set up, unless the school likes the idea and a leader there pushes it as an innovation going forward.
Gavin - what do you think? It might be great to start to create a document with the different approaches to your idea that the community is discussing here in the comments. Prototyping will involve one approach but it might it be helpful for readers here, and for stakeholders, to see the broader picture as to what the possibilities are?

Aparna - It might be interesting to have a challenge related to education itself. Perhaps even a challenge around Gavin's idea. This is something that might really get the stakeholders invested. What do you think? Any possibility to create something like this in India? Sounds like you are working in this field.
For a high school student to be included in a conversation/challenge about his/her education might be very empowering. Thoughts anyone?

Gavin - I also have feedback from a few more professionals. I will post tonight!

Bettina

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

13:03, Sep 11, 2014

Aparna, Welcome! Thanks so much for getting involved in the idea! It sounds like some version of this idea could be a good fit in your work.

I'd love your thoughts on what would make this implementable for the schools you work with. It would be awesome if you got feedback from teachers!

Bettina, I like the idea of creating a document with possible different approaches for the idea. I'll get something going. The challenge will be having different approaches while not deviating from the core of the idea. For example, does it count as an approach if the professional comes into the class but there is no challenge? Or if there's a challenge but no professional? Thanks for your support.

Team

Aparna Bhasin

22:20, Sep 12, 2014

Hi Gavin, Bettina,

Thank you for the warm welcome. I also like the idea of creating a document on different approaches, of course you would probably need to set parameters in order to ensure the main goals of the program stay intact. I also have a few thoughts on what would make the idea feasible for implementation with reference to some of the education institutions I've worked with both here in India and in parts of the US.

1) I read somewhere in the comments on this idea the suggestion of an after school project, and the problem that it would cater mostly high achieving students. Along those lines, perhaps it would be interesting to target remedial education programs. They cater to students who are often defined as "at-risk". Moreover the reason that many students end up there is because they are disengaged from the classroom, and perhaps a real-world challenge could spark some interest.

2) It would be key to get the principal/headmaster/school board, or whoever the decision maker is on board. We've been taking a lot of new, different initiatives to schools accross India, and when the decision maker is excited by the idea, it seeps down to the teachers as well. I think offering different approaches so that it can be tailored to the needs of the school (maybe eventually and not at the prototype stage) is usually a big buy in point for administration.

3) Another thought that I have read somewhere on this page is partnering with other organization, for example Teach for America (and maybe teach for all which is the global entity). I remember meeting with an organization called Junior Achievement; a part of what they do is bring professionals to classrooms over the semester to speak with students, and If I remember correctly the same professional returns multiple times. It would be interesting to get in touch with them on trying out the idea, as they have the logistics already covered.

Just some initial thoughts, hope they are helpful. I am speaking with a few teachers this evening, and will get back to you with their thoughts.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

20:15, Sep 14, 2014

Aparna,

I checked out Junior Achievement. They look awesome, and really similar to this idea. Thanks so much for sharing! I sent them an email.

I definitely agree that getting school administrators on board is key. In my mind, they might be the ones to take the idea to teachers, rather than teachers directly being contacted if that wasn't natural.

Thanks so much for reaching out to teachers!!! I added you to the team!

Team

Aparna Bhasin

21:53, Sep 14, 2014

Hi Gavin,

I've emailed a couple of teachers and administrators in my network will get back to you as they respond!

Team

Aparna Bhasin

22:49, Sep 17, 2014

Hi Gavin,

Excited to see all the additions to the idea, especially the document with different versions (will send you thoughts on that soon). I heard back from a teacher who has taught in numerous different settings both in the US and elsewhere, and have summarized her thoughts below:

1) It would be very important to have everything ready to go for both Sally and John; including things like the project structure, the evaluation framework, the goal setting paperwork etc. For people who have minimal time available or can invest minimally it would be key to have a pre-packaged course guide to ease the process

2) And then stress that of course everything can be modified or adapted as desired by the teacher/principal/organization/student; as those with more time/investment would want this project to blend well with their current programming.

3) Provide individualized support - this would be essential for both types of users: those using the prepackaged and those wanting to re-design around their curriculum.

4) There are a large number of high schools in the US that are starting to move towards a career foci, with the push back on "everybody must got o college" mentality. These schools would be a good place to start, especially less traditional schools that would be interested in using this as a part of their core curriculum.

[As a side note she also suggested that it would be good if the names and images of the experience map characters could express more diversity].

Expecting to hear back from a few more teachers over the weekend. Hope this is helpful.

Team

Vanessa Counaert

11:34, Sep 17, 2014

Hi Gavin,

I like the following 3 :
- Classic
- Elective class (there is a framework and motivated students. Those 2 elements reassure me as professional)
- Professional ecosystem. I could see some additional benefit for the professional to reinforce the relationship with his stakeholders by going into the challenge with them (and it could only positively impact the quality of the challenge' outcomes).

Again, great work Gavin! I'm very impressed! ;)

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

08:43, Sep 17, 2014

Wow, that looks awesome! This sounds like kind of a combination of a few ideas here: Dave's Book of Lifelong (L)earning, Daniel's Delfee, Pri's Social Getwork and the challenge aspect from this idea.

Thanks for sharing! I'll let them know about these ideas!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

20:13, Sep 08, 2014

Sergio,

Hmm. I'm not a financial expert... The way I see it, the idea in its simplest form doesn't need funding. But obviously, it would need some capital to scale out.

I wonder if a partner organization could fund it. I have a few examples in Stage 3 of the Scale section.

What would the funding specifically be for? The human resources of having someone work on it and introduce it to new places? Marketing it?

What do you think would be an ideal partnership? Would it be better to have an educational org (eg Teach for America), a large business (like PG&E), a nonprofit (museum)...?

I would appreciate your input. Thanks!

Team

Sergio Marrero

19:34, Sep 10, 2014

Hey Gavin, Not a financial expert, but glad to help with the business model. The question I would ask yourself is 'who is paying for what?' Non-profits typically have a 'development department' that asks donors for money, BUT there is a push for sustainable business models from donors and investors alike. Even Teach For America 'charges' for their service. They recruit top talent from universities, train them, and help place them in vacant positions for teachers in school districts. Schools PAY for the recruit if they are hired. This funding sustains the organization along with the donations from beneficiaries.

So 'who is paying for what?'

In the Teach For America example the school district is paying for qualified and trained talent.

For this idea maybe the companies of the professions can sponsor the project and pay for the output of the students? I agree, these partners or organizations can pay, but I think they need to be the companies the professionals work in.

That seems like the most viable, but you can also have models where the students pay for the training, the school is paying for the coordination of career focused activities integrated into schooling (they are essentially paying for a portion of the schooling to be completed for them). This model is used by Nuvu studios(https://cambridge.nuvustudio.com/discover) where private schools 'outsource' a semester of schooling to a group of students. Also even if you are solely focused on fundraising donors are still paying for something, they are usually paying for 'impact' and want the outcomes measured in a representative fashion. Even if Teach For America funds a project they require rigorous metrics quantifying the impact and outcomes to students connected to their core mission. Examples of measurements of performance in this case are: inputs: cost/student, training hours /student, outputs: number of students placed in internships, total training hours, estimated impact to math and reading test levels.I know the 'donor' model is most common, but I would push to think beyond the 'donations' model as it is similar to most non-profits and there is room to do things differently.

An example of doing things differently is Teach For America, as I mentioned, the Lance Armstrong campaign a few years ago that 'sold' yellow bands to raise money, TOMs shoes that sells shoes at a premium to fund the philanthropic activity.

There are many variations, but as a guide I would think about the 'who is paying for what?' question. Someone is always paying. Hope this helps.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

20:35, Sep 10, 2014

Thanks for your input.
I agree that it's probably most viable for the professionals' organizations to pay. (I don't think it's realistic to ask schools to pay, especially in the beginning)

But who are they paying? Is their payment just the time to spread the idea and hold the challenge?

Should there be a central "Preflight website" or staff that needs payment for their time?

I'm still not quite clear on who would be receiving the money, or if there are necessary costs other than time to coordinate.

Team

Sergio Marrero

18:12, Sep 11, 2014

I would say that is up to you. Who is leading the pre-flight initiative with students? Is it the teacher? The school? An outside non-profit? Who is making the connections besides you? Once you run a pilot how do you envision making sure things happen continuously without you? Do you imagine there being staff to coordinate bringing professionals into schools beyond teachers? Software?

If you imagine staff in the school or outside the school or a third party besides professionals and schools leading the 'Preflight' project and growing it, then I would say 'Preflight' as an entity itself. If its an initiative that schools are leading and they are 'owning' it from start to finish then schools can collect the money and it can fund the supplies and teacher/s + additional support needed to make it happen. It goes back to the 'Who is leading the pre-flight initiative?' question and keeping it running... that person/entity would be who gets paid and sustains the project.

Another way to think of it is, there is an exchange every time something is purchased.
-You go to the store, get a bottle of water and you pay the store. The store delivers you the water.
-Schools hire candidates and pay Teach For America (TFA). TFA delivers the quality candidate to the school.
-In Preflights case, if professionals are paying for the project output from students, who is delivering the project feedback to professionals? That will answer your question of who pays to sustain the initiative.

Does that make sense?

Team

Bettina Fliegel

19:08, Sep 11, 2014

Hi Sergio. Interesting discussion here! Can you clarify what you mean by "professionals paying for the project output?" The way I interpret PreFlight is that professionals will come in on a voluntary service oriented basis.
Gavin, Sergio and team - Do you see the challenges as a means to develop an end product for an industry to use in some way? My reading of PreFlight is that this is a program to educate youth on their path to employment.
I am also curious as to whether you are planning to have "winners" for these challenges Gavin, or is the process itself the primary goal? I do not know what the culture is in high schools around something like this. Is this something you are planning to clarify when you prototype it?

Sergio - What is your thinking as to why there might be a need for a third party to be involved? Would that be for marketing purposes? As it is prototyped perhaps Gavin and team can develop a toolkit that can then be open source and shared with educators outside of his school - initiated by educators there, and/or Gavin/team - as a service to scale the idea. Do you think this would be effective?

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

21:02, Sep 11, 2014

Sergio, I think you raise an important question: Who is leading the Preflight initiative?

As I see it, the three options would be:
1) Schools
2) Professionals
3) The "Preflight Team"

1) I think the only possibility for schools to lead would be to have schools reach out to the parents of students and ask if they (or someone they knew) would be interested in hosting a challenge.

2) I'm not sure that organizations would be able to single-handedly spread the idea. I think it would be great if a larger organization could host challenges in a variety of locations where they are located. Would it be unreasonable to ask a business who has already hosted a challenge to see if they can get another professional from a different industry to join?

3) The "Preflight Team" option would be the most feasible, especially in the beginning. Their "service" would be matching schools with professionals (or schools with the idea if we wanted to use the parent connection model). They could help answer questions and keep things moving.

Maybe they could ask for some payment from professionals after the first challenge? I don't imagine that the idea would need payment in the early stages. I see the idea more like Bettina stated: where professionals volunteer time to do this for students. I don't think there is an expected outcome. Actually Tim Brown mentioned this: that if organizations go into the class looking for concrete and usable outcomes, they might be disappointed. If the come with the attitude to teach and mentor students, the outcomes might follow as a bonus.

What are everyone's thoughts on the three possibilities for leading the initiative?

Team

Dave Zinsman

Edited on 02:04, Sep 12, 2014

Hey Gavin!
RE: thoughts on initiative leadership

My advice is that your team needs to own it--period.

I see where you're at as not who will manage Preflight--the Preflight team will manage it. I feel like what you want to think about is coming up with the structure of different stakeholders, and how those stakeholders work together to create value. The first step to figuring out how to deliver value is understanding exactly what value you're delivering.

If you look at the entire spectrum of goods and services, it doesn't matter if you're talking about the provision of public goods, commodities, consumer goods, services, or anything in between--no good or service is sustainable if it doesn't solve a very specific pain point for people.

One way to think about it is:

Solutions solve problems.
If a product or service does not solve a problem, it is not a solution.

What pain point could Preflight solve, and for whom?

When you find the most compelling answer to that question, you will know
1) Stakeholders
2) How those stakeholders can be incentivized

Once you know those things, you can start to map out stakeholder incentivization, roles, and ultimately your value chain.
-----------------------------------------

Here's an example:

Take for instance a MA in Education candidate at a local university.

What are likely to be the top 3 pain points for that persona?
Probably something like this:

1) Make my CV as competitive as possible so I can work at my school of choice.
2) Make my CV as competitive as possible so I can work at my school of choice.
3) Make my CV as competitive as possible so I can work at my school of choice.

How much would that MA in Education student's CV benefit with this on it?

---> "Taught design thinking to eighty-five 4th graders at XYZ elementary school."

-----------------------------------------

The above example identifies how Preflight could propose a compelling "solution" for a very clear "pain point" that specific people have. If you take it further, how could you start shaping Preflight operations?

Think of building on the above like this

---> "Received a certificate of commendation from the principal of XYZ elementary school for exceptional performance in teaching design thinking to eighty-five 4th graders."

Do you start to see the stakeholders, and how to incentivize them?

Anyhow, in conclusion:

A) Your team must own Preflight.
B) You'll want to think about clear problem-solution as described above.

Hope this helps!

Team

Sergio Marrero

07:08, Sep 13, 2014

Hello All,

Great conversation. I think the three options make complete sense. I think a separate team would be great to lead the initiative as Dave suggests, but I think if it does meet core teaching standards and a template lesson plan is produced for the classroom, it may be easy for schools (teachers and administrators) to own.

Gavin, when you say 'I don't think there is an expected outcome', this concerns me a little bit, but I think it may be the way we both are communicating it. You might not expect a 'specific' outcome, like 'three students are going to become engineers' from an engineer coming to speak to the class, but an example of an outcome may be 'exposing 30 students to a professional engineer and the field of engineering'. Maybe the better way for me to communicate it is 'goal' instead of outcome. This complements Dave's last comment about having a 'clear problem-solution'. I understand it is unclear what the exposure may cause, but making a clear problem-solution with goals and types of anticipated outcomes so you can attempt to measure and communicate impact would be beneficial. You want to know how many lives you are effecting and in what ways!

Bettina, What I meant by "professionals paying for the project output", IF all projects are a group of students working to solve a 'design challenge' for the organization the professional is from you would have 'outputs' from that challenge. Examples can be presentations, defined concept areas, a list of ideas, prototypes with differing levels of fidelity, ect. I was suggesting that if the organization is paying for 'outputs' from the students to fund the initiative if you intent for 'PreFlight' if you anticipate you will need funding for coordinating connections between professionals and teachers, design challenge supplies for the classroom, ect. If you don't want to grow it or establish a group that is coordinating connections between professionals and teachers to serve the students and envision it happens organically and requires no ongoing support, then you would not need funding, but if you do, that was my suggestion for a source. Do you have other ideas for potential sources?

Just to clarify what I meant by a the initiative 'being lead by a third party' is what I meant by your third option of The "Preflight Team" leading, assuming that team is a set of individuals different than the school, students, and professionals. You don't need to do it this way, but it is an option.

As it stands it seems like more of a program teachers would choose to do or not do. Is that correct? If this is a the case, I love the idea of develop a toolkit as it would make it easy for teachers and schools to 'plug and play' into there work.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

Edited on 16:35, Sep 14, 2014

Dave and Sergio, I really value your inputs here!

Dave, I see what you mean by "your team needs to own it". I think that would be the way to go, especially in the beginning.
I like your example for an education student, but I think for the majority of professionals, the "pain point" is a desire for purpose and impact that teaching and inspiring students could deliver. If the professional loves their work, they would likely be motivated to show others why they love it. Thanks for the problem-solution tip also!

Sergio, thanks for catching me on the "expected outcome" line. I see that there is definitely an expected outcome. I'll add some metrics for evaluating the impact.
Thanks for clarifying the funding part. The professionals would be the best source of funding if that was necessary.

I think a toolkit for teachers would be great! I know there is already a design thinking for educators toolkit; we could build off that.

See my comment on Vanessa's post above. What do you think about that process?

Team

Bettina Fliegel

Edited on 03:29, Sep 15, 2014

Hi all.
Thanks for your clarifications Sergio. Between your post and Dave's the three possibilities for leadership are clear.
Regarding funding I did not consider supplies etc. Thanks for pointing that out. Needs would vary from challenge to challenge. If there is prototyping of objects that could factor in as a cost. I wonder if a local business might sponsor a program like this as they do other aspects of local school culture, like clubs and teams?

The conversation around output and motivation interests me as I have a different perspective here. The folk I questioned all represent organizations or career paths however they all also represent themselves and I believe when I asked if they would involve themselves in this project they answered personally not as representatives of their workplace. So if a friend who is a scientist participated he would participate voluntarily and come personally, not as a point person for his place of work. This is not uncommon. Professionals do volunteer in the community in different ways. I think that is a different point of view. So perhaps this is something to think about. How to include individuals and organizations? What benefit might each have for PreFlight? What might motivate individuals vs. organizations to participate ? Check this comment thread below - It seems to be a related discussion.
(Patrick Donohue August 09, 2014, 11:55AM)

Regarding motivation and pain points. Does one have to have a pain point to want to give back to the community or to youth starting out? Can engagement be seen as opportunity instead?

Great conversation everybody!

Team

Bettina Fliegel

16:54, Sep 14, 2014

Hi Gavin. You posted while I was writing! Your explanation of pain points in the context has helped clarify it for me. (see my query above).

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

21:54, Sep 06, 2014

Shane,
This past week, I talked with one of my teachers and our school's internship coordinator. They were both really supportive. I'm taking a journalism class which is pretty open-ended, so it was suggested that we test a challenge in there. It might seem like it's easier to get a group of students outside of class, but I actually think it would be possible (and even easier, planning wise) to go straight to the classroom at my school.

Actually, there is a senior project at my school in gov/econ where teams "start a business" (eg write a plan, do marketing, plan finances, etc.) I found out that our school actually brings in entrepreneurs at the beginning of the project to talk to students. It would be a natural next step to integrate professionals into other projects and implement other challenges.

I'll try to get a meeting with some students, teachers and a professional sometime soon. It'll take a little work to get a professional, but we're on track.

What would be awesome is if you found professionals that were willing to do the challenge every year; then Preflight could be fully integrated into the curriculum and you wouldn't have to change it every year.
Thanks for the feedback!

Team

Matthew Wilson

22:49, Sep 06, 2014

As nice as it would be to have a reliable source to get the ball rolling, I think it may be beneficial to have different people each year. It could expand the network of people available and create more pathways.

Team

priyanka botny

11:11, Sep 07, 2014

Gavin,

I was also thinking about integrating Pop-up buses - as classrooms and Preflight - as the medium in developing countries. It's simple and easy. We need to bring a team of cool processes to convey experiences and know-how to people who lack awareness. This time I will be in India for 2 months (Nov-Jan) and I wish to make presentations (paper) to women about hygiene conditions and the disease implications. There are also rural schools which lack facilities. It would be a good idea to give them the channel to make this happen in their schools too. The major impact here will be that the students by themselves will co-create their school learning.
How can you support this project? I will have little access to internet. Can we prepare for this pilot so that I can give you the situation in these areas and you can design a hygiene system for these women. Also have you heard of "home grown businesses" ? I plan to implement this in my trip. Let me know.

Thanks,
Pri

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

15:02, Sep 07, 2014

Pri,
It would be awesome if you could test this idea in India! What are you thinking? What would I need to do? What would we need to prepare? You can email me at gav.cos10@gmail.com

Team

priyanka botny

15:51, Sep 07, 2014

I did Gavin.
Lets test a pilot in the time frame. I can also talk to my team there.
I am thinking if you could design the course materials for women hygiene and home grown business awareness for these women. I can give you some useful insights about what they do, how they spend time and what they can do if they learn these important lessons and apply them to their lives.

We simply have to connect them to the women. At first, we can gather information on women hygiene and list all the low cost necessary things that she needs to keep in mind. The team here can act like professionals in hygiene for Preflight and prepare the hygiene program. I am specifically looking for constructing lowcost toilets in a small village (this has been a pending task for me when I was a student) secondly, the materials that they need for keeping themselves clean etc. You can do a research on this - I can spend some time with you in giving you some insights.

Let me know what you think on this and I can go ahead and give you relevant matching information.
Best wishes!

Team

Shane Zhao

03:39, Sep 09, 2014

This sounds very exciting! Gavin, perhaps Priyanka can be one of the first entrepreneurs that you can feature in a test pilot of Preflight at your school. In addition to bringing in business owners from your local community, you might also be interested in engaging with some of the contributors that you have been collaborating with so far on this challenge. Any one of these great initiatives could be potential examples of how Real world challenges can be brought into a classroom. Perhaps there might be an opportunity to engage with Priyanka or another contributor over a live video chat for the first Preflight session. Especially since you're also an expert on this challenge as well!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

21:32, Sep 10, 2014

Thanks Shane! There are quite a few people on the team who would serve as great professionals in the idea. Jeanne has offered to come to my school, and I'm working on that now. Priyanka would also be great.

Do you mean having a video chat with the professional instead of having them come in as a way to make it easier to test?

I think I'm finding that with this idea, it's difficult to do "small, quick prototypes". I think talking to the stakeholders is a great way to test if it's going to work or not, but the only way to really know what will happen is to test this in a classroom. I'm optimistic that this will happen soon though! I hope to at least have a plan for a real challenge up before the challenge concludes.

Thanks so much for your ideas!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

18:26, Sep 08, 2014

Jeanne,

Thanks so much for offering to help! Your email wasn't visible in your profile, you can email me at gav.cos10@gmail.com I don't know that much about the senior business project. It sounds like that would be a great fit for you. We can get in touch with my school's internship coordinator who sets up those people. I wonder if we could do a challenge in a different class, though? It probably wouldn't be as closely related to the curriculum as in gov/econ... A marketing challenge could be scaled to English or Journalism (we make and market the yearbook). Anyway, thanks so much, excited to pursue this further!

Team

Jeanne Callahan

18:22, Sep 10, 2014

Got it. I just sent an email to you with my contact information.

Team

Vanessa Counaert

11:19, Sep 03, 2014

One more thought on a different aspect of your proposal. What about adding the possibility of a summer internship for the students? Your project is a great way for industries to get to know the candidates and consider them for summer internship. In addition, such candidates would already be more knowledgable about the industry and so more efficient/motivated when they join. Finally it would be a nice way for the industry to show gratitude for the time the students have invested in developing a solution. What do you think? Again, good luck further refining your idea! Vanessa

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

Edited on 17:40, Sep 03, 2014

Thanks for the challenge idea Vanessa, I added it to the google doc!

Adding the possibility of a summer internship is definitely a great next step. Kedar at Gap Jumpers works with this challenge model for hiring. They have had companies host challenges at colleges that lead to internships.

The way I see it happening, there are different levels of next steps that the professional can choose, based on their interest.
The first level would be just online classes, stuff to research...
The higher level would be a job shadow day, mentorship opportunities or an internship.

Thanks!

Team

Luisa Fernanda

22:09, Sep 03, 2014

Vanessa,
Great share. Will you be willing to go into a classroom and work with high school students through this challenge? What will you require to do this? What end result would you like to see?

Team

Vanessa Counaert

10:59, Sep 04, 2014

Dear Luisa, If I were to go ahead with the challenge here is how I would do it :

1. Contact the patient association to put me in contact with a student willing to go on that adventure with his class (we would then address the user perspective I mentioned before)

2. I would actually use the design process and divide the challenge in 4 assignments. The students would team in group of 2-3 people to foster collaboration and value.
a. (articles to read + exercise to check they understand the process) - to be submitted online
b. research phase - to be submitted online
c. Ideation phase - to be submitted online
d. refinement phase - 2 days face to face workshop (over a WE)

For a, b, c, I would work with an agency (such as IDEO) to provide the students with the learning material and the guidance, as well as review their submission from a methodology point of view and provide them with feedback (all this off-site / online).

I would review the submissions from an industry/healthcare perspective (off-site) and my point of contact (as well as the student's point of contact) till then would be the project leader (the agency).

For the refinement phase, both the agency and myself would be on site. We would have selected the most promising idea and the class would then work together (and with us) to refine it and prototype it.

The agency's role could be replaced by the teacher if the teacher is familiar with the methodology. Maybe there could be some "train-the-trainer" online sessions for teachers or a "moving" specialised teacher.

Does it make sense?
Vanessa

Team

Kedar Iyer

19:36, Sep 04, 2014

Thanks for your expert perspective on how you foresee your engagement for a challenge involving high schoolers.

Do you already host any real world challenges with external entities/ educational institutes? If so, how do those interactions or engagement look like in terms of process?

Team

Vanessa Counaert

03:24, Sep 08, 2014

Hello Kedar,

I have been part of such a challenge as a student during my master course but not as an organiser. While we enjoyed being exposed to an industry we were not familiar with (and the company enjoyed the fresh perspectives), I have to tell you that the concepts we developed have not been used. The reasons are :
- too forward thinking (we got a bit too excited by certain technological possibilities)
- lack of understanding of the industry's realities and limitations

To dedicate resources to those projects, I think certain companies would want to have a guaranteed outcome, that's the reason why I suggested to work with a recognised intermediary that could hep develop the brief and guidelines, facilitate the process, and guarantee valuable outcomes.

I hope this helps!

Cheers,
Vanessa

Team

Matthew Wilson

08:04, Sep 08, 2014

Vanessa, the issue with teenagers complying with treatment may be about the treatment itself. One side of the ball is the nature of being teenager which involves pushing against any authority is available to testing the existing boundaries of the parent and establish one's own. The other side is the nature of medication itself which is more about addressing symptoms rather than curing illness. Especially areas of mental health, it seems that medication seems to numbs, cause new diagnoses rather than alive the problem at hand. It may be that teenagers are a little more sensitive to these dynamics and would be more responsive to integrative models, which actually look at illness as a collection of symptoms (which in mental health it almost always is) and to use nutrition, therapy, somatic work, stress management, sleep and other interventions that address why these symptoms are there rather than trying dose them.

Team

Matthew Wilson

18:10, Sep 08, 2014

Vanessa, yes companies want guaranteed and even predictable outcomes. Thats part of the problem. It seems they would get better outcomes if they took more risks, and pushed the envelope a little bit. This can be done by limiting financial outlay and have strict deadlines for the project. If we cater programs to the desires companies have, we inevitably won't meet their needs, which go hand and hand with choosing predictability over risk taking and exploration, which working with students can offer.

Team

Vanessa Counaert

10:49, Sep 09, 2014

Thanks Matthew, I agree we should look at health issues from a humanist and comprehensive perspective.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

18:15, Sep 08, 2014

Gabe,
Glad to hear from you! Thanks for sharing the video crash course! Some version of that could be applied to a classroom, though it would probably be best to have a design-thinking expert lead the experience. Also, I feel like it would be beneficial to have a teacher workshop like that then you could multiply the impact and have teachers become the new experts. Definitely a great intro to design thinking!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

22:14, Sep 05, 2014

Diane,
Thanks for chiming in! It would be awesome if you could test this out!

I'd love to hear more about what you're thinking. Is there a group of students participating in the program that you would test with? Do you have professionals in mind? Would this be during the week? for how long?

I added you to the team. Thrilled to have you involved!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

20:47, Sep 04, 2014

Thanks Raj!

Team

Raj Kamal Saxena

03:38, Sep 05, 2014

Hi Gavin!

Thanks for your reply.

Another observation that I would like to share with you regarding the idea..is that - It is can used by any kind of Government, Educational Institution .

Refinement can be need based as per Local Needs.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

21:08, Sep 03, 2014

I'm honored that you discussed the idea!

I believe #2 is the most difficult to solve. I feel like the main problem for teachers would be fitting it into their schedule. See Liz Duffy's comment down a little. She's been teaching an design-thinking semester course for a few years.

About getting professionals and teachers on board with design thinking, I feel like a quick overview would suffice. I feel like design-thinking is really just an extension of the way a business would attack a problem. The design-thinking process is still important to the challenge, but I think really solving any problem for an industry expert is beneficial regardless of if design-thinking is emphasized.

In what phase of the idea do you see financing being necessary, and for what resource?
The actual idea doesn't really require financing, but if we were to scale, I think the main cost would be time, to connect schools and professionals. What are your thoughts on this?

Team

Erica Wong

16:31, Sep 04, 2014

Oops I didn't read your response until after I submitted my comment, but in my experience, getting professionals and teachers on board with design thinking can be a little tricky. It is definitely a shift in the way one approaches a problem. The best way to know how it works is to participate in the process, which would be more in depth than an overview.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

20:56, Sep 04, 2014

What time commitment or activities do you think would be necessary for teachers or professionals? What resources would you recommend?

I get that participating in a design-thinking challenge is the best way to learn. But that might not be possible for busy teachers or professionals?

One gray area of the idea, in my opinion, is the level of specific design-thinking steps in the challenges. The low end would be just having research, brainstorming, prototyping and refinement phases. The high end would be having a full design-thinking intro for students, teachers and professionals. I think the design-thinking part should be interwoven into the challenges, but I think the main focus is solving a problem with a professional.

What level of design-thinking do you think would be best?

Team

Eliza Rosenbaum

18:00, Sep 04, 2014

Erica, it was great to meet you at the SF Meetup last night! Thanks so much for being part of it.

I wanted high five your provocation on the potential for hosting these events onsite at corporate offices. It's an incredibly powerful experience for a young person to witness firsthand what a corporate setting looks and feels like - especially youth from lower income communities whose parents might not be working in white collar jobs. I used to plan volunteer projects for companies where we'd host workshops like financial literacy for high schoolers, and we'd always make sure they were held at the company offices (and would build in the opportunity for a tour, of course)! Thanks for lending your expertise and insights!

Team

Sergio Marrero

20:32, Sep 04, 2014

Erica,

I think your insight is right on. I think teachers are key to making this successful.

I sent a note to Gavin recently (which I will add to the googledoc Gavin! Great idea) and his response is below. Do you have any thoughts?

My questions:
•Are teachers contacted directly by professionals? What is there incentive to engage with professionals giving the other demands (core standards, standardized testing, ect.)? Is there a way these ‘challenges/projects’ can align with core standards?
•I would say a teacher would need to give core feedback on how to make this piece work as THEY are the link between students and professionals
Looking through these feels like a lot of work for teachers, just my perspective, maybe the project type could be standardized at first and include a lesson plan for the class and link to the core standard it meets so it is ‘ready to go’ off the internet.
•Added the activity during the project as I imagine they are the ones facilitating the interaction
•Teachers are core to the success, I am not a teacher, but I would imagine the better this integrates with the curriculum they have and how ‘plug and play’ the project is the higher the rate of adoption will be

His responses?
•I’m not sure if it would be best to have pros
contact schools or teachers... How would they
know a teacher? I’ve wondered the same thing
about the standards. Some people have said
“you don’t want to dumb it down to the
standards” but I think it’s a really valid point.
With the new Common Core standards (in
California) there is a bigger emphasis on
application and not just knowledge, so that
could fit in. It would take some careful
examination to make the challenges relate
super closely, but making it clear that Preflight
will aid your students in the class, not waste a
week of time.
• Agreed, working with teachers would be the
only way to really align it.
• I actually don’t think it’s that much work for
teachers, especially if we had a premade
challenge framework. (Eg Day 1:.... Day 2:....)
•Yes, I definitely think the teachers are
facilitating the middle (and main) part of the
challenges, guiding students through the
stages.

Love it if you would share your thoughts to keep the dialog going and see how we can run small tests/pilots/prototypes to help the refinement of this idea!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

20:54, Sep 03, 2014

Liz,
It's really cool that you've taught a design-thinking course.

My one question about making Preflight an elective or a after-school thing is that it might cater to high-performing students who are already interested in that type of idea. Many students easily fill their electives with arts/language/music, etc. People can fear the unknown... design thinking would definitely be an unknown for the average high-schooler.

Back to the MERLIN program, http://goo.gl/8SKr2v I think there is value in lower-performing or disinterested students engaging with a professional and learning the design-thinking method.

Because of the common worry of fitting the challenges into the curriculum, a possibility would be having a relevant professional come in to kick off a unit correlating to their profession. ( a physicist for physics, a writer in english, or even a more casual link) The activity they do with the class could be shortened to a day or two... In general, I think the less class time, the less design-thinking process and skill building, but you could still get most of the inspiration from the professional.

Team

Luisa Fernanda

22:22, Sep 03, 2014

Great Share Liz,
What will it take for you to incorporate Preflight into your school? Will it be possible for you to get insights from teachers on the idea? Feedback from the different players in this idea- high school students, high school educators, industry mentors – is incredibly valuable as it challenges assumptions and inspires ways to try it out.

Preflight team,
At OpenIDEO we encourage everyone to support ideas by taking their own stab at carrying out an experiment. For example, the Pop Up Bus team is partnering with other individuals in the challenge to encourage them to prototype their idea in different parts of the world.

Check it out: https://openideo.com/challenge/youth-employment-pathways/ideas/pop-up-bus-and-boat-mobile-workshops-that-pop-up-in-communities-around-the-globe-building-pathways-and-employment-opportunities

Anyone from our community is encouraged to take any idea, prototype it within their own environment and share back insights and suggestions to move forward.

Awesome work and excited to see how this idea starts to take shape by being experimented with potential users.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

20:35, Aug 26, 2014

Thanks Liz! I sent them a message! I'll let you know what happens.

Team

Luisa Fernanda

21:58, Sep 03, 2014

Awesome conversation,
Liz is this idea something that students and teachers at your school would be interested in? How do you think Gavin can go about introducing this idea to his school's principal?

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

17:33, Sep 03, 2014

Eli,
I totally agree with what you're saying. Most teachers that have been around for a while already have their lessons and school-year planned out, and doing extra work for an ambiguous idea wouldn't be too enticing.

I think having some pre-made structure options would help with making it more real for teachers. I think we would need to make it clear that it isn't really extra work- the teachers don't have to be experts.

People have talked about connecting the challenges to the curriculum. That would definitely make it more implementable, but would be more work beforehand.

I think the challenges part is great, but even just bringing a professional in to talk before a relevant unit (eg having an solar engineer talk before the physics unit on energy... or a journalist before a newspaper writing unit, etc) has quite a bit of value on it's own. You get the inspiration and knowledge, but not the skills or design-thinking.

Thanks for all the ideas about how to add value for the teacher, I'll add to the list in the idea!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

21:30, Aug 31, 2014

Thanks for the tips! I updated the experience maps. Just putting names in makes you realize all these things you hadn't thought of before!

Team

Meena Kadri

21:35, Aug 31, 2014

Way to go, Gavin. I now think I've got a crush on John :^) See what a difference adding human-centeredness to the picture makes?!

Team

Meena Kadri

14:54, Sep 03, 2014

One more friendly reminder: do complete the extra submission form questions (at the top of the questions listed in the back end of your idea when you hit the Update Entry button) so that we know more about your proposed steps towards implementation, etc. These will need to be completed by the end of the Refinement phase for our OpenIDEO + sponsor team to take them into account for assessment.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

15:37, Sep 02, 2014

Thanks!
Yours are really impressive as well. I like the idea of using all the time teens spend on social media and the internet to connect them to job opportunities. There's so much data that could be gathered, you could get a really interesting product.
Keep up the good work yourself!

Team

priyanka botny

11:56, Sep 03, 2014

Thanks too!
I made some amateur videos for the problem solving using games and gamification. You may be interested in introducing to the class : http://botnypriyanka.wix.com/gamethinking/host#!videos/cy4b

This idea will be immediately adopted in India as I worked with schools that do not have access to internet and this idea can be a virtual internet for kids. We need not use high tech facility for this case. For the Design-Thinking refresher - we could use work sheets and saved pdfs or printouts. ;)

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

Edited on 15:41, Sep 02, 2014

Thanks Daniel!
I'm loving all the great thinking and mapping on Delfee! Let me know if you have any quizzes to test!

Team

Wayne Carr

11:09, Aug 31, 2014

Perhaps hiring teachers with experience in the professional world. We see a lot of this in some colleges. The benefit is they bring with them their professional connections into the classroom. In Denmark at my study abroad program they did this, plus had a department in charge of booking visits to companies and organizations, guest speakers, etc.

Team

Bettina Fliegel

Edited on 11:25, Aug 31, 2014

Hi Wayne! Great idea. Teach for America is an organization that trains teachers that did not study education previously - many are older professionals making a career change. I had suggested them to Gavin, (see my comment in the thread below), as a possible partner organization since they have their own training program and being an innovative organization might be open to his idea being introduced into their lesson plans. Your suggestions adds to their appeal - they are training professionals to become teachers! I believe there are other programs recruiting professionals into teaching as well. I recently met a documentary film editor who is in a one year training program to become a math teacher.
Anna - Gavin and I were having a discussion below about challenges being field specific as well as interdisciplinary. I also suggested the possibility of not only asking the professional to pose the challenge problem but perhaps the students themselves can do this. See comment thread below.

Excited to hear Gavin's thoughts on all of these ideas!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

Edited on 11:58, Aug 31, 2014

Hi Anna, Wayne and Bettina! I'm thrilled at everyone's excitement for the idea!

Anna, about your first question, from what I've heard from other people, it sounds like this is happening already in some colleges. It makes more sense, because there is a greater chance that a company could hire people straight out of college. The majors and classes are more specialized in college, so the companies would have a little more focus in the type of people they're looking for.
Kedar at Gap Jumpers has tested this approach, and Gabe and Aaryaman have taken classes that integrate this approach.
Wayne, you mentioned that this happened at your college as well.

Anna, I totally agree with the two challenges you mentioned. At first, I thought getting professionals on board would be a challenge, but so many people have had so many great ideas that I'm feeling fairly confident on that front.

The second challenge might be more difficult. Each class and teacher is different, (as is each challenge) so I'm not sure if some teachers would feel like it deviates too far from all the stuff they have planned.

About the challenge bank, I was thinking that it would be good to have a few sample challenges for different industries to show to businesses/professionals to get them thinking. It's important that the challenges aren't too narrow, too broad, or too specialized (using specific skills that high-schoolers don't have yet). The professional could choose to use or modify a challenge from the bank, or invent a new one.
"Will they be industry specific?" Yes! I think part of the power of the challenges is that you are kind of working with an organization to find solutions that could really transfer to the real world.

Also, having a general time framework would be helpful. I'll work on an example that people can critique and post it soon.

Wayne and Bettina, Teach for America would be a great partner! Maybe I should make a list of possible partners...

Team

Anna Spickard

08:14, Sep 02, 2014

Gavin, thanks for your response! I think it would be great for the students and professionals to collaborate to identify a challenge from the "challenge bank", and modify that challenge to be appropriate for the students' skills and relevant to the organization/company's needs. I see you've posted a google doc for challenge ideas--I'll be sure to check that out. I also agree that TFA could be an excellent partner! I know several people participating in TFA currently and I think Preflight could greatly enhance their curriculum, and improve student engagement and success.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

19:38, Aug 27, 2014

Bettina,
Thanks for the museum recommendations! Do you mean having museums host the challenges? If so, independently, or in partnership with schools?
I can definitely see the benefits of getting them involved. You could have a history challenge to "design a museum exhibit" for the museum. Actually, our school has a few projects like that, but they don't connect to a real museum. Still pretty engaging, though.
To make the experience maps, I actually just used Apple Pages. It's not even that great of a program, I think Publisher would work better, or Photoshop, if you know that platform. Besides the text boxes, I found the people clipart on a clipart site on a free trial.
I'll head over to your idea right now! Ten is like my favorite number!

Team

Bettina Fliegel

20:12, Aug 27, 2014

Regarding museums I was thinking that they provide educational resources and onsite educational workshops for teachers. They have workshops to teach teachers how to incorporate material and educational approaches into their classroom work. This is the work that museums do with teachers that I thought might be aligned with your project. Your project is a tool to bring real world work/ industry challenges into the classroom. How to get the idea out to teachers so that they can bring this into their class? Let them learn about it at an educators workshop in a museum. They can then carry the idea forward and share it with other teachers.
Example - If a science teacher attends a workshop at a science museum which explores how to encourage youth to engage in science as a career path might they find your idea interesting? They can suggest your project as one way to inspire youth to pursue science as a career. Bring a science researcher into the classroom and do a challenge with him/her?
The Cooper Hewitt Museum in NY is a design museum. They have developed workshops for teachers that teach them how to incorporate design thinking into their classrooms. http://www.cooperhewitt.org/2013/09/24/design-in-the-classroom-supports-the-common-core-standards/
Here are some links to educator resources at museums to get a feel for what is out there.
http://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/k12-educator-programs
http://nysci.org/projects-main/explainers-folio/
http://nysci.org/programs-main/teachers-folio/

I like the idea of hosting a challenge at a museum! There are many possibilities with that museums being places that are all about discovery. Perhaps the challenge can be interdisciplinary?

Museums are definitely places interested in education. Perhaps just trying to set up a meeting with someone in a museum's education department to discuss your idea might be a great place to brainstorm how to scale this going forward?

Team

Bettina Fliegel

20:13, Aug 27, 2014

and thanks for the tips about the user experience map!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

12:29, Aug 30, 2014

Cool stuff! There is a smaller science center in my town. They could at least have a bank of science challenges for teachers to use. That could be a really easy way to get part of this idea implemented.

Team

Bettina Fliegel

13:21, Aug 30, 2014

That is great Gavin! Also talking to educators who educate teachers, such as the educators at museums, can give you ideas on how to propose incorporating these challenges into the classroom environment.

One of the questions that the OpenIDEO team is asking you to think about during refinement is how will teachers incorporate your idea/ the challenges into their lesson plans? Have you considered investigating what careers one can apply different class subjects to and building on that information thinking about how a teacher can incorporate a challenge into that class?
For example - Here is a link that lists careers that one can apply a background in physics to. Perhaps a teacher would be interested in having a section on "applied physics" as part of the course? A lesson which relates what students are learning in the classroom, to what they can learn experientially from meeting a professional who uses physics in their work as they work a challenge together? Can the professional benefit because of the excitement the challenge will generate around his work ? Perhaps there is a kid in the class who wondered what the point of physics is anyway and why they needed to sit through that boring class for a year. After meeting this professional and experiencing the challenge, which focused on a real world problem, his entire point of view changed and he/she followed that path. Who knows what the results can bring. (And for many professionals seeing what their work sparks in the eyes of kids makes their day. It is energizing and reminds them of what they love about their work.)
http://www.physics.org/article-careers.asp?contentid=435&hsub=1&type=study&pid=404
(I just googled physics + careers)

Just thinking...
Great project Gavin! Looking forward to seeing how the story continues...

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

14:33, Aug 30, 2014

I added you to the team!
Having a resource with careers that connect to classes would be a great place to start. There's lots of online sites with jobs for a specific college major, so it wouldn't be too difficult to connect them to more general high school classes. It would probably be best to only include the most relevant fields, so that it's not overwhelming. Maybe the top 10 or 20 for each class. We could make a google doc or spreadsheet with all the connections.

Team

Bettina Fliegel

Edited on 18:16, Aug 30, 2014

Excited to join team PreFlight Gavin! Thank you!
Great idea to collect the job ideas. One thing I noticed myself from scanning the fields that physicists work in is that there are many possibilities that one has no idea about - ex: I love maps. Cartography is on the list of career possibilities for physicists. That caught my eye immediately. I learned something and am intrigued. Is there a way to be inclusive when you make these lists with the idea being that students can be exposed to the unexpected? or perhaps the unexpected happens at the first point of contact as in your experience map - "I didn't know a doctor did that."
How about a student wish list? I think of a box in the school lobby where one drops in their "If I could interact with.... profession or ....... company/organization for a challenge it would be ........." For your peers the "wish box" might be virtual.

Thought- Adults working in certain industries find jobs via recruiters and head hunters. Colleges also have recruiting events. How about turning that upside down. Students become the recruiters. How about a team of "reverse recruiters?" A student group/club/team who focus on connecting, networking and bringing in the challenge participants. A roadmap could be formed as part of your toolkit and they could work from that? Maybe there are parallel teams. Team 1 is reverse recruiting. Team 2 is a student/teacher team working on researching challenge questions. The teams interact as one informs the other.

Scaling up - Have you heard of Teach for America? https://www.teachforamerica.org/why-teach-for-america/training-and-support/summer-training
They are a non profit that trains and places teachers all over the country often in impoverished communities. These teachers did not study education in college. Many come from other professional backgrounds. Teach for America has it's own training institute. Maybe an organization to explore as a partner for your idea? (Not sure of their exact approach....)

I like Jeanne's idea of an ecosystem. I would add to this to consider an interdisciplinary approach. So maybe the challenge becomes problem focused and the class brings in 2 professionals from different industries but working on a common problem. This would be a true real world approach. This is inline with Matthew's comment below (Matthew Wilson : August 12, 2014, 00:52AM)

What are your thoughts? I also saw your conversation with Aaryaman about having these challenges as it's own elective class. Any further thoughts in that direction? Lots to consider here with all of the great collaboration thus far!

Fun stuff Gavin! You have a great team working with you. Will check back going forward!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

20:30, Aug 30, 2014

I'm loving all your great suggestions.
I think the perfect way to do this would be to have a whole elective class. The class could first recruit the professionals, then participate in the challenges, then hold them for the rest of the school. But, that probably wouldn't happen unless the school had seen the benefits that the challenges could have. It would definitely get students more involved.

I agree that it would be really cool to have two professionals from different industries with the same challenge. That would give students the chance to get two industries in one challenge. It would be really good because there is no way you could cover every industry with a challenge; it would take too much of the school's time.

About the suggestion box, that would be a great way to get some student input. Then, you could reach out to a professional and say "All these kids want to learn about your work!"

I'm actually feeling pretty confident now that we could get professionals to participate in the challenges. I actually think getting the schools on board might actually be harder. But, like all things, if you can prove your potential with real results, the partners will follow.

Team

Bettina Fliegel

Edited on 06:45, Aug 31, 2014

Good morning Gavin!
Great that you are feeling confident about engaging professionals for your project!

Now teachers - Perhaps share "the story' - what will happen - perhaps including your current ideas for recruiting them? Use this to get their feedback. What do you think? Prepare something to show your favorite teacher or two or three at your school. Do you start this week?

Go back to mapping. You can use basic pencil and paper as shown in the Tips for Refinement to work through things. https://openideo.com/blog/youth-employment-challenge-tips-for-refinement
Build on what you have. Why are you feeling more confident about recruiting professionals? Add your thoughts, the steps, via a map. Build out that aspect of the project. The pre - classroom stage.

Then teachers -
Maybe you should go back to basics and make another experience map trying different ideas for engaging them. Motivations, benefits .....
This can bring ideas and clarity. No?

How about adding some possible challenge problems to that map?
Can you reach out to professionals in your network and ask them for possible problems to build a challenge on? As Guy remarked in a comment below you can probably find folk on this site to participate. Click on the pics of different folk in the comments here and on other ideas, see what professions folk are in. Asking them to come up with a "problem" will not be a big ask. (You can put a comment on their profile page, or under a thread here.)
ex) I am a pediatrician. Currently I work with adolescents. I might propose this problem - Most smokers start smoking as teenagers. What ideas can we come up with to prevent this? I would suggest an interdisciplinary approach which includes a doctor and an advertising professional. The professionals can provide context - What we know about the problem. They can be a resource for background info and facts. Using this info the class can start to develop ideas/solutions to the problem.
You might also approach it the back way - what problem are you and your friends interested in tackling? What professions might be working on that? Reach out to a few of those folk and ask them to help you refine the problem question. If someone bites ask them to suggest another professional group that they would want on a team to work on that problem. So the problem can come from the students or the professionals.

Thoughts?
I think you can use an Experience Map to work through all options and you will probably come up with more.

Look forward to watching this develop!
Excited for you! Great work!

Team

Matthew Wilson

11:24, Aug 31, 2014

I can see why the idea of linking existing disciplines to the job field makes sense. What I like about design thinking is it is a new idea that both opens ideas for students, and changes the way businesses and organizations approach problem solving. I think it is important to create something with that spirit in mind. A new tool that isn't being taught in the classroom and is relevant for the shifting working world, and that is also new in the working world. Perhaps working with organizations that are using it effectively, and discussions and visits with organizations doing things more traditionally for contrast. Systems thinking and integrative medicine are great fields to look at. Also local businesses that focus on quality centric offerings.

Team

Bettina Fliegel

15:18, Aug 31, 2014

Gavin - Do you know about this toolkit for educators? Does your school know about it?
http://www.ideo.com/work/toolkit-for-educators

Team

Bettina Fliegel

05:39, Sep 01, 2014

Hi Gavin. I just had a look at your new experience map. Great job! ( Did you take the first one down? I liked that one as well. Maybe leave it with the images above so we can all see it as the first one?)

Can you clarify the time frame you are planning? Will the professional need to visit multiple times? That may be challenging and if you want to have two professionals from different industries that may be very challenging. Of course with advanced planning things can happen.
The professionals have information that can guide the class, as they learn about the professionals field, and apply it to the challenge problem. Do you see them as facilitating as well? or just the teacher? It might be interesting for them to be present so that they can explain the work process that occurs in their industry as the students progress through their brainstorms and prototyping. I am just wondering other than introducing themselves, their work, and framing the problem what their actual role will be.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

09:46, Sep 01, 2014

Bettina, thanks for sharing the educator's toolkit- that could be a great resource to use.
About the visits, I was thinking the professional(s) visit at the beginning and the end. It would obviously be harder to arrange with two people. Lots of people have wondered if the professional helps facilitate in the middle... that would obviously be great, but we can't just expect professionals to give up that much time. So, I was thinking at the beginning and end, with possibly a video chat or something in the middle if the they wanted...
Should there be a standard level of involvement (2 visits) or should there be more freedom for the professional to decide?
And the time planning guide I'm talking about is like a calendar with a challenge outline, day by day. I'll probably post a rough draft, but it would be difficult to really know how long everything will take, or the specific steps needed in each challenge.

Team

Bettina Fliegel

10:00, Sep 01, 2014

Can you try out a challenge with perhaps yourself, 2 friends, and a problem set by one of your parents - in whatever field they might be in? Or choose your own question? Test out the time frame? IDEO has a brainstorm in a box tool that is a 1 hour activity. Perhaps use that as the base? Can this help you get a handle on time and structure?
Have you considered a one day challenge? This might be in an after school club.
Perhaps the challenge comes out of the classroom and into a club with a teacher dedicated to innovative approaches to learning? This way the challenge can be let's say a 2 - 3 hour process and the professional only comes once? Might not be your original intent. Just trying to think about how to engage the professional in a way that will be attractive to them. Can you ask some professionals that you know how they feel about the time aspect?

Team

Bettina Fliegel

17:15, Sep 01, 2014

Congrats for being featured Gavin!

I was thinking about teachers/professionals/ and time frame.
Have you considered putting together a few questions you can ask several teachers to see if they bite at the idea and what their positive and negative reactions are?
Maybe introduce to the your teachers that you have been thinking about an idea that would bring professionals into the classroom so that students can learn about careers that are built on/related to the subject they are teaching.

Kids would benefit from learning how broad their options are from their learnings in each class. Your "who knew?" comment being key.

Then ask them a few questions about their interest -
Good idea? If no why not?
Do they have flexibility in terms of time within the framework of their lesson plans?
Would they be interested in joining a student/teacher team to work on your idea for your school as a pilot?
Something like that?
Maybe the questions need to be more general? Not sure.
But I think getting some initial input from a few teachers, an initial reaction, could help as you move forward. Take your experience maps - I am sure they will be wowed when they see them!

Keep going!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

17:33, Sep 01, 2014

I've talked to a few people at school. I'm meeting with our internship coordinator this week, and I'll talk to a few teachers soon, too.
I've started a google doc with some example challenges. It will be accessible so that everyone can edit and contribute.
Thanks for your input and encouragement!

Team

Bettina Fliegel

17:57, Sep 01, 2014

Great! Looking forward to checking out the google doc!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

09:36, Aug 08, 2014

Wow!! Thanks so much!!!

Team

Meena Kadri

16:05, Sep 01, 2014

And congrats again – on being the first of our Refinement phase Featured Contributions. Way to go to you and your awesome team!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

16:49, Sep 01, 2014

Thanks!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

Edited on 21:32, Aug 31, 2014

Thanks so much! I sent you a facebook message. Here's my responses and questions. https://www.dropbox.com/s/3e6hzx9e1pvixco/rwcc%20responses.pptx?dl=0

Team

An Old Friend

22:59, Aug 31, 2014

Well done Gavin. I like the experience maps.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

12:13, Aug 29, 2014

Thanks so much! I'm looking forward to the next stage.
And thanks for all the great questions!

Team

OpenIDEO

16:28, Aug 31, 2014

You can now grab some challenge-specific Refinement tips here: http://ideo.pn/ye-refine-tips Looking forward to your agile refinement-moves to strengthen your idea for impact!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

16:48, Aug 07, 2014

Thanks Meena!
I saw the MERLIN video a few weeks ago. It sounds like a really cool program.
The business representatives could definitely serve as mentors, in a way. It would kind of be the next step: not just holding the workshops, but then actually getting to know a few of the students who were interested in your work, and maybe having a lunch with them or something.
Thanks for the prototyping toolkit!

Team

Matthew Wilson

17:24, Aug 07, 2014

Yes, though I believe the business professionals have a lot to learn and benefit from what students have to offer, and in some cases the ideas in some programs. There is a lot of opportunity to identify what is a resource, what is valuable, and what is learning for students, businesses and organizations, and schools

Team

Meena Kadri

17:30, Aug 07, 2014

"though I believe the business professionals have a lot to learn and benefit from what students have to offer" – great point – and that's exactly the kind of thing I mean about putting some thought into what will motivate participating businesses and organisations. How might we convey this benefit to them in a way that they can relate to? How might we seek to demonstrate that benefit through the way the program is designed? Lots of opportunities for savvy thinking!

Team

Matthew Wilson

17:37, Aug 07, 2014

tough one, working on this. essentially we have to redesign how employers looks at recruitment and product development. We would have to attract businesses to look toward a model like this for innovation and eventually for hiring. It may mean someone has to play leader, so others will follow, you could make it a service. I am gonna keep working on it, but the question I'm stuck on is how do employers see the benefit as a recruiting and operational device, and how does that go from an idea to movement. I am open to ideas and am working on it

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

20:41, Aug 07, 2014

Yeah, it would be challenging to get the businesses to accept that they might actually benefit from the ideas of young, untrained people (especially high-schoolers). I think it would depend on the type of challenge, and it would take some project time, and more communication between class and business.
But, I think it is more important that the students benefit from the program than the businesses benefit. The focus should be on their development.

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Meena Kadri

21:13, Aug 07, 2014

Indeed – students benefit should be the focus here... though given you're keen on business people donating time & effort to participate, we think it'll be worthwhile thinking about how you might excite them to get involved to sustain the program over time.

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Gavin Cosgrave

21:23, Aug 07, 2014

Definitely. I'll give it some thought, maybe update the post with some new ideas.

Team

Matthew Wilson

01:43, Aug 08, 2014

I do agree that focusing on students can help support improvement in the way we educate and prepare young people for their careers. At the same time, when it comes to hiring people, collaboration in the schools ties in directly with companies seeing how they can use young talent. This may be more compatible at the college level though. It'd be interesting to see if that is a goal, what opportunities open up at the high school level.

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Gavin Cosgrave

09:42, Aug 08, 2014

Matthew, I agree that the use of challenges in school for hiring would be more useful for college, or even graduate school. That way, the students would be more specialized, and businesses could, say, have a logo design challenge in a graphic design class, or have an app coding challenge in a computer science class, etc. The winning team idea could become interns at the company to work on their idea with more support. And all the students would have the opportunity go get more real-world experience in their desired field.

Team

Matthew Wilson

10:35, Aug 08, 2014

I think college students have a lot more to offer then businesses can comprehend, and there are issues with companies requiring years of experience before allowing young people to have impact, and are simply offering a foot in the door. Also I would encourage diverse learning, the art of specialization is a dying one. Right now the only pathway for college graduates to make an impact is to start a small businesses. Bringing companies into the classroom and working on projects offers students the ability to demonstrate what they have to offer, and can challenge existing hierarchy. The goal would be to have student hired into meaningful or leadership positions straight out of school rather than working up the totem pole. The reason for companies to change in this way is discovering that young people have so much to offer out of school. This becomes even more true as we change the way we teach to.

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Gavin Cosgrave

10:42, Aug 08, 2014

Yeah, a large percentage of jobs (even ones that aren't top management or anything) say "we want 3-5 years of industry experience." Well, how are you supposed to get industry experience, then?
Starting a small business is a great way to make an impact right away, but there are so many little things you have to worry about and so much uncertainty. College students (and everyone, really) should have the opportunity to make an impact in whatever way they want, whether that's by starting something new, or adding to something that's already going strong. And, the challenges would let the students demonstrate that they really do deserve those opportunities.

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Matthew Wilson

10:47, Aug 08, 2014

Meena, right now a lot of colleges including Evergreen State, and DIS (a study abroad program) have been hiring people with professional background instead of teaching backgrounds. In the case of DIS this is especially true, as they rely on their faculty, and an additional department to coordinate guests from the industry, site visits in Denmark, and across Europe during their week long study tours. Something like this could open up networks of companies and organizations and companies to work with. What is missing is people to teach hard skills. if you look in my idea you'll see that we do two week long classes focus on skills and projects in the field. Part of this is bringing in guests to teach the hard skills, like in the sample below story writing, and video filming and editing. If we can constantly bring the work of the classroom into the world, and professionals in the world into the classroom, we create a diverse learning environment where everyone is a teacher. Where businesses learn from students and schools, and can see the immediate contributions youth can make, and will move hiring from getting a foot in the door, to seeing education as a new resource to fill in organization roles at all levels of the company. Right now high school is about getting into college, and college is a bout getting a foot in the door, and we need to change both how we educate, and business and student expectations for the role of these institutions. I think we can incentivize businesses by hiring professionals into the fold and asking them to play connector. Past that point I think outcomes will drive most of the movement form there
https://openideo.com/challenge/youth-employment-pathways/ideas/finance-and-kickstarters

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Matthew Wilson

10:50, Aug 08, 2014

Gavin I would argue that these companies think they want this, but have no idea what would actually serve their needs best

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Gavin Cosgrave

11:26, Aug 08, 2014

"Right now high school is about getting into college, and college is about getting a foot in the door" Good observation. Why wait so long to get a foot in the door? Being in high school, I often see people want to get internships and jobs so that they look good to get into college, instead of wanting to pursue a career that really interests them.
It's like "work really hard in high school to get into college" then "great you made it. Now just chill for a few years in college" then "okay, now it's time to start a career, from the bottom of the pyramid" We need to integrate the learning with the career from the start.

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Patrick Donohue

19:26, Aug 08, 2014

Awesome idea, Gavin.

Just to join this thread, I think you'll find that a lot of employers worry about the time-investment in hiring , training, and managing interns. Companies with large or frequent recruiting needs will often use interns as a trial period for prospective employee, but they'll want that prospective hire to be as well trained and as close to a hiring date as possible.

Will companies encourage employees to spend several days running a workshop for students who might be years out from hiring? I don't know specifically, but I do know that two-sided markets like this can be really tricky to get right if the benefits to both sides are not clear and compelling. In my experience you want to be able to see an excess of at least one side of the market: i.e. lots of students demanding these kinds of experiences, or lots of employers looking to get more people in their profession.

One alternative place to consider is industry groups, trade groups, or other organizations that want to promote the practice of specific professions. For example, the non-profit Black Girls Code runs a series of industry sponsored hackathons to get more girls of color (ages 12-17) into technology professions. There's also the online CS master's degree from Georgia Tech and Udacity that was heavily sponsored by AT&T (in part to get more potential engineers to hire).

Or maybe there are ways you can reduce the risk of the employer side of the "market". Rather than always being designed and run by a professional, would it be possible to create a database of design challenges that showcase different professions? The challenges could be used over and over again by different schools, and local professionals could act as judges to provide feedback. In some ways that's not so far off from the case method that many business schools use to simulate real world situations for MBA students.

One final thought is to try talking to some people who already doing this, but at a "premium" level. The Design Thinking Bootcamp class at Stanford used to involve an industry sponsor for their final class challenge: for example, in 2009 I know the final challenge was sponsored by Visa. If they're still doing industry sponsored challenges, they may have great insights for you on how to structure those kind of challenges.

Again, nice work!
Patrick

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

Edited on 19:52, Aug 08, 2014

Patrick, Thanks so much for your feedback! All the work you've done is so fascinating...
I think the database idea is interesting. It would be a relatively easy way to address one part of the problem (teaching design-thinking skills). However, I think that unless it was led by someone in the industry, it wouldn't really fulfill the inspiration/mentorship part of the idea.
Either way, it would definitely be a good idea to have a database so that the challenges wouldn't have to be recreated every time, and different schools could learn from each other.
I definitely think there is a big possibility to work with non-profits, who might be more open to working with outsiders. It would definitely be harder to get larger businesses on board. There are now (and have been in the past) mentorship programs, where businesses get on board with schools. Do you think the opportunity to get younger people excited about your work would be a big enough motivator for some businesses to get on board?
I'll keep this stuff in mind!

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Aaryaman Singhal

22:22, Aug 08, 2014

This whole conversation is so exciting! I keep not going to sleep because I keep reading.

I read a book called Give and Take this summer. It talks about "givers" - people who are primarily motivated by helping others. Just think of the most genuinely nice person you know and this person is probably a giver.

I think these givers will do this type of thing without needing an incentive other than knowing they're helping high school students.

It's probably not easy to just know if a professional is a giver from a short conversation, but if you ask enough people and discuss how it will benefit students, I would not be surprised to see some professional volunteers who would do this because they want to see others benefit from this.

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Patrick Donohue

04:55, Aug 09, 2014

Gavin,

I think it's certainly possible that businesses would want to get younger people interested in their work, but I'd see it happening more at the individual level than the organizational level. Sometimes it's better to consider the individuals within a business rather than the business itself, or vice versa, as they respond to different motivations.

Also, is seems like the "Knowledge Relay" idea in the mentorship challenge has some elements that might be useful to look at it.

"'Knowledge relay' is a network where just retired people will transfer their knowledge and expertise to just graduated youngsters in order to help them finding a gap in the labour world."

https://openideo.com/challenge/youth-mentor/evaluation/knowledge-relay

Patrick

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

08:30, Aug 09, 2014

Aaryaman, Thanks for all your involvement! I've heard of Give and Take, I should probably check it out. I think there are plenty of people who would be willing to give to this.

Patrick, I can see how it would be much easier to reach out to individual professionals rather than whole businesses. Also, if I (or someone else involved) already knew them, they would be much more likely to want to help out. Would you like to be part of the team?

Also, pertaining to the knowledge relay idea, just-retired people might be perfect candidates for giving the workshops, although they might be hard to find, without some kind of network.

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Aaryaman Singhal

18:42, Aug 09, 2014

I like the idea of just-retired people working on this. They would have ample free time to do workshops presumably. You might be able to reach them through your own networks (maybe through your parents or friends' parents). Once you find a few, they many be able to help you recruit through their networks.

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Bettina Fliegel

17:18, Aug 30, 2014

Amazing conversations here! I also believe there will be Givers who will want to participate in your challenges Gavin. I think approaching it from the perspective of individuals is a good idea. It will bring in the element of personal experiences and storytelling which I think will enhance the experience for the kids in the class.

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Dave Zinsman

23:32, Aug 25, 2014

Hey, Gavin! How about "preflight"?
http://goo.gl/A4qAg8

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Jeanne Callahan

11:18, Aug 26, 2014

Here are a few ideas to build on or edit:

Tangible Learnings
Link Learnings
Bright Links
Bridging the Gap
Gap Jump
World Bound or Real-World Bound (similar to Outward Bound?)
Real Work Challenge
Real Design Challenge

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Gavin Cosgrave

19:47, Aug 27, 2014

Hey Dave and Jeanne,
Thanks so much for the names! I really like "preflight" and "world bound"...

What do you guys think about "Flight Bound"?
Kind of a combination...and for a subheading, I was thinking... "Relevant classroom challenges" but then I noticed it sounds like we're talking about problems relating to the classroom...
"Relevant challenges in the classroom" is okay, a little longer...

I love Dave's logo idea with the preflight name... It would work great if we used something with "flight"

What are your thoughts on those?

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Meena Kadri

20:19, Aug 27, 2014

Great conversation – and love the notion to come up with a name + strap line that work in tandem, Gavin.

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Jeanne Callahan

21:01, Aug 28, 2014

I think dropping the "pre" from Dave's name will lose the idea of preliminary step that he may have been trying to convey.

Flight Bound might have too strong of an association with air travel or travel to really become a strong name for this project. What else do you or others like?

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Gavin Cosgrave

16:18, Aug 29, 2014

Okay, I still like preflight and world bound.
Preflight wins the catchy award (and that is always good)
World bound is a little more practical.

What about the subheading? "Relevant challenges in the classroom" "Relevant industry challenges"..... or we could just keep the subheading as what the title is now "Real-World challenges in the classroom"

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Jeanne Callahan

21:03, Aug 29, 2014

I vote to keep the original title as the subheading or tagline: Real-World Challenges in the Classroom

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Gavin Cosgrave

20:27, Aug 26, 2014

Thanks Karolle!

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Guy Viner

16:57, Aug 27, 2014

+1 Karolle! Excellent experience maps, Gavin. Truly exceptional

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Shane Zhao

17:40, Aug 27, 2014

+2 Karolle! This is indeed an impressive. It can also be used as a great example to show how experience maps can really help develop an idea in the future.

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Gavin Cosgrave

19:27, Aug 27, 2014

Thanks everyone!
Really the design part was pretty easy, the secret was the people clipart I got on a free trial of GraphicStock. It's so hard to find good clipart, especially if you aren't willing to pay.

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Bernice Chan

20:42, Aug 27, 2014

I totally agree. Awesome job on the experience maps! They are very engaging and easy to follow. Congrats

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Gavin Cosgrave

10:22, Aug 11, 2014

Jeanne, Thanks so much for sharing!
First, getting professionals from a wide range of industries is a key aspect. Obviously, the more of these workshops we could do in a given year, the better, but I don't think it would be possible just time-wise to more than about one per month. Also, maybe in an ideal world, you would have each grade level do different workshops (like x, y and z professions sophomore year; a, b and c professions junior year...), but that sophistication would probably come later in the program.

I really like the idea of having multiple people that work in the field, but with different jobs together. Even if it was just 2 or 3 people, it would really add value to the workshops.

So, for a list of industries, the ones that come to mind for me are medical, tech, retail/small business, engineering/architecture, non-profit/charity, and university research for science/psychology. What else do you think should be included?

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Matthew Wilson

17:52, Aug 11, 2014

You may want to take a project centered approach. Many of the future careers will be more multidisciplinary, and the fields are changing. By having projects be the key, it points to which resources you needed, and then you connect. I would still encourage anything from the school side to abandon "fitting this in" to existing curriculum, and more so focusing on it being a new way of educating that meets actual needs of their students

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Aaryaman Singhal

19:06, Aug 11, 2014

Maybe a class in which a different professional comes in each week with an overview and problem set could be an elective class? That way, the class wouldn't be missing out on other information/learning from having a professional every week.

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Gavin Cosgrave

20:09, Aug 11, 2014

Yeah, Aaryaman, that would definitely be a cool idea. If it was an elective class, it would really give a lot of freedom to basically do anything we wanted, to focus solely on the challenges.
I think that would maybe happen after a year or two of the program (don't like trying to predict the future). That would definitely have the most potential to really make a difference. There's a program called AVID that is offered as an elective class to help kids study, learn about opportunities and visit colleges with the goal of getting into college.
So kind of like that, except with the goal of being exposed to the opportunities of the future and learning what it will take to succeed in those spaces. I feel like it would be the type of class that would just take off in popularity after the first year.

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Aaryaman Singhal

18:50, Aug 12, 2014

Is AVID only at your school? This type of class seems like a natural entry point for the experiences this idea is trying to implement in the classrooms.

I also think it's important to make these types of classes and workshops available to students who are at higher risk of not going to college and/or finding jobs after high school or college.

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Gavin Cosgrave

20:06, Aug 13, 2014

AVID is actually an international program. It's not at my school. It was at my Jr. High and it might be at the main high school in my town.
I think that an important part of this challenge is realizing how many different programs are already solving this problem. Starting a new thing is great and exciting, but working with existing organizations might be even more effective.

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Leigh Cullen

16:04, Aug 21, 2014

Jeanne,

This is a solid idea that demonstrates 21st century professional relationships in a fun, educational way: "...have a doctor, nurse, lab technician, physical therapist, xray tech, and radiologist (or similar related professions) all come together or on successive weeks to give an overview of their work and a problem set." It's something that I would have found of great value as a student.

Gavin,

If you and your team can build a list of 21st century jobs, I am betting quite a few ideas across the challenge would thank you and use it! It would be incredibly beneficial to students and career professionals. I've noticed that a thread running through this challenge is that educational institutions (in developed and developing countries) aren't adapting fast enough to current job and tech trends.

As a student, your insights into social and tech trends could actually, in turn, provide mentorship to career professionals. Your generation will be inventing the future after all!

And great work going on over here! We're developing out our mentoring approach over on Pop Up Bus team. Will share any insights with you that we have. We'd love to have your inputs over on #TeamPopUpBus!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

19:05, Aug 21, 2014

Leigh,
It's so inspiring to see all the great thinking and research happening on your idea. I've been on vacation, but I'm super excited to jump back in next week.
I'll definitely use the team to get a list of 21st century professions. And it's definitely true that schools need to adapt faster. These workshops could really make a difference in schools, just as Pop up Buses could serve as community hubs for learning and working!
Thanks, looking forward to more collaboration.

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Meena Kadri

17:32, Aug 25, 2014

Loving Jeanne's ecosystem idea – and that also may provide a hook for industry players if they were from different businesses (chance to network in a more fun way than usual + not wanting to be left out of being part of this awesome locally-focused social innovation initiative!) Good to keep thinking about things that might motivate industry players to get involved :^) Also thought it might be interesting for you all to give some thought to what this initiative / program would be called? Might be worthwhile thinking of a catchy name soon?

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Gavin Cosgrave

17:54, Aug 25, 2014

Thanks Meena!
I was just thinking the same thing about the name... is there any way to contact the whole team? Maybe there is in the feedback or refinement phase and I don't know about it...
And I definitely see potential in having a few different angles of the same industry. That would take the workshops to the next level. It might take more classtime, though, and more effort to get multiple parties involved.

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Meena Kadri

18:10, Aug 25, 2014

If your team members have their OpenIDEO email notifications turned on (via their profile settings) – they will be getting notifications on all comments here. They maybe getting them immediately or as a daily / weekly digest (or may have turned them off :^(

So – maybe you could start a new thread and ask folks to chime in about naming ideas – making a few suggestions to start with to get the ball rolling? Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

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Guy Viner

17:05, Aug 27, 2014

Hey team-
Brilliant provocation by Jeanne and dialogue occurring here. One of the fun things about OpenIDEO is that many users identify their professions and industries. If you're interested in creating a mock challenge or ecosystem, chances are you could find everyone you need on OpenIDEO!

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Gabe Miller

10:59, Aug 23, 2014

I think a great idea of scaling this idea would be to encourage more entrepreneurs-in-residence and adjunct professors/teachers to educate at the high school level. More often than not, many of these entrepreneurs serve as members of certain boards and coalitions, so to create a two-way street in which (1) work/projects can be brought to students and (2) students can provide input/insight/completed-projects to businesses would be beneficial to both parties involved

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Sergio Marrero

13:16, Aug 23, 2014

Maybe this group can help? http://www.studentmentor.org or maybe there are other ways to Skype in professionals that fit the profile of what you want to do, I know one teacher that does that for students and has virtual talks with classrooms on a repeated basis.

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Matthew Wilson

13:49, Aug 23, 2014

I would have someone with business connections as faculty yes, and play connector with their work contacts. This model works well at DIS, a study abroad college program.

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Gavin Cosgrave

Edited on 21:41, Aug 24, 2014

Sergio,
Thanks so much for the input! I added you to the team!
About the first question, I really haven't put much thought about how best to scale it. Besides trying to implement it at my school, I'm not sure how it would scale, but I really like everyone's ideas here!

Gabe, I really like your idea of getting professionals and professors involved.The College Student Mentorship program looks like the type of group we'd be looking for.

So, I think there are basically three ways to go at it:
1. Schools initiate it and try to get businesses/professionals on board
2. Businesses/professionals initiate it and get schools and partners on board
3. Students initiate it and get both parties involved (might not be possible for most schools)

It sounds like getting the organizations and professionals to reach out would be the most effective. They would be the most credible and probably have the most influence.

What are everyone's thoughts on that?

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Gavin Cosgrave

14:07, Aug 25, 2014

Check out the updates.
What do you guys think about the general strategy? What would you add?

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Sergio Marrero

17:51, Aug 25, 2014

I like the diagram, I think it goes into a nice level of detail. As it relates to the scaling, it may help to either integrate into a standard lesson plan and offer that lesson plan for teachers or/and have preset materials for presentation. It may help getting people to commit the time if there are materials they can leverage when presenting. I also think company partnerships are key, maybe aligning with a service day that the company does will work be begin those relationships.

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Jeanne Callahan

11:25, Aug 26, 2014

The User Experience diagrams look good, but I think they are a little lop-sided. The student one indicates all the great benefits of participating while the business professional/organizer one is heavy on the tasks that need to be tackled. I know this isn't the intention, but the Organizer experience looks like a lot of work without many benefits.

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Gavin Cosgrave

16:12, Aug 26, 2014

Yeah, Jeanne, I see what you mean. I guess I was just thinking about all the different "things" each group would do, and most of the "doing" falls on the professionals.
It would be less intimidating if we had at least a structure for challenges, so that you (as a professional) picked your "driving question" and then the rest was set up.
I'm not really sure how to better capture the benefits for the business side. How would you do it?

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Gavin Cosgrave

20:24, Aug 26, 2014

I updated the business experience map. I think it looks a little more manageable for their side.

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Gavin Cosgrave

21:30, Aug 24, 2014

Read the blog, it looks great! I'm excited to get going again!
Thanks so much for the opportunity!

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Gavin Cosgrave

20:03, Aug 20, 2014

Thanks!
I've been out of town, I'll definitely get updating and collaborating next week.
I'm excited to see where all these ideas go!

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Meena Kadri

17:08, Aug 07, 2014

Gavin – in case you missed it, here's a post which introduces Kedar & his awesome team's work to this challenge: https://openideo.com/challenge/youth-employment-pathways/research/hire-based-on-solving-a-challenge-not-static-background-info

We are stoked at the notion of collaboration between you & Kedar!

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Matthew Wilson

17:13, Aug 07, 2014

What if we bring gap jumpers into the classroom. Something magical happens when we bring students and employers together in a learning and meaningful project environment, Aside from helping students get great experience and developing real life skills, it is an opportunity for employers to learn what ideas are coming through, and see prospective future employees and colleagues in action. Gapjumpers is the type of organization that can resolve the issues of the disconnect between the skills youth have to offer and companies being in the about what youth can offer them.

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Gavin Cosgrave

17:50, Aug 07, 2014

Matthew, Meena and Kedar:
I checked out Gap Jumpers a few weeks ago, and I really like the concept. It gives talented people a chance to prove their skills with real world challenges. Challenges like that definitely deserve a place in the hiring process (and in the classroom).
My only concern with the Gap Jumpers framework is that it works great for the talented problem solvers (which every company wants) but not so much for all those kids who aren't great problem-solvers or communicators.
So, if we brought Gap Jumpers-style challenges into the classroom (starting at an earlier age), and combined it with the mentorship aspects, we could really inspire people to build the job skills they need.
Everyone focuses on teaching job skills, but wouldn't it be even more effective to inspire people to pursue those skills themselves? I think combining the mentorship and realization of opportunities with the challenges could be really powerful.

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Matthew Wilson

17:57, Aug 07, 2014

Take a look at this ted talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

I agree it is good to focus on skills at an early age, what kind of skills those are I think should consider what naturally works with each kids learning strengths and what they are interested in. Not everyone is gonna be a great problem solver. But what are they great at, what interests them, and how can we help them develop those interests, and create programs that link the curiosity and talents we have as kids to the skills we want to develop to launch our career and let employers know what we have to offer

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Kedar Iyer

Edited on 18:04, Aug 07, 2014

I agree with you Gavin. Most students in high school or university are curious, but conventional education doesn't motivate them to go the extra mile and solve real problems.
However, if professors/ teachers could assume the role of mentors by creating the right incentives for the students we could move away from the carrot and stick approach to learning.

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Matthew Wilson

18:09, Aug 07, 2014

If you combine curiosity with access to resources and the potential is endless, so much opens up when teacher connect students to knowledge rather than see the goal to effectively impart it onto them. How valuable does video work, business curriculum, or creative writing become when it is necessary to make a project thrive

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Gavin Cosgrave

19:03, Aug 07, 2014

Matthew, really good thinking in the first post. That's like the most famous TED talk of all time, and a great one. I definitely agree that we need to give kids opportunities to pursue what's interesting to them, but in a way that will help them out later on in life.
Kedar, have you read "Drive" by Dan Pink? It's a great book on motivation. I agree that we need to motivate kids to go the extra mile, and that brings us back to project-based learning. When the project allows for creativity, students have the opportunity to really show their passion.
And Matthew, there are so many resources out there for everyone to learn, we need to encourage students to take advantage of all those opportunities.

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Kedar Iyer

09:28, Aug 08, 2014

Gavin, I tend to lean more towards Sugata Mitra's principle of self organized learning environments where posing the right questions and creating the vibe for curiosity can get anyone on the learning trajectory. https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud

I haven't read the book, I'll look it up. Thanks for sharing the link. :)

What are the companies/ businesses saying about the role that high schoolers could play in their respective orgs? problem solving/ fresh ideas/ social responsibility initiatives/ charity work/ community training/ etc

Do you have some research on their perspective should we want them to engage with students in a classroom?

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Gavin Cosgrave

10:21, Aug 08, 2014

Kedar, I just watched the talk. It's pretty amazing how effective asking the right questions can be. Sorry for all the books, but if you're really interested in questioning, check out "A More Beautiful Question" by Warren Berger.

No, I don't have any research on what businesses think high schoolers could offer. I'm not sure whether or not it would be good to ask a large number of businesses about their opinion on that. I feel like they would underestimate the effects, and kind of have a "we're fine without you" attitude. But, of course, I could be wrong.

Another approach would be to try to get a few businesses on board with the classroom workshops, and focus on creating challenges that the business really faces. If the solutions were useful to the business, we would be able to go out to more organizations and say "this is what happened when x and y worked with high schoolers. Do you want to be involved in that too?"
I like the social responsibility initiatives idea. And, especially if the business wanted to reach a younger audience, it would be hard to turn down the ideas of young people.
Research vs. starting small. Which is better?

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Aaryaman Singhal

22:14, Aug 08, 2014

Gavin,
I read Drive earlier this summer. I like that you're applying concepts from the book to the challenge.

I recently ran across a similar framework espoused by Marcus buckingham (I may have the name wrong) which says that people are more happy and productive when they work where their passions and skills lie. Yet only 12% of people work in these areas. Most people don't love their work and look forward to weekends. I think that if people's work matched their passions, they'd love work and not sit around hoping Friday would come faster.

I think the value for businesses in working with high school students is to get a completely different perspective on their problems and perhaps the perspective of their target market, depending on what they sell. I think people get so caught up in day to day work sometimes that they miss the big picture that might be obvious to someone else like a high school student. -- a lot of businesses might not realize this.

I think businesses WILL see such events as opportunities to give back and also as a way to recruit people into their companies.

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Gavin Cosgrave

10:29, Aug 09, 2014

I think there is definitely value in getting outside feedback, especially if the business sells directly to the public.

About working with your passions and skills, I'm reading a book called "The Purpose Economy" now, about how there is a growing movement to prioritize impact and meaning in work.

Also, you should go do the purpose finder at http://www.imperative.com/
It's a fun personality assessment about how you find the most purpose in your work.

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Kedar Iyer

11:30, Aug 09, 2014

Hey Gavin and team,

Hope you're having a pleasant weekend :)

There is merit in testing this model with some challenges so that students can answer and get feedback from the businesses on various metrics (i.e. quality of ideas, communication + presentation skills, critical thinking, research, analytical reasoning, consumer insights, etc)
This way students and teachers could also learn and improve from the industry reviews.

I'd be happy to offer some the industry curated questions from our bank and even pilot it with a few of our enterprise teams who are willing to participate in this initiative.

What would be the best way to decide on the types of questions (marketing, tech, research, design, etc) to review and select?

If you have a preference for any of the live questions or the companies on GapJumpers, please feel free to shortlist then so I can get the ball rolling on the enterprise side. www.gapjumpers.me/questions

Great going team 'Real World Challenges' ;)

- K

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

Edited on 13:53, Aug 09, 2014

Kedar,
Thanks so much for all your help, I'm excited about working on this together!
I've checked out a lot of challenges on Gap Jumpers. A lot of them look pretty hard and open-ended. But still, interesting.

When you talk about questions, you mean the driving questions for the challenges, right?
Were you thinking of creating like a bank of different challenges that businesses could use? How would that compare to asking the business for a challenge and making it to fit a high school setting?

Here are a few of the challenges from Gap Jumpers I think could work in a high-school setting.
https://www.gapjumpers.me/questions/gevir/qs-79/ https://www.gapjumpers.me/questions/schoology/qs-62/
https://www.gapjumpers.me/questions/fcb-chicago/qs-76/
https://www.gapjumpers.me/questions/phd/qs-68/
https://www.gapjumpers.me/questions/syzygy-ag/qs-67/

The challenges could be a little more specialized if you were testing with college students, especially if it corresponded with their major.
I don't think that, for me, having any of the actual businesses on Gap Jumpers would work. The closest is the Bay Area, about an hour away. But those businesses could reach out to schools in their area.

For high school, the challenge would have to be something that all students could contribute to (the problem has to be easy to grasp).

It sounds like you're thinking about asking the businesses posting jobs on Gap Jumpers to connect with schools, while I have been more thinking about connecting some businesses to a local school. Am I right?

Team

Aaryaman Singhal

19:28, Aug 09, 2014

Hey Gavin,

Thanks for sharing imperative. Mine is to work with teams and organizations to overcome societal barriers by creating environments and experiences.

I think this is generally accurate but that overcoming barriers should really be stated as "exploiting opportunities for societal improvement."

I'll look into The Purpose Economy as well.

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

22:00, Aug 09, 2014

Dude, That's exactly what mine was! We have a magical connection. :)

Team

Meena Kadri

Edited on 16:35, Aug 12, 2014

Hey Gavin – did you see Kedar's message for you on Twitter, reaching out for more direct collaboration? Just thought to let you know so you can check there in case you missed it (folks often reach out via Twitter because if you are both following each other you can direct message your email details for onwards collaboration without having to share them publicly here)

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

Edited on 19:32, Aug 12, 2014

Meena,
Thanks, I got the tweet and we're in contact. :) I'm on vacation right now, but we're going to work on it when I get back.
Speaking of Twitter, I'm sitting in a hotel checking Twitter, and I see an OpenIDEO picture. I clicked on it and it had my quote. I'm like, "No way! (screenshot)"
Thanks!!!

Team

Gavin Cosgrave

14:03, Aug 09, 2014

Molly, thanks so much for sharing! I definitely agree with everything you are saying.
From all the discussion, I think there are kind of two (connected) parts to the idea. There's the side that wants to get real business challenges in the classroom to help out the businesses and teach kids skills. Then there's the career inspiration and mentorship side that wants to get kids excited about their futures.
Both are exciting, and could be connected if we did it right.
Want to be on the team? (I'm not even sure exactly what it's for either)

I think it would also be cool to have some type of summer camp, like you mentioned. This is kind of a separate idea, but what if you had career shadow days in the summer? You could have like a weeklong camp where you shadow a different professional each day.
Good thinking, stay in touch!

Team

Aaryaman Singhal

18:58, Aug 09, 2014

Molly,

I am really glad you posted your thoughts, and I'm sure a lot of others are too. :)

"I feel as if many youth either dont go to college, or struggle throughout the experience simply because they don't have a sense of their value and their capabilities." -- I feel like this is very true and the impact of helping people see themselves as valuable could be huge. One of the reasons microlending (making small loans to poor people so they can grow/start businesses) is so successful is because it allows people to discover