Envisioning Solutions
Students in EDUC 333B will design a video describing an entire experience that will improve learning for eleven year-old girls around the world in the next ten years.
This work will be shared beyond the class with decision-makers from the United Nations, foundations, NGOs, and could make significant impact in the world.
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Description
The United Nations approaches you and asks you to help them achieve Universal Primary Education. They have the budget for a small team of consultants and you are equipped with C.K. Prahald’s book, Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, and you can pick the learning and design strategists of your choice to join the team. A 7 year extension has been added to the current goal making the new target date 2022. You are given a 10 year time-frame to solve this problem.
As a team (3 – 4 people) develop a video for an entire experience that will improve primary learning for 11 year old girls in the developing world. Your vision may describe a physical device (think One Laptop Per Child) a new system for distributing content (think iTunes U, Khan Academy, etc.) or an entirely different approach (boarding school for all? educate adults first? personal tutors in the first world?) but it must be something that is scalable and measurable.
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Problem
United Nations Target 2.A:
Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
Hope dims for universal education by 2015, even as many poor countries make tremendous strides
Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia are home to the vast majority of children out of school
Inequality thwarts progress towards universal education
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Project
- The video must describe an experience that is of world-class quality.
- The video must show an experience that achieves a significant price reduction — at least 90% off the cost of a comparable product or service in the West.
- The video must explain an experience that is scalable: It must be able to be produced, marketed, and used in many locales and circumstances.
- The video must describe an experience that is affordable at the bottom of the economic pyramid, reaching people with the lowest levels of income in any given society.
- The two-page concept note must explain an experience that has been grounded in learning, design and business strategy and supported by clear rationale.
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Think grand, and think doable. You may have access to significant money - money that needs significant and compelling rationales.
On the last day of class, you will present your video to a panel of funders - program officers from foundations, venture capitalists, and corporate board members, and policy makers. The panel will give you specific feedback, ask challenging questions, and share their experiences with turning ideas into funded projects.
Deliverable:
1) Brief Video (5 min. max) explaining the challenge, your process, and why your intervention will make a difference. There is a good chance that this work will be seen by in front of decision-makers from the United Nations, NGOs, foundations, and other policy makers.
2) 2-3 page written Executive Summary
Goals:
- Communicate a clear vision taking the future into account for real-life funders that address real learning problems
- Gain experience using design thinking skills and applying learning and business theories
- Build experience presenting and communicating big picture ideas to multiple audiences
Milestones:
- 4/12: Organize project teams based on interests and skill sets
- 4/26: Create and share first iteration of your concept thinking about Castelleja
- 5/10: Create and share second iteration of video concept and scenario to class and test with students from Aspire Schools East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy
* Share brief updates from each team – Identify specific problem? Identified resources or contacts you have or need? Wild ideas you have created?
- 5/24: Groups share work with fellow students : give/received feedback with other teams, push one another to make video concepts better
- 5/31: Practice Presentations in class: Give the 2 minute pitch to class; generate potential questions from funders' panel
- 6/7: Video Presentations and feedback from expert panel
- 6/12: All material due to instructors, post to wiki
The instructors, your peers, and the broader community are interested in:
- Creativity: how well does your idea express the intersection of "L" "D" and "T" in a way that would make a difference in learners' lives? Are there original assessment ideas?
- Connectability: how well can your idea connect with real conditions that learners face? how well does your solution connect with other efforts in the field?
- Scalability: How well could your vision or concept work on a global scale?
- Clarity of Presentation: be as creative as you want, but the audience needs to understand the problem and your solution quickly
Time for Project: 25 hours per person maximum
Due: All materials due by June 12, 2012
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