The problem of practice that I ended with is very different than what I started with. Months ago, at the beginning of this extended assignment, there was some ambiguity going into this process. I thought my users were art educators in general and my problem of practice was extremely vague which makes sense considering I hadn’t even empathized with other users about the general issue I had come up with. My original problem of practice was as follows: “With over 500 students in the school, 24 classes total, 6 different classes a day, 3-5 different preps a day, 45 minute classes and 5 minutes between classes, the biggest problem of practice for me as an elementary Art teacher is material management.”
There was much to discover through each phase. Let’s start from the beginning, running through each part to get a more detailed look. Phase One - EMPATHY
For my empathy report, I needed to find out more about what other art teachers struggled with the most in terms of supply and material management. I created a survey that was sent out to many art educators. A majority were relatively experienced, having between 6-20 years. A solid 93% agreed or strongly agreed that material and supply management require a lot of time and effort on their part to do their job.
I asked many different questions but the clearest difficulty demonstrated through my survey (in the chart below) shows that 64% of those surveyed disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement: there is enough time between classes to get out and arrange necessary materials and supplies for the next class. None of those surveyed strongly agreed that there was sufficient time between classes.
The chart above reads left to right: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree.
Furthermore, another chart showed that 72% agreed or strongly agreed that they could use some help getting out, distributing, setting up, cleaning and taking down materials and supplies.
Here, in this phase, it became obvious to me that those 5 or so minutes between classes caused a real issue with a majority of art teachers. Phase Two - DEFINE
I started off this unit by doing a 5 why’s activity and a why-how ladder. My 5 why’s lead to this final question: Why do art educators think it is important for their students to have the chance to experience different content?
Response (my root cause): Whether an art educator takes on more preps by choice or is simply assigned them by an administrator, most choose to use a wide range of materials and supplies in order to provide a well-rounded art curriculum to their students but feel like there is not enough time to get out, distribute, set up, clean up and take down materials and supplies. My why-how ladder was valuable in initiating the thought of using other technologies to help “buy” more time for setup and clean up between classes. You can see this thought in the bottom right hand corner in the picture below.
At this point in the process, I was starting to understand that high school and middle school art teachers weren’t really experiencing the same problem of practice as I was. They typically have less students than an elementary art teacher and their older students are able to be more independent with supplies. Because of this, I finalized the definition of my user as a person who works full time as an art educator at an elementary school. She/He teaches art to the entire school which, depending on the school, can be 500+ students. All of these students mean numerous classes/preps which require a significant amount of time planning and preparing for.
Furthermore, it was here, in the second stage of the creative design process, that I began to realize the true cause of my problem of practice. In my opinion, based on my research, the single most important difficulty in managing materials and supplies is the unbelievably small amount of time between classes where an art educator must completely switch materials from one class to another, multiple times a day. The goal at this point was to find different ways to maximize the use of this small amount of time in order to minimize stress and make the overwhelming task of material management way more manageable for an individual. Phase Three - Ideate
In this stage, I was able to brainstorm with colleagues. I met with all of the other elementary art educators within my district. I started by asking the question: What can we do to make swapping materials easier with the five minute time period between classes? My colleagues and I talked about it and wrote our answers down on post-it notes. Each idea has its pros and cons and I already implement some of the ideas into practice. You can see our ideas below.
After brainstorming with colleagues, I took the knowledge that my colleagues shared and did more thinking on my own. I wrote down a list of more ideas that branched off of other people’s ideas. Below, you will see a photo of the list I created that is a representation of my stream of consciousness on my problem of practice.
Over the course of a couple of days, I continued to brainstorm on my problem of practice. I used my cell phone 'Notes' application as a journal to keep track of any other ideas that struck me.
Phase Four - PROTOTYPE
At this point, I had finally chosen how I was going to help art educators "buy" more time for set up, clean up, and everything in between. What I have come up with is not a brand new concept but I think the idea of teaching other educators how to incorporate my idea is innovative and could potentially create a positive impact for teachers in all subject areas.
My idea is to create videos of an educator instructing a lesson, teaching an objective, or doing a demonstration which is meant to be played for students to watch in class. While the video is playing, the teacher has a couple of extra minutes to manage supplies and do whatever is necessary for the specific class at that time. The videos are not meant to be a replacement but rather an aide when a teacher is short on time. Watch the prototype video below.
This video is a screencast that I made using my laptop. This is an example of a video that I could play when one of my classes is beginning a self-portrait project. While the introductory video is playing, I would be able to swap out any materials I might need, clean up a mess from the previous class, send an urgent email, get out demonstration materials, etc. This video reviews a powerpoint that I would plan on showing students anyway so, in a way, I believe this is simply working smarter, not harder. When the video is over, I can continue teaching, do a demonstration, address any specific individual's needs, answer any questions and clarify as needed.
Phase Five - TEST
In order to test my prototype, I set up a version of my art classroom in my living room. I had my husband act as my students. I was testing to see if an educational video that I created can teach my students something specific, that I would be teaching them anyway, while simultaneously "buying" me more time for setup and cleanup of necessary materials from the previous and for the next class. I decided to do the observation method where I was the user. The video below is an example of how my prototype would work in a classroom setting. In the video, you will see two run throughs:
1. In the first, I have exactly 5 minutes (which is what I actually have between classes on a real school day) to get my to-do list done before my students walk in the door and I am expected to be ready to instruct. 2. In the second run through, I have the same 5 minutes but when students walk in, I gain an additional 4 minutes from my prototype video to get my to-do list done. Interestingly enough, in the second run through, I actually had time to add things to my to-do list! Prior to students coming in, I had a moment to check email, take a drink of water and mentally prepare myself for my next class. Even simply doing this testing in my living room proved to me that my prototype was relatively successful. Of course, that doesn't mean it was perfect; there are definitely things I would change and do differently next time. The prototype video seemed too long and probably would be a bit boring to some students. In my opinion, it wasn't that hard to create the video but it did take some time, energy, knowledge and resources that my users might not have or be interested in expending. However, as long as I am happy with how the video turned out, and if I am reusing the same or a similar lesson in the future, I can reuse these videos next year! Most importantly, I learned that although there are a few disadvantages to this process, I believe the time, energy and resources spent to make videos like this would be worth it in the end.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorArtist Archives
April 2020
Categories |