Week 7

Due to being on teaching practice for a week we did not have innovation lab class but instead had a week to prepare for our presentations we would be making to Stengaard Skole. Therefore we worked on filming and editing our video, putting together a handbook for teachers to use and worked on our presentation which we would deliver to the school. Having originally came up with the idea in another class we set about bringing our film to life and filmed and edited it on an iPad and edited it using moviemaker, we then uploaded it to Youtube so it could be easily accessed by the school for future use. You can see our finished product below!

Our handbook was compiled together from feedback our group received during the peer evaluation. We thought this was a good suggestion as we realised on reflection that it was necessary for teachers to have a suggested template and guidance to follow in order to visualise our concept but also to facilitate and implement in their classes. We worked very hard on this handbook making sure that it was simple, straightforward and easy to read but also included the main ideas and thoughts behind our concept. Below you will find some pictures of some of the pages we included in our handbook!

Images from our Handbook

Example of what we included in our Handbook

For a more detailed look at the handbook we produced please follow this link! http://innovationlabmathias.weebly.com/uploads/4/6/5/0/46506441/handbook_students_responsibility.docx

After this week it was time to begin phase 5 of the innovative design thinking process which involve the evolution, delivery and evaluation of our concepts. Originally we had thought we would be presenting our ideas to teacher however we were pleasantly surprised that some older and younger pupils would be coming to hear our presentation so as a group we had to quickly improvise our presentations to suit a younger audience. This clearly showed how well we worked together as a team because we were able to quickly think on our feet and adapt to the situation.

Feedback from the students was very positive which was very encouraging to hear as our concept was directed towards and involved students themselves. Many students commented on how they liked the idea of collaborating with the younger pupils in the school as this was something they had not done before in class. They also liked the idea of creating a campaign in whatever format they liked (we had chose to leave this up to the pupils specifically as we wanted to create an environment which encouraged the pupils to be innovative themselves!). Likewise, another common feedback was that and the competitive element behind it but that all groups would receive recognition for their campaigns and contributions through awards for the best teamwork or the most progress etc.  

After presenting to the pupils we also got the opportunity to present to teachers as well. Feedback from these presentations was also very positive and teachers commented on how much they liked that our concept specifically was a realistic concept and could be easily implemented and used in their school without needing extra money, resources or time. Likewise all teachers looked favourably at our handbook and saw it as an invaluable tool for implementing our concept in practice.

Overall, it was very rewarding to be able to deliver our innovative concepts to both the teachers and pupils after all the hours of planning and preparation we had put into it. It was also very encouraging to see how excited and positive they were about our concept and this shows that as a group we were successful in understanding our consumers and what they needed which goes to show that the information we had gathered during the discovery phase was very worthwhile and beneficial.

Once we had finished all our presentations and given our final presentation to our class we then evaluated our innovation concepts as a group using the Darsø model. We concluded that for this project we worked more with our knowledge, relations and concepts and less with our ignorance however this may be an area we could use more of in the future if we were to do a similar project to this again. Indeed it would be interesting to see what ideas would turn out if we used more ignorance!

Although this is the end of this part of the innovation process I am excited to start working on teaching children now to become innovative!

Week 6

This week we began the next phase, phase 4 which involved experimentation and prototype. This was the phase I was most looking forward to as it was the part of the process where I could get most involved in and our ideas which before now were only on paper now become tangible and real life. This process involved us moving from planning into action.

Our class Padlet of quotes

However before this began we started off using an online editing tool called 'Padlet'. This was a new document which I had never came across before but it proved to be very useful. Every person in the class was able to access the class padlet online on their individual devices and type and edit it and it would come up and be visible to everyone else. We used Padlet to write our favourite quotes from the readings we had done for this week. This was very beneficial as we could see everyone's different interpretations of the readings we had.

Writing good points about each other's ideas

Afterwards we returned back to our groups and got out our individual drawings of solutions we had made. Our tutor then asked us to stick up our drawings on a wall and write underneath on a separate page what was good about the idea. We then rotated and did this with everyone's drawings so we had a collective list of good things about each of our drawings. This was good as it helped us see the positive aspects in everyone's work and was very encouraging.





Once we had complete this we began to refine our solution to the problem. Our group having identified many positive aspects of our drawings decided to use of mixture of different aspects of everyone's work to form our solution. Our solution to the problem of hygiene in the pupil's bathroom was therefore to give pupils responsibility of their own hygiene by giving them control. This meant that we would encourage them to take control and responsibility of their own hygiene by introducing them to the importance of hygiene through a short practical science lesson and the encouraging the older students in groups to develop a campaign whether that be a video or posters to advertise the importance of washing their hands in the bathrooms. This would be turned into a competition and the winning group would then have their campaign use throughout the school.

After we had decided on our final idea we then used a system using Dr Edward De Bono's Six Thinking hats. This meant that everyone in the group had to put on a 'hat' and analyse the group's idea based on what hat they were wearing. For example, if you had a red hat you were encouraged to think and write down your immediate subjective reactions or if you were black you had to think and write down any risks or disadvantages. This was a very useful concept to use and helped us think about different aspects which we may not have considered without this.

Working through the model with our idea

Thinking Hats Model

 























Next we were given 40 minutes to make a prototype. After initially being shocked at how little time this was my group immediately got to work. We decided that we wanted to present our prototype in the form of a video as this would be most effective for portraying to the teachers our concept. We based it around a mad scientist and gave a practical example of how this could be used as a stimulus or teaching method to follow on work on a hygiene campaign to get children to wash their hands. We came up with a script, planned our presentation and filmed this all within the time limit. You can watch my groups video here!



Listening to each other's presentations and giving feedback

When all groups returned after 40 minutes it was time to make our presentations to the rest of the class. Each group gave their presentation whole the rest of us listened and recorded any likes, questions, ideas or. Once finished we stuck these post it notes in the appropriate part of the grid and moved on to do the same for all groups.

When everyone was finished we then got a chance to read post it notes for our group's presentation. We read through these and considered the points that had been raised and used this to refine and edit our presentation.



Next week we will be presenting our final prototypes to the school so as a group we will be meeting up to finish our presentation before this.

Week 5

This week in class we moved on to the next step of the design thinking process which was the ideation phase. Our tutor Lillian guided us through this process through a range of different activities and encouraging us to think from different points of views.

Firstly in groups we had to present our ideas to the rest the class. These were the ideas which we had previously came up with within our last session. One person from each group pitched their groups ideas and then the rest of our class collectively voted which of the ideas was their favourite. This voting system allowed each of the groups to get instant feedback from their ideas, gaging which was most/least popular and would prove very beneficial when it came to choosing an idea to prototype.

Afterwards, we got back into our groups and we got the opportunity to read each other’s blogs. As our blogs are part of our assessment and learning process where we reflect on what we have worked on in class and summarise readings and post other things we come across relating to innovation it was interesting to see other peoples interpretations and views.

As this class is a very practical, hands on class, our tutor decided to recharge our energy levels with a whole class brain break. Our tutor encouraged us to link arms with a partner and go outside and walk around discussing with each other what we would bring with us if we were going to the moon. After initially being a bit skeptical of this activity I did thoroughly enjoy the activity. Although this was a brain break activity it also formed a good introduction to the next part of the lesson. During our brain break our tutor had encouraged us to think of the most craziest and unrealistic ideas of things we could bring to the moon and our partner had to respond with encouragement and suggest other ideas. This helped prepare us for the next stage where we had to come up with seemingly wild ideas for our innovative solutions and teach us about appreciating others opinions even if you don’t agree.

Thinking of ideas in our group



Working on our ideas

When we got back inside we then were encouraged to write down any ideas to creatively and innovatively solve our ‘how might we’ problem. This could be as simple or as crazy as we wanted but we were encouraged to write as many as we could on post it notes. After this, to encourage us to think creatively, our tutor called certain famous people’s names, brands or adjectives like Barack Obama, McDonalds, smaller than a peanut or a homeless person. We then responded to this stimulus by thinking how our problem could be solved if Barack Obama was in charge or McDonalds were in charge. This was a fun activity and my group got really involved and began to think outside the box. It was freeing to know that none of our ideas
would be looked upon with judgement as we were all encouraging each other to think creatively. Afterwards we were then encouraged to take another walk outside in silence and then come back and write some more ideas individually. It was good to have this opportunity has the change in environment and scenery allowed for a catalyst of more ideas.

Organising our ideas into a grid

After this brainstorm of ideas we certainly had a lot! However the next part was to sort through these ideas. We were given a large A3 page which we split into a grid easy and difficult to implement at one side and would help many and few at another side. As a group we read out all the ideas that were on post it notes and then sorted them within the grid. This was very useful as it helped us to visually see what ideas would be the most workable and beneficial for many.








 As a group we then decided on focusing in our problem which we wanted to solve. This was formed from deciding on a problem which everyone in the group felt passionate about, wanted to change and also from votes of the whole class during the previous activity. Therefore our 'How might we' problem was that 'How Might We create a project for the students in order for them to become responsible.' We thought that this could take the form of a project of keeping the school clean/hygienic as from our visit to the school we noticed that this was a big problem. Alongside that we thought it would be exciting if the older students made some kind of campaign/project and represented that/taught it to the younger students. 

Pitching my ideas to my group

Finally, the last thing we had to do was for each person in the group to make a drawing of our favourite idea of how we could innovatively and creatively solve our 'How Might we'. We then had the opportunity to share our drawings and explain them to the rest of our group and it was encouraging and interesting to see how far we have come with this process and I am excited to see what my group is going to come up with.