Culminating Activity – Prototype
Joanne Kehoe
Now it’s time to try out your chosen technology and design a prototype of your creation.
Prototyping can sound daunting if you think of it in relation to engineering or lab work. But at its basic level, it involves putting a small tangible creation in front of your users instead of talking about abstract ideas. It can result in much richer feedback from the people that matter to you and your work. The basic steps are:
- Design
- Share
- Refine
Experimentation and play are essential for getting to know a tool and discovering what works well within a design. But when it comes to creating something entirely new, it’s best to approach it with a well-thought-out vision of what you want the end result to be.
If you select a technology from one of the resources included in one of The How To’s, you will have access to its guided lessons and activities that will help you get started. If you decide to explore new terrain through a tool or technology from another list, you will have to do a bit more planning.
The Technology-Enabled Learning Activity Planning Document is is an example of one way to map out the planning process, but you might want to develop your own planning notes based on your preferences.
Design
Now that you’ve mapped out a plan, how do you actually want to prototype? We suggest one of two ways:
- Dig in to the Tool
- Use Creative Materials
Dig in to the Tool
If you decide to take the leap and start working with the tool, keep in mind that this requires dedicated time. If it’s your first time using the tool, go through any tutorials provided, or search for some online – undoubtedly there are others that you can learn from. Also reassure yourself that this prototype does not need to solve the learner challenge entirely – perhaps it is just one aspect of the challenge that you’ve uncovered. Start small. That’s the whole idea behind prototyping – you create what is known as the “minimal viable product”.
Use Creative Materials: Prototype with Post-it notes
You can always take a cautionary, but equally valuable approach by mocking up your prototype using post-it notes. Post-it notes can help you storyboard and prioritize the sequence of interactions that support the use of your technology. You can add steps in and move them around, and ultimately end up with a series of instructions that can help frame the activity for your learner.
Share
Share your creation with peers or learners and obtain feedback. Ask them the following:
- What worked?
- What didn’t work?
- What questions do you have?
- Do you have any ideas for me to consider?
You may want to use the Design thinking Feedback grid pdf form – it’s fillable or you can print it out.
Refine
Based on their responses, you can now take the necessary steps to synthesize that feedback in order to refine your creation. And it’s important to recognize that often it isn’t practical or beneficial to fix every perceived issue from your users. You might want to take the feedback received and prioritize it based on feasibility and how it works to evolve the best solution for your learner challenge.
Extend Activity – Connect to Your Curriculum
This exercise has you thinking about how you will integrate technology into your curriculum, now it’s time to think about how you will, ‘integrate this integration’. Just as an architect would envision users of a new building walking through it, you need to craft an implementation plan as to how your learners will progress through your tech creation as an activity.
You might want to storyboard the process, or create a checklist. Either way, map and clearly sequence the instructions you will give your learners. Make sure to indicate how the different elements fit together and link the activity to your learning outcomes. If you get to this point and cannot connect your technology creation/activity back to your course learning outcomes, it is definitely cause for attention.
Sharing your technology enabled creation
- Write a reflective blog post or discussion board post that includes an explanation of the context and reasons why you choose to use a technology-enabled solution for your learning challenge. Include your process for empathizing and defining your learner challenge, the steps you took in ideating and prototyping your technology creation as well as your planned implementation. Make sure to include a link or screenshot of the technology creation in your response.
- Share a link as well to your creation
After writing about your solution share it in your work notes, blog, and/or the discussion below. Include any references, links, media that will help a reader better understand what you created (and why).
Tool Exploration
As you have journeyed through the steps of the Technologist Module, you may have discovered some new tools, tips and tricks along the way. Is there a resource that should be added to the resources section of this module? Add it to our EdTech Tools Padlet.
If you have completed the following activities, you are ready to apply for your Ontario Extend Technologist Badge. This submission requires evidence of your work so you should assemble a summary if all activity into a blog post, a document sharable at a URL, or some other document you can upload as a file (10Mb maximum).
As a reminder, these are the requirements to earn your badge.
- Assessed my digital literacy for teaching.
- Identified a challenge for my learners.
- Mind-mapped and selected an educational technology to help address this challenge.
- Developed, obtained feedback and refined a prototype of my technology creation.
- Connected the technology to my curriculum.
- Shared my technology creation.
- Reflected on the design thinking approach used to create a technology-enabled solution for a learning challenge.
You can now apply for your Technologist Badge!
