Using Visualization to create lessons about educational platforms

by Brittany Jackson

Challenge

I am a high school Spanish teacher. The challenge I selected was how to create effective online

lessons for seventh graders. During the 2013-2011 school year, following emergency situations

in my country caused by earthquakes and COVID-19, online education became the teaching

method of the public system. I could see how parents and guardians of students complained

about the lack of time and mastery of skills, both technological and content, to help their

children. Similarly, the students claimed not to have achieved the desired academic

performance due to a lack of interest and knowledge in the use of educational tools. This

situation showed me the need to create online lessons on the use of different educational

technological tools, aimed at middle school students.

Selection and Application

I decided to use Visualization to create the lessons. First, I applied several projective techniques

since they use ambiguous stimuli to achieve a projection and delve into the user's thoughts

(Nahed, Design Thinking for Innovation Module 3, n.d.) Projective techniques would allow me

to know the needs of the students regarding the technology, as well as their skills and

preferences to create a course that is attractive and enjoyable. A group of twenty seventh

grade students was sampled. They were assigned to create a mind map in which they presented

personal data, technological skills, abilities, hobbies, future plans, among others. They were

also assigned existing digital presentations from different educational platforms with short

exercises and a journal in which they had to reflect on their experience using each platform,

identifying strengths and areas of opportunity. The data obtained from the mind map and the

journals would serve as the basis for creating technological lessons on the use of the different

platforms, according to the age, abilities and areas of opportunity of the students.

The next step was to apply the Visualization. According to the designer Brittany Jackson

(Visualization Tool, Design Thinking for Innovation, Module 1), visualization allows the user to

capture information, think about it and analyze it visually, achieving the development and

synthesis of the concept. Therefore, it was necessary to integrate the visualization so that the

student could understand the content of the lesson, obtaining meaningful and lasting learning.

Visualization was used in the creation of the lessons, presenting the information through

infographics and videos showing the use of each tool on the platforms. Visualization was also

used to present exercises and execution tasks in which the student had to respond by creating

diagrams, inserting photos or drawings. The lessons were administered to the students, who

demonstrated mastery of the educational platforms through a game in which they had to pass

different levels that simulated the use of the platform's tools. Students completed the lessons

in less time than stipulated, indicating that the visuals, topics and exercises were relevant,

attractive and easy to understand.

Insight

Using Visualization and projective techniques I was able to gain an in-depth of the specific

needs of students regarding their experience, knowledge and perception of educational

technology tools. I didn't know why a middle school student couldn't understand a tutorial

despite being from the tech age. Through the data obtained, I understood that the seventh

grade students of the public educational system in my country have not been exposed to the

different educational platforms, so they have very vague knowledge about them. Furthermore,

they do not fully understand the integration of technology into education because they

associate it with playful games. In addition, I could see that the existing tutorials on the market

are created for an adult user, without thinking about the learning capacity of a preteen and the

visual tools that they need. Using these tools, I was able to see the problem from the student's

point of view and understand that their success in an online class largely depends on their

mastery of the educational platform and how the content is presented to them. This allowed

me to create lessons aimed at meeting his need.

Approach

Due to the need to quickly solve the challenge, I was only able to sample seventh graders.

However, after knowing the need for students to successfully pass the online classes, I want to

repeat the exercise with students from fourth to eighth grade since they are the ones who

depend most on an adult as a study guide, especially if they do not know the educational

platforms. I will continue to use Visualization as a tool to create effective lessons, but I will

integrate the Learning Launch Tools to iterate and reinforce the lessons each year so that more

students can benefit and take their distance learning into their own hands.

