Reflection – Visualization

Challenge & Selection     My primary goal as a Facilitator/Mentor is to create a classroom environment in which students from all  backgrounds can achieve their potential and learn to think as an Entrepreneur/Innovator. To accomplish  this goal, my teaching philosophy relies on active learning strategies.   I believe the traditional lecture is an important component of any class I teach. However, I also believe  lecturing must be combined with other teaching pedagogy, because not all students learn best from  lectures. Especially, if you are teaching Entrepreneurship, then you have to be very dynamic in teaching  patterns. Design thinking is my new research area and nowadays I try to use its maximum tools in my class.    Visualization tool is the most favorite technique of mine while in the class of Entrepreneurship. I use this  tool to share valuable insights about a problem among a diverse group of students. My students gets easily  connected through this technique and they identify possible solutions to the specific problems. We play the  game of drawing your imagination in the class without any previous artistic qualities. I instruct them to  draw whatever comes to their mind when they see a problem and identify its possible solutions. This  approach benefitted us many times. We draw a problem on the chalkboard and then try to solve it through  brainstorming and drawing tools to make it more visible, simple and lucid.    Application     Every year we conduct an Event “Product Over Weekend”. As a facilitator we are assigned few Students  Entrepreneur. We develop final prototype of their product in this event. They come up with their ideas and  we try to transfer that ideas into visualization, so that best possible solutions can be drawn for a specific  problem. First time, I started this process by illustrating a miniature doll who is facing problem. After that,  we use that doll in every entrepreneurial project and we demonstrate every important information related  to that project in a visualization format. The result of this technique was phenomenal and we could do it  beautifully.    Insight & Approach     My learning from this tool is, it gives instant results and outcomes are visible in front of your eyes. This tool  addresses every single student ranging from average to sharp mind. I felt my average student also  outperformed with the help of this tool. They started reasoning and their logical power increased.   As a Mentor, I feel the best learning comes from three steps, (a) Concept Building, (b) Show Concept in  Virtual Environment, and (c) Take them to Reality (Real World).   This tool really helped us to build prototype of the product in the virtual environment, resultant we found  solutions within the class without going outside.    Beyond that, however, it is important to be aware of other ways I can ensure an inclusive classroom  environment in which students from diverse backgrounds can excel. I encourage students from all  backgrounds to bring their best by giving them motivational examples of their own community.   What makes the life of an Entrepreneur so interesting is that it requires you to address such a wide variety  of problems - financial, material, human, legal, political, and environmental - almost every day. No other  career can provide you with such a rich mixture of challenges. If you really want your students to think like  an Entrepreneur, then you have to teach them practical world and its reality. Visualization is one of the  best tools to implement in the class to teach real world.    Reflection by Marwa Ali

