Reflection – Visualization

Challenge and selection

As a comuunicator for development, I took an university subject about participatory  methodologies, which we could use within different communities to help them improve some  aspects in ther daily live or maybe to help them with any especific goal they wanted to  achieve. My group and I decided to work with a group of children who live in a low resources  community of Lima, called “El Brillante” (“The shiny one”). This community had a small but  well appointed library for children (books and different kind of games), however they wasn’t  taking advantage of it, since children were using it basically as a meeting point with their  friends in order to play inside (though they used to play anything but with the games the  library offered). Though playing is a good thing, we wanted to know why children weren’t   interested in all the different stuff and benefits the library had for them.

Visualization is a tool that allow us to make the ideas more understandable in front of an  audience, it facilitates alignment between the people through making the ideas more  “tangible”. This tool was very helpful in this case specially because children use to get easily  distracted and it’s necessary to have consolidated information in a graphic way so they can  also easily resume the ideas we are talking about.

Application

We used visualization tool in different ocasions. As kids, they need the information to be clear,  fun and easy to understand so they can feel they can participate and give their opinion about  it. One of the tasks we asked them was to represent their ideal library with different materials  like papers, pencils, crayons and magazines pictures. Although this task was mainly executed  by them, it helped us to identify some lacks in the library like the need to be a more playful  and colorful space.

Then, another day, we asked them to tell us the things they liked to do the best and disliked to  do the most in the library. We wrote all the ideas down on different color papers and also  drew the principal thing related to each theme, then we stick them to the wall and asked them  to arrange the ideas by similarities, always with our help. There, we found out that just some  of them liked some board games, puppets and very short tales with many pictures, as well as  drawing and painting (though they weren’t doing it regularly), while other kids just liked to run  and play other kind of group games with their friends.

Another day, we asked them to think about how to improve the library itself. And then, on a  flipchart, we stick the things they disliked to do the most (previous task) in a left column while  in the right one we stick the ideas they gave us about improving the library. The objective of  this exercise was to clear up whether the ways to enhance the library were related to the  things they didn’t liked to do in it. So we gave the children some color threads and they had to  join the ideas of the two columns if they consider one of them could help to explain another  one. This way we discover, for instance, that some children didn’t like to read books or they  couldn’t finish them because they feel they need someone to guide them, but now there was

nobody to do it. Another idea to improve the library was to get more papers for them to draw,  since they liked to do it but there was not enough material for it. Things like these made the  problem more understandable for us. There were, for instance, logistics needs related to the  children motivation for using the library as such.

Insight and appproach

We discover that sometimes children need guidance and monitoring in order to something get  to be liked by them or just to be done by them. It’s useless to have a library for children if they  don’t feel a connection with it, so it’s important to identify the factors that could help them to  feel more attached with it. Visualization tool not only helped them to see and link the ideas we  showed, but also helped us as a researchers. The insights we found out didn’t affect our  thinking about the challenge, but allow us to have a wider vision about the situation. Finally, I  think the approach was useful too because it’s essential to involve the people who might be  affected by the result later, so they can feel they are part of the solution and that they are  more empowered to do different things.


Reflection – Visualization Challenge and selection As a comuunicator for development , I took an university subject about participatory methodologies , which we could use within different communities to help them improve some aspects in ther daily live or maybe to help them with any especific goal they wanted to achieve . My group and I decided to work with a group of children who live in a low resources community of Lima , called “ El Brillante ” ( “ The shiny one ” ) . This community had a small but well appointed library for children ( books and different kind of games ) , however they was n’t taking advantage of it , since children were using it basically as a meeting point with their friends in order to play inside ( though they used to play anything but with the games the library offered ) . Though playing is a good thing , we wanted to know why children were n’t interested in all the different stuff and benefits the library had for them . Visualization is a tool that allow us to make the ideas more understandable in front of an audience , it facilitates alignment between the people through making the ideas more “ tangible ” . This tool was very helpful in this case specially because children use to get easily distracted and it ’s necessary to have consolidated information in a graphic way so they can also easily resume the ideas we are talking about . Application We used visualization tool in different ocasions . As kids , they need the information to be clear , fun and easy to understand so they can feel they can participate and give their opinion about it . One of the tasks we asked them was to represent their ideal library with different materials like papers , pencils , crayons and magazines pictures . Although this task was mainly executed by them , it helped us to identify some lacks in the library like the need to be a more playful and colorful space . Then , another day , we asked them to tell us the things they liked to do the best and disliked to do the most in the library . We wrote all the ideas down on different color papers and also drew the principal thing related to each theme , then we stick them to the wall and asked them to arrange the ideas by similarities , always with our help . There , we found out that just some of them liked some board games , puppets and very short tales with many pictures , as well as drawing and painting ( though they were n’t doing it regularly ) , while other kids just liked to run and play other kind of group games with their friends . Another day , we asked them to think about how to improve the library itself . And then , on a flipchart , we stick the things they disliked to do the most ( previous task ) in a left column while in the right one we stick the ideas they gave us about improving the library . The objective of this exercise was to clear up whether the ways to enhance the library were related to the things they did n’t liked to do in it . So we gave the children some color threads and they had to join the ideas of the two columns if they consider one of them could help to explain another one . This way we discover , for instance , that some children did n’t like to read books or they could n’t finish them because they feel they need someone to guide them , but now there was nobody to do it . Another idea to improve the library was to get more papers for them to draw , since they liked to do it but there was not enough material for it . Things like these made the problem more understandable for us . There were , for instance , logistics needs related to the children motivation for using the library as such . Insight and appproach We discover that sometimes children need guidance and monitoring in order to something get to be liked by them or just to be done by them . It ’s useless to have a library for children if they do n’t feel a connection with it , so it ’s important to identify the factors that could help them to feel more attached with it . Visualization tool not only helped them to see and link the ideas we showed , but also helped us as a researchers . The insights we found out did n’t affect our thinking about the challenge , but allow us to have a wider vision about the situation . Finally , I think the approach was useful too because it ’s essential to involve the people who might be affected by the result later , so they can feel they are part of the solution and that they are more empowered to do different things .