Youth, Skills, & the Workforce of the Future
Ideakidz, Design Thinking and Innovation Challenges for kids
By ideakidz
In response to The technologies we employ:
is there a low or 'no' tech version of this curriculum which you can design as a minimum viable or 'zero phase' product, in order to ensure that the large investment needed for launching a full digital platform is made with the knowledge that that content is effective / well received and in demand by teachers and well liked by students initially?
Hello Kevin, sorry I was not aware of your comments, until today 5 days later that I was browsing the solutions, my answers bellow:
Yes, there is a lower tier of the product in terms of development and in terms of use:
IN the early stages of development: Ideakidz.org is a very simple website where you can download:
1- The teachers guide in pdf format(including information about how to launch a no tech, analog challenge in a school or institution with links to youtube videos)
2- The student booklet in pdf format
3- The blueprints/how to guides to build low cost furniture.
When ideakidz is a full developed platform it will also offer the option of only download the pdfs to offer a standalone workshop / challenge without using the platform.
In response to How we will sustain our team financially:
what is your initial thinking in terms of the fee based model for this platform - would the primary customer be schools / districts / the ministry? tell me more abou t this and what plans are in place to capture the evidence that would be needed to show that this curriculum will lead to better overall educational outcomes which the schools are already tracking (which is what they will be looking to invest their funding into)
The original idea behind ideakidz is to be a free open platform to be used by publics schools (districts or ministry included) with no fees.
The challenge sponsor plays an important financial role, the sponsor could be the government or a business, NGO, charity or individual. The sponsor provides the reward to be awarded to the winners and could finance in full or in part the implementation of the solution.
At this moment we only have access to funds by ONG and government, but looking for a sustenable model we could consider to have a fee for any other institution besides public schools, transforming ideakidz in a for profit and low cost ideation platform.
For a later stage, and no directly related to ideakidz, we are considering to create a network of for profit private schools to teach design thinking, coding and promote entrepreneurship to kids between 10 and 16 years, part of the profits could help to run the free initiative, and we could provide full scholarships to the winners of certain challenges in the public schools system.
For the winners of challenges we will be looking for educational experiences, like educational trips, micro internships in companies or cultural travel experiences with an aspirational component.
About the
The students winners of the challenges could receive training and access to materials to became coaches or facilitators in new challenges.
We are interested in promote creativity, innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship in the students, and to provide rich educational experiences to the winners, hopping that it will be reflected in their educational outcomes, but we are not trying to improve their current grades per se, the skill development we are looking for is not included in the actual plan in Mexican public schools.
In response to Why our solution is human-centered:
what infrastructure or relationships are in place in order for the training needed to be delivered to schools / teachers in the public school system?
At first the training infrastructure will consist of a set of pdf materials for download and instructional videos on how to offer the workshop, use the student materials and how to launch a challenge with or without the platform.
In selected cities training will be offered in a regular basis with the help of NGOs and volunteers.
The sponsor will have the option to cover the cost of training for teachers and schools in their respective challenge. in those cases the training will be offered by ideakidz or by certified volunteers.
In response to How we will measure our progress:
by which date would you expect to try and hit these 3 outcomes?
10,000 design thinking workshops downloaded by December 2019
1000 challenges designed, created and launched by August 2019
100 innovation spaces created in public schools by August 2019
In response to Our target outcomes:
tell me more about how the low cost furniture design fits into this approach.
We have learned that space is an enabler for creativity, collaboration and innovation. You could use the design of space as a way to promote behaviours.
The idea of allow the kids, the teachers, the school or the community to transform collaborativelly their classrooms into innovation spaces is a way to boost the creativity and create a sense of ownership for those spaces.
We would propose the creation of roles and responsabilities for students in the transformed classroom for example caretaker, space manager, facilitator, etc. based on the use of the furniture.
We have been surprised to found that the low cost furniture design is maybe the most popular aspect of the ideakidz project with the NGOs we are working, at this moment we have 18 low-cost whiteboards in our innovation center and a couple of companies in our city have started to create their own with our open source design.
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