Bria Koch

3.d. : Stay abreast of educational research and emerging trends regarding effective use of technology and encourage evaluation of new technologies for their potential to improve student learning.

​

Artifact: 

• Prototyping project analysis report

 

Description:

During the spring of 2017, I took GDIT 716: Design of the Learner Experience with Dr.
Misook Heo. This course looked at the ways in which tools are designed for a variety of users.
For the main project, we were to work with a partner or a small group to design an application
or service that facilitated behavior change of individuals. I chose to work with Ms. Brinley
Kantorski for this course-long assignment. To make this project more manageable and to
allow us to truly understand the process of designing, we were required to complete many
smaller assignments including observations, user testing and feedback, design mock ups, and
interactive prototypes. We decided to redesign a student data reporting tool, the Bibliotech

Teacher Dashboard, that Ms. Kantorski’s employer was developing. For this standard, I am
focusing specifically on the prototyping project analysis report that Ms. Kantorski and I completed.
This report discusses our methodology, our major and detailed findings and recommendations,
and artifacts from the user study tests. I conducted all of the observations of the participants

(both asking questions and writing responses). In addition, I compiled the figures that we

included in our final report.

 

Reflection:

The completion of the prototyping analysis report assignment enabled us to move through the process of technology evaluation. Though I evaluate software quite frequently in my position as a technology facilitator, this was the first time that I had the opportunity to observe someone else. In my role, I typically look at a piece of software from both the teacher and student perspective, but it’s often difficult for me to truly understand how some of my colleagues navigate through something new. This was particularly apparent during my observation of my one colleague in third grade. She immediately opened the prototype in Internet Explorer. When she couldn’t get it to work, rather than simply trying another browser, she had no idea what to do so the observation came to a halt. This was the one instance where I had to step in as an observer and redirect her in order to complete the rest of the evaluation. Though it was something seemingly simple, it was something that had never occurred because my browser of choice is Chrome. Without observing this particular participant, we never would have realized it’s lack of compatibility with Internet Explorer.

​

My colleagues were very willing to participate in both observations that I conducted, and they happily completed the survey which provided us with valuable feedback in the design of our prototype. I appreciated their honesty throughout the process because their constructive criticism helped us to make some major changes.

​

Through this assignment, I learned how to formally evaluate a new technology. Using the Bibliotech Teacher Dashboard from Ms. Kantorski's employer, we determined its effectiveness using three elementary school teachers. The data that we compiled from our participants, helped us identify problems that typical users would likely encounter. As a result, we were able to propose solutions and find ways to improve the software based on their feedback.