Author: Jessica Scott-Dutcher

My first impression of the Sim Center, when we first walked into the floor, is that it was much nicer than I thought it would be. Not that I thought that it would be run down, or anything like that, but that someone had spent far more money on this facility than I had expected. This thought continued as we went through the different wings and saw all of the different rooms, tools, and (essentially) props that were available. For whatever reason, I had assumed that this kind of role playing would be seen as being too much like play for the medical community and would not have received this level of investment. I’m sure that assumption says more about me than it does about them, but there you go.

I think that it is interesting how much of the facility, for all of its professional seriousness, felt like play to me. Maybe it is because it reminded me of a ‘job museum’ I went to as a kid, where 10 year olds could pretend to work for the postal service or produce a news report. But, I think that the Sim Center doe have a similar sense of people trying something on to see how it fits that is in common with children at play.

I think that it is easy for us to forget how much of play is serious for children and the opportunities it gives them to practise roles they will take later in life. Much of professional development is really faking it until you make it. What if there were somewhere where people felt more comfortable saying to themselves “I am a product designer and I am going to lead this team” without feeling like a failure was going to cost them. Maybe this is something that does exist already, but not that I know of.

Spent this week evaluating chatbot products. I think api.ai is going to be the best for my purposes. Also, I’m beginning to ‘chunk’ the conversation so I can program it into the bot.

 

These are words.

Right now I’m trying to think of strategies people can use to discover their Skills, Interests, and Goals. The image is from the time I spent thinking about my own path.

Some notes from my current thinking:

Strategies/Exercies for Discovery

Self reflection exercises

Journaling

• Proprioceptive Writing
  • To carry out this practice you simply find a place where you will not be disturbed for twenty-five minutes; you light a candle, turn on Baroque music, and place a stack of unlined white paper and a pen in front of you. The candle is meant to create a sacred space for your writing and to help you focus, and Baroque music has been shown to induce the alpha brain frequency, which is the level of mind commonly associated with meditation.
• Morning Pages
  • As the name suggests, Morning Pages are to be done in the morning; the waking mind is more open to free-form writing and can more easily jump from one subject to another without the constraints set by reason.

Oblique Strategies – Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt

• Use an old idea. State the problem in words as clearly as possible. Only one element of each kind. What would your closest friend do? What to increase? What to reduce? Are there sections? Consider transitions. Try faking it!Honour thy error as a hidden intention. Ask your body. Work at a different speed.

‘Ideal World’ exercises

Questions for Discovery

What are your skills?

• Simply ask about skills
• Ask about schooling/job skills

What are your interests?

• What excites you right now?
• Try something and react to it – recommend new thing

What are your goals?

• Jobs similar to ones that you want, but are not ones that want.
• How would you describe your ideal work place?

Things I’ve read that are inspiring/informing:

http://www.cio.com/article/2386859/careers-staffing/careers-staffing-10-tips-for-making-self-evaluations-meaningful.html

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/04/elon-musk-robots-will-take-your-jobs-government-will-have-to-pay-your-wage.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-04/why-people-stay-in-jobs-they-hate

https://www.fastcompany.com/3043798/hit-the-ground-running/how-to-find-your-calling-when-youre-stuck-in-a-job-you-hate

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2012/03/17/why-you-remain-stuck-in-a-career-you-hate/2/&refURL=http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2012/03/17/why-you-remain-stuck-in-a-career-you-hate/&referrer=http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2012/03/17/why-you-remain-stuck-in-a-career-you-hate/

https://www.themuse.com/advice/help-im-stuck-at-a-job-i-hate

http://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/key-skill-assessment-improving-your-own-learning-and-performance/content-section-0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblique_Strategies

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/opinion/dalai-lama-behind-our-anxiety-the-fear-of-being-unneeded.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

I have been interviewing people who were dissatisfied with their jobs and have re-focused their careers about:

• How they made the decision to leave their job
• Their process of exploring new skills
• How they made the transition to a new career path

I’ve found that many people leave because they find their job creatively or emotionally unfulfilling, go through a period of dabbling with new skills, followed by a ‘coming to terms’ with their new interests and eventually school or a career change. My results are colored by the fact that I have only been talking to people who eventually made a change, I am talking to people with a similar educational background, and people from a similar socio-economic background. I would like to talk to a more diverse group, but it is taking a little time to contact and interview folks. (If you have any leads on people who are dissatisfied with their jobs, but have not left them please let me know. I want to talk to them!)

I interviewed people with an eye to developing an answer to the ‘How can we help learners assess their own skills when they are looking to enter a new industry?’ question I came up with last week. Now that I have conducted several interviews I am considering some kind of automated coach-bot that will help people define their interests, find related topics they might be interested in, find classes or degree programs they might like, and stay on track.

People I’ve talked to have suggested I checkout the Karen app and 30 Days of Genius series, so I’ll give those a whirl.

Next steps are, hopefully, a couple more interviews to fill out the pool and prototyping!

Reference/inspiration/things I’ve read that have informed this project so far:

http://www.citylab.com/work/2016/10/how-the-recession-upskilled-your-job/505262/0

http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf

https://www.aier.org/sites/default/files/Files/Documents/Research/3780/BCC20130401.pdf

What is the problem you’re trying to solve?

Lack of accessible, well made continuing education resources for adults who need to re-skill.

 

1) Take a stab at framing it as a design question.

How can we improve continuing education for adults, particularly in the US?

 

2) Now, state the ultimate impact you’re trying to have.

We want adults to be able to re-train to stay employable in a world where the job market will be changing very quickly, even more quickly than it is changing now.

 

3) What are some possible solutions to your problem?

Currently: community college, online learning, master’s degree programs

 

Future: VR learning, adapting flexibility of current MOOC style to better online experiences, AI coaches to help with direction and motivation, high-quality content that can be delivered by a non-expert (ie, something that teaches the teacher too, creates more teachers), change how HR assesses possible new hires, get industry more involved in choosing continuing education topics

 

4) Finally, write down some of the context and constraints that you’re facing.

Learners might not have the learning skills to teach themselves new skills.

Learners might not have access to the technologies that best allow re-skilling.

Learners might not have access to the infrastructure to use the tools (ie broadband internet).

Lack of quality teachers to create curriculum.

 

5) Does your original question need a tweak? Try it again.

How can we help learners assess their own skills when they are looking to enter a new industry?

How can we create quality, low cost material to help students learn new job skills?

How can we make sure that continuing education resources are available to as many people as possible?

How can we give as many students as possible access to great teachers?

How can we help teachers reach more students?

How do we assess what skills will be most valuable in the job market?

 

Solution Brainstorming:

This is an audio learning experience for my dad, to try and help him with his many computer problems.

Directions.
1. Take a pre-lesson evaluation here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5P5JKC6
2. Listen to the appropriate audio lesson below.
3. Take a post-lesson evaluation here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/56MVXC7

 

Installing Google Chrome

Keyboard Not Working

How To Install an External DVD Drive

Watching DVDs on the New Computer

Siri Keeps Interrupting Me

The Internet is not Working

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The directions for this assignment include the option for an audio-only learning experience. This intrigued me. It seems like video is the standard for teaching experiences right now. What can you teach someone using audio alone? I got a quick retort from my boyfriend to that question: “I know I can teach someone to install a printer on Windows XP using audio alone.” I’d totally forgotten about the hours of over-the-phone tech support that I’ve provided to my parents, and to my father especially.

That got me thinking about all of the things I’ve had to teach my dad how to do, and how tedious it often is. There are definitely some questions I’ve had to field again and again. It would be convenient, for me at least, if I had some kind of stock answer for “Why isn’t the internet working?” and “My keyboard stopped working.” That lead me to record some stock answers for these questions. Right now the recordings are just up on Soundcloud, but if the wifi is down that’s not going to be much good. Maybe some kind of Jess-tech support-hotline would be better.

This kind of project doesn’t seem to line up exactly with the pre and post lesson evaluation. Because it is essentially a how-to, rather than a concept lesson, you don’t need to know as much about their skills before the lesson. Their skill level is that they cannot solve the problem. However, post-lesson evaluation is pretty useful. I’ve included a question about if the problem is solved or not, and comment area for improving the lesson. I think the most important part, though, is the question that asks how confident the listener is that they could solve the problem themselves. Most of the issues I get from my parents are caused by a lack of confidence, than a lack of understanding. These audio walkthroughs will be most successful if they can make the listener more confident in their skills.

I’m struck this week by how dysfunctional higher education is. Between the article on the ruin of Cooper Union, the article on the USC MFA class dropping out from last week, and my discussion with classmates from abroad it honestly seems like the system will be broken no matter what. I spoke with Juan Jose and Francesca, both from Peru, who described a system of public universities that are very cheap, but often on strike. Students who want to go to a good school end up attending private universities. Adi was also part of the discussion. She’s from Spain, but went to school in the UK. It was interesting to hear her contrast the Spanish system with the UK.
After all that discussion, it really made me feel better about the US system. There is a lot that can be improved, but it seems like every system of higher education is not without its own systemic problems that governments, universities, and companies are trying to solve. Everyone is grappling with issues of public v. private schools, job training v. education for self betterment, access for poor students, and scam institutions.

Interview Notes:

Juan Jose, Peru – He went to a private university, he chose that one because only one other member of his family had been to university and it was that one. In Peru people can create universities without good teachers and you get ripped off, with a worthless degree. A new trend is that CEOs and companies are make technical universities, and training people for positions within their companies. There is less of a culture of learing things that do not seem to have job utility than in the US.

 

Adi, UK & Spain – There is a difference between here and england,  there you can study whatever you want because it’s cheap, and it’s still a respected degree. In Spain private universities are much more expensive, but easy to get in. Public universities are cheaper, but harder to get in because there is more competition. Public schools have good reputations. There isn’t as much respect for the arts in education in Spain. Adi always had to leave Spain because there are no resources for the arts, thus the study in the UK and US.

 

Francesca, Peru – You know your going to a private school, you only go to a public university if you can’t afford a private one, or if you want to go to a school with a speciality. If you’re not going to specialized school you go to a private school. Usually you study five years. School is very tied to social life, status etc. School cost depends on where you went to high school. There are price tiers. Most students go to public uni which are terrible and often on strike. You know that your parents will pay, you don’t need a loan and won’t have to pay for it yourself. Good grades alone get you in, you don’t have to worry about admission as much.

General discussion:

US degree brands have a huge value abroad. A degree from a prestige US university will almost guarantee a job. This is different form prestige schools in the UK, the degree is respected but you need to be good too. People from Spain who study abroad tend to stay abroad. Often there’s no resources or support system to go back to, but because they don’t go back there’s no resources for others. Peru has a scheme that pays for school if you come back, if you teach for two years, and then stay 2 years in the country. Also, the government makes you come back as soon as your course is over. There is no visa grace time.

In peru education of any kind is still a privilege. In Spain it is expected that you will go to university, public or private.

I came to ITP to give myself time and space to focus on my studies. Before ITP I was working at a database company on their education team. Part of the company’s goals is for their employees to have a ‘transformational career experience’. People are encourage to set personal improvement goals, attend classes, and expand their skills. This happens though in person classes at places like General Assembly, online courses with Coursera, Udacity, or straight from a university. This is how I realized that I was interested in pursuing design and technology. Even though we had work time for self improvement and the resources to do it, I felt that in order to make the leap into design I needed to make it the focus of my time.