Assignment 2: POV and Experience Prototypes

Team 2: Chris B., Christina G., Cindy T.Studio: EducationDomain: We are interested in history education and how it relates to current events.

Initial POVWe met Noël, an active and busy high school junior. We were amazed to learn that she refrains from learning about current events, because she feels little to no connection to them, and they’re upsetting. It would be game-changing if there was a way for people to easily sift through the news.

Additional Needfinding Results

We met with Sandra, a former high school and middle school history teacher. She believes that young people today have a skewed perspective on current events because they rely on social media and don’t check sources or accuracy of information, leading to them being more reactionary. She explains that, in teaching history, it “is presented as the past, as a relic - not something that we’re living, when it is.”

We spoke with Noël, a current high school student in Mississippi. Noël explained that she rarely looks at the news anymore because it is upsetting and she does not feel like anything directly affects her.

We spoke with Eva, a former high school history teacher from Hungary who taught in both Budapest and Canada. Eva believes history education is too focused on events and numbers rather than the emotions that drove the history. In order to teach history as something that is relatable to today, it is important to teach why things happened and not just that they happened.

We spoke with Daniel, a former high school History teacher. He stated that a significant problem with history education in general is bias in presentation. Oftentimes, facts will be skewed and slanted from a specific perspective. To overcome this, he relies heavily on

primary sources and classroom debates to encourage students to think/reflect on their information. He stated that while teaching, you need to shoot for the “middle student.”

We spoke with Michael, a basketball coach and AP World History teacher at North Point High School in Waldorf, MD. Michael was very enthusiastic about the way that he educated his students, and expressed the belief that good teachers directly influence the success of their students. He stated that students know almost nothing about other perspectives - when the students come in, they’re predominantly Christian and from a Western perspective. He strives to teach the students about other religions, faiths, cultures, etc.

We spoke with Alia, a Junior from Maryland who is very interested in international relations. She has a passion for history, and, as an African American Muslim, says that historical movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Civil Rights movement affect how she views herself, and her place in the world. She expressed concern about how history was often expressed from just a single perspective.

Revised POVs; HMWs

POV 1: NoëlWe met Noël, an involved high school junior. We were amazed to learn that she refrains from learning about current events, because she feels little to no connection to them, and they’re upsetting. It would be game-changing if she were able to relate directly to the news/current events.

How might we...● help students feel connected to current events?● help students feel more empowered to change current news they find upsetting?● show students what effects current events have directly on their lives?● make the world’s news appear to be less upsetting? ● broaden students’ perceptions of relevant information?● teach empathy through a classroom community? ● leverage the power of students’ peers to demonstrate the relevance of history?● get students to feel a sense of agency in making an impact?● make complicated current events easier to digest for students?● help make news stories seem less distant?

POV 2: Eva We met with Eva, a former high school history teacher from Hungary who taught in both Budapest and Canada. We were amazed to realize she believes the emotional motivations and reactions behind history are more important than the numbers and events themselves, in helping to understand why events occurred as they did and being able to apply this knowledge in the future. It would be game-changing to help students see history from an empathetic perspective.

How might we...● help students understand the emotions involved in historical events?● help students apply their knowledge of history to current events?● provide students with a framework for understanding emotions in history?● help students empathize with historical communities?● make historical people/situations more relatable?● make history feel more concrete?● remove history from pure numbers and events?● give meaning and personification to the numbers - cementing their weight within the

mind of the student. ● show students how to extend past social climates to the modern world (“History doesn’t

repeat itself, but it often rhymes”?)● draw from human perspectives to create empathy about historical events (primary

sources, family members’ stories, etc.)?

POV 3: MichaelWe met Michael, a history teacher from Southern Maryland. We were surprised to learn that his Junior high school students, when coming in, had little to no knowledge of history outside of a Western perspective. It would be game changing if we were able to familiarize students with global perspectives.

How might we…● demonstrate objective historical events from multiple perspectives?● utilize individuals of diverse backgrounds to relate their opinions on issues?● allow students to familiarize themselves with global perspectives while navigating

emotionally driven issues?● use multiple perspectives to show and teach recognizing and balancing biases?● leverage students’ interests in own heritage/background to make history more relatable

across identity lines?● introduce critical thinking along with new global perspectives?● help teachers gather perspectives on historical events from other countries?● teach empathy to students?● challenge the perception of students without offending them?● influence local school systems to think globally?

3 best HMW statements & which POVs they came from:● How might we leverage the power of students’ peers to demonstrate the relevance of

history? (POV )● How might we help students empathize with historical communities/people/situations?

(POV2)● How might we demonstrate objective historical events from multiple perspectives?

(POV3)

Experience Prototype 1

With the first prototype, we wanted to test the assumption that students are most interested in learning about history if they feel like they are directly connected to it. To test this assumption, we first made a Google form (shown below) asking people “Can you tell us a cool story from your past, or from your family’s past?” We sent the form out to a freshmen dorm of eighty students to gather stories.

We then extracted bits of historical information from the stories we gathered. Afterwards, we talked to a few members of the dorm (two pictured below) and asked them what they knew about the historical events mentioned, if they remember learning it in high school, and if so, how engaging they remember the lesson to be. We then shared the story of one of their own dorm-mates that demonstrates a personal tie to that same historical event.

The responses we received were very similar among the three students we interviewed. Students unfamiliar with the topic were especially interested in learning more after finding out these stories came from their dormmates -- people in their community. Students who did know about the topic mentioned having that personal connection amplified their interest and made it

feel like the history was more relevant. By doing this experience prototype, we confirmed our assumption that students are more interested in learning history if they feel personally connected to it.

Experience Prototype 2

With the second experience prototype, we wanted to test the assumption that students are more interested in personal accounts of history, and that they would be more interested in learning about the history of a location that they are connected to. To do this, we compiled two sets of documents on the history of locations in Tressider Union, specifically Panda Express and Starbucks, and placed them on a digital tablet. In the first set of documents, we presented the historical background and missions of the companies, as demonstrated from a 3rd person perspective. In the second set, we presented first person accounts from the founders of the companies - stories about their struggles, and summaries in their own words.

To test these prototypes, we took a student to the various locations in Tressider union that we compiled documentation for, and then had them read the historical background, and asked them a few questions. Then, we loaded up the personal accounts, and had them repeat the process.

The results provided interesting insights. The user expressed that immersion within the specific place and time - the restaurant which they were learning about - helped to cement their understanding of the historical context. In addition, while our tests, as expected, revealed that the user related much more to the historical accounts of the founders than the 3rd person summary, they also expressed that they were dissuaded by the perspectives that related closely

to them. When talking about the story told by Andrew Cheng, an immigrant who founded Panda Express, and his childhood - our user expressed boredom with a story that was so similar to her own. Although we were not expressing this insight, it complied with some of our other insights from teachers and students who expressed a desire for more diversity in their education.

Experience Prototype 3

With this prototype, we tested the assumption that people want to learn about history as they travel, and that they are interested in the concrete events in history that they can relate to by associating them with their immediate physical environment/an individual. In order to test this assumption, we recruited an individual to test the prototype, a Stanford senior named Rachael. We asked her before meeting with her to name a few places she might be interested in traveling to in the future. She mentioned Hiroshima, as she is part Japanese, and has always wanted to spend time in Japan. After doing research, we found a primary source of a historical event in the area (http://www.sbs.com.au/hiroshima/). Then, we asked Rachael to read the account and give us her opinions.

After reading the account, we asked Rachael a few questions, including how reading the account felt different from learning about the event in school, and how it affected her perception of the event and learning about it.

Rachael made similar points as the educators we interviewed. She believed the account was “much more powerful” and memorable than learning about the event in history class, because there was “warmth in the text versus cold facts”. She says she would enjoy having access to primary sources while traveling to learn more about her destination.

By doing this experiment prototype, we confirmed the assumption that people would both be interested in and find use for a tool to read primary sources associated with the places they want to visit, as well as that would learn better from relating to the human element of the primary source.

Most Successful PrototypeWe found that the first prototype was the most successful and managed to best

encapsulate the themes common to the POVs of both the students and educators interviewed. By simultaneously leveraging the power of community and presenting history from a more relatable, individual, and human perspective, we were surprised to find a remarkably mutually beneficial common ground between the desires of educators to teach more than pure numbers and the interests of students themselves.