In the Fall Semester 2020, I was a member of an interdisciplinary team led by the iConsult Collaborative at the School of Information Studies (iSchool). We developed a minimally viable product for teaching about foreign assistance in civics education at the middle and high school levels as part of a TOPx Sprint sponsored by agency leads.
Agency leads on the project were the U.S. Department of State, Office of Foreign Assistance and the U.S. Census Bureau, Census Open Innovation Labs. During the kickoff event, the agency leads presented the problems the project sought to address and the scope. The problem was identified as the American public’s lack of knowledge about and misinformation regarding foreign assistance. Our task was to create a digital product such as a website, application, or game that teachers and/or learners could use to reach understandings of how foreign assistance works by accessing, analyzing, and evaluating data available on government websites.
We performed a needs analysis by surveying and interviewing user advocates. We also examined data sets, dashboards, and other digital media related to foreign assistance. Then we designed a preliminary concept for the digital tool leading to a concept pitch. I presented the concept pitch at a milestone meeting. The slides below depict the product I pitched.
For our prototype, we developed content for a lesson on foreign assistance related to the concept of ‘Buying American.’ First, we created a video about the concept of buying American which introduced key terms and concepts in the unit. I was responsible for designing, developing, and producing the video, which is embedded below.
The team developed lessons with the video as its basis that encouraged in-depth understanding of the concept of buying American based on analysis and evaluation of data on foreign assistance.
We presented our final product to the agency leads and other project teams in November 2020.