This past week we worked with both the students and the children. What I noticed most about working with these two groups is the similarities in how we approach “training” versus “teaching” and the vast differences in how the two groups receive our efforts. With the students they are energetic, excited and eager to learn. We teach in a very open environment, giving their creativity the most room to expand and grow while directing their efforts and providing support. With the teachers most seem uninterested, resistant, and lack general motivation. With this group, although we try and engage in basic activities, our teaching seems to be more forced and includes less creativity, exploration and self realization. It comes as a strange dissonance the distinct differences and needs of the two sepearte groups and our lack of addressing them. I think some of the practices that we use with kids, trusting them to go above and beyond the expectations, we dumb down to use with the teachers, expecting them to meet the bare minimum requirements (if met at all).

I believe instead of ignoring these differences and trying to engage the teachers in similar ways we engage the students, it would be beneficial to recognize the needs and motivations of the teachers. If we can effectively structure our training around what will actively engage the teachers and can position ourselves as a helping hand rather than an additional burden maybe they will start to recognize the value in the use of the XO. In short, if we can solve some basic problems the teachers encounter everyday by using XO they may be more willing to adopt the use them in a productive manner in their own classroom. For example: In a conversation I had with another intern, he brought up the fact that in most schools daily notes are handwritten on the board. In addition, test’s are handwritten many times over to be able to pass out to the students. If we can show the teachers how to use write to make abbreviated notes and share them with a class through the XO neighborhood to avoid hand writing them on the board or type out tests in “write” so they can print multiple copies and use the same set of questions from year to year to avoid redundant work, then maybe we can achieve the teachers support and inspire motivation to continue to learn the XO. Instead of imposing our training on the teachers and giving them more problems to deal with, I think it would be greatly beneficial to dig into these teachers’ everyday hassles and issues. By developing easy solutions using the XO to solve some of the problems they deal with it may help them realize their value. The main issue I’m interested in is “audience” and knowing their distinct set of needs and issues. To ensure utility maximization and project longevity I think we need to focus on how to satisfy all stakeholders involved, this will undoubtedly require distinctly separate strategies. After all, isn’t technology supposed to make our lives easier?