Define

The image above is a screenshot taken the Introduction to Design Thinking Process Guide from Stanford's d.school.

The LEADing Techquity project approached the definition stage of design two ways: first, participants defined the way they experienced the intersection of equity work and technology integration by formulating rough draft inquiry questions, and secondly, they identifyied the shifts they hoped to see as a result of techquity work.

First definition: Creating design challenges

In our first design day professional learning we brought the school teams together and asked them, using this agenda and this slide presentation, to review the data we'd collected from focus group interviews in the form of transcript excerpts (linked below).

Excerpt 1 CMS

Excerpt 2 CMS

Excerpt 3 CMS

Excerpt 1 PLE

Excerpt 2 PLE

Excerpt 3 PLE

From that data, they defined design challenges for a group of external stakeholders who came in with little background about the project and designed according to the specifications of the school teams. 

This slide served as a prompt for participants to use as they reviewed transcript data.

This slide, along with the support of Ed Tech coaches, prompted the teams to create design challenges.

 One school developed the following three design challenges and, in doing so, defined their site-specific interest in the project. 

*What types of experiences can we create that give students opportunities to use:

• collaboration

• creativity

• asking questions and giving & receiving feedback

• world/relevant topics

*How can we create digital lesson plans that allow the teachers to change, interact, modify to meet the needs of their students? 

*What resources can we create or curate that would allow students to:

• self-assess

• goal-set

• demonstrate knowledge

• regular feedback

Second Definition: Defining changes in practice

In the school-specific design days that followed the larger gathering, we asked participants to quick-write on sticky notes about the changes in practice they hoped would result from this professional learning project. We shared with them this synthesis of focus group conversations and interviews (which originally appeared here).

Our big themes of culturally responsive education are relationships, cultural identity, vulnerability, asset-focused factors, rigor and engagement. As this techquity project moves forward and the educator teams increasingly connect equity learning with ed tech planning, I expect to see our work change in the following ways: 

From creating rules and consequences about the use of digital tools to identifying ways these tools support relationship building and lead to more student engagement.
From direct instruction about how to use software to contextualized learning about how digital tools help us explore cultural identity.
From celebration of digital tools and their potential to active discovery of learners' assets and a concerted effort to build on their potential.

We prompted the the quick-writes with this: "In order to create more equitable teaching and learning, educational technology in schools (your content area) might move away from ___________ and shift to _______________." The responses of all stakeholders populated a composite two column chart which served as a formative assessment of the professional learning. This is noteworthy because instead of asking schools to implement the synthesis above, we asked them to think through the implications of the work that matter most to them in response to the synthesis. 

The snapshots below highlight some of the participants ideas that arose:

This formative assessment served as valuable information for the Ed Tech team and Remi Holden as they reviewed and commented on the ways participants synthesized this equity work. The screenshot below illustrates how the team revisited participant contributions.

This informal and sometimes messy work that took place on sticky notes and in digital margins was one process of definition, in which a range of stakeholders worked to identify the "right problem" from their perspectives. (Park Lane's agenda is here and the slide presentation is here. Columbia's agenda is here and the slide presentation is here.)

A researcher's definition

This rich data supported still more synthesis, this time done by Remi Holden who used the from-to concept to articulate the overarching problems of practice in this paper he would present at the 2016 Digital Media and Learning Conference. The screenshot below is an excerpt from that paper.