The 2009 Imagine Cup asked individuals to design something that would help solve the world’s toughest problems. The problem we decided to focus on dealt in the realm of education: teacher training. If we could develop something that could help teachers be able to help their students learn the material better, we could help in creating a world that is more educated and ready to tackle tougher problems.
The How
We first began our design by researching the United Nations’ Millennium Goals. One of these goals was to help create a universal foundation for education – as this was a topic that appealed to both of us. We then began to look inside of the realm of education to see where we can start to design from, and we found that it is quite hard for new teachers to “learn the ropes”. They are often thrown “into the fire” and expected to learn on their own or from other teachers.
It was from this last aspect of our research that we decided to focus on – giving teachers a means to contact each other for help. This led us to the creation of Social EduTraining, an online place for teachers to look up new ways of teaching and different types of methods to try to teach “dry” material to students. Teachers can view the different types of training available, submit new types of methods and techniques, request new types of training and projects, and also see what new work teachers are contributing to the field.
After submitting our concept to the 2009 Imagine Cup, we were invited to the semi-finals, where we created a low-fidelity prototype of what our design would function like. You can view our low-fidelity prototype by clicking here.
Collaborators
Other Materials
First Round Imagine Cup Submission
Photos