Thesis Blog Post Week #1
Hopes, Fears and Early Topic Ideas
As I embark upon the most important project of my post-graduate program, I am filled with a mixture of hopes and fears. I’m so excited to finally be able sink my teeth into a project solely of my own design, to be shaped by my careful thought and the skills that I have acquired throughout my first year in the IxD program and a lifetime of experience that includes an MPA in public and non-profit management, working in higher education and motherhood.
I have known since my children’s education went remote in the spring that I would like to tackle some aspect of the myriad problems that have arisen from mass remote learning plans. But as a thought exercise, I sat down to brainstorm some other ideas. Below is a brief summary of these ideas.
Problem Idea #1: Voter Registration
Voter registration only becomes a major focal point during presidential election years, otherwise pushed to the back burner. How can a voter a registration system be harnessed to expand the base of voters throughout the 4-year election cycle?
More than 15 million people have turned 18 since the last presidential election, and these youngest eligible voters form a diverse, active, and potentially decisive voting bloc in the 2020 elections. In 2016, nearly 100 million eligible Americans did not cast a vote for president, representing 43% of the eligible voting-age population.
As states have worked to boost civic engagement and voter participation, most have adopted preregistration laws, or laws that allow teenagers to register to vote before they will be eligible to cast ballots. Preregistration increases the probability that young voters will participate in elections. The probability that youth will vote increases in states with preregistration laws by an average of 2 percentage points to 13 percentage points.
Problem Idea #2: The Scientific Truth
If you cannot trust the information provided by government agencies because the actual facts have been obfuscated by a corrupt administration, where can you find the scientifically-prove truth regarding safety protocols, testing, symptoms, infection and death rates, data tracking, travel restrictions and requirements?
Pieces of truthful data exist on different sites but do not reside in one place where they can be aggregated together. The CDC, FDA and NIH have been corrupted by the Trump administration, where can people turn for trustworthy information to protect themselves and their families? In the age of social media, the amount of wrong and confused information that gets passed around eventually turns into “fact” by repetition.
Problem Idea #3: Remote Learning
Navigation of a highly individualized patchwork of web services, apps, software and processes lacking uniformity even within an enclosed school system coupled with tech, hardware and WiFi demands not usually required for elementary-age education at an unprecedented volume has created a cumbersome and chaotic learning environment rife with opportunities for refinement.
