Thesis
Spring Semester — Week 1
CHANGE OF TOPIC
Over break I decided to pivot my thesis to focus on literacy. I’d been thinking about creating a way for my kids to “correspond” with their cousins (one who is just starting to sound out words and to write, the other is pre-literate). One morning, I woke up and had this Eureka moment, that I could possibly develop a project that focused on literacy.
From the beginning, this second topic has been clearer to me than my original project and easier to wrap my mind around. So, I spent a couple of days working through the design sprint process to see whether changing my focus would be viable. It also helped me identify my reluctance moving forward with the original project:
1. I basically need to create an LMS for primary school, since all the existing ones are for Higher Ed. I think that it’s too big a project for one person to visualize, test and be able to present concisely. This isn’t an app with 3 tabs.
2. What would be the point of designing a system that will not get used post-COVID. Yes, I can argue that it could have long-term applications if schools continue to use the LMS, but arguing that is flimsy at best. There are plenty of lessons to be learned about remote learning, but when comes to primary school, no one is going to argue for continued remote learning nor expanded screen time.
3. While I could design a back-end LMS simply for school admin planning/ organizing, I find that really boring. I wouldn’t want to work on that at all.
EXPLORING LITERACY
My premise is that the building blocks of literacy (reading and writing) require practice for mastery, and yet I have observed few structured opportunities that exist outside the classroom for children to develop writing skills while genuinely having fun. So I started exploring how to help elementary-age children develop literacy skills through engaging writing and story building activities.
Why is writing important?
Writing equips us with communication and thinking skills, expresses who we are as people, makes our thinking and learning visible and permanent and fosters our ability to explain and refine our ideas to others and ourselves. Practicing writing helps a child learn vocabulary words, sentence structure, spelling, and story structure, which all help in building a stronger reader.
CONCEPT
My initial solution is a physical product, a themed subscription box that includes the following components: letter writing and correspondence, imaginary play, craft creation, story building and creative writing, reading and watching animated books. It would be a tiered subscription-based on age/ grade and include a bundle option to connect two long-distance friends.
