Columbia EdTech Design Challenge
Utilizing Columbia and the Lemann Foundation to improve Brazil´s special education system with tech.
Objective:
Wireframe and design a prototype website for an app that assists in connecting special needs student, parents, and other stake holders to empower the students to their full potential.
Skills:
Need finding, wire-framing, design
How it works:
Every special ed student has an individualized education plan already. It's usually a thick stack of papers filled with legalese and is updated every so often. Based on user research in Brazil, we found IEPs to be little utilized by both parents and non-teacher stakeholders because of the denseness.
Olhares allows for easy contact between teachers, parents, and other stakeholders but most importantly turns the IEP into a living document on the internet. This allows for more parental engagement and provides progressive milestones that will simplify the teacher's workflow into a simple print button once they need to update IEP according to law.
With small adjustments such as simplified status updates and color coordination to indicate contributions, I took a lot of inspiration from social media sites and hoped to incorporate productivity elements of slack in order maximize engagement and information access. The goal is for a full prototype to launch some time next year in Brazil after the challenge ends and to see how the populace might engage with it. Click the first image above to access the prototype site.