DtM Heads to Bangladesh for Field Study

March 26, 2006 Timothy Prestero, founder of Design that Matters, together with a field team of university students and project engineers, is traveling to Bangladesh this week to present design concepts to the Centre for Mass Education. The goal of this week's trip is to present design concepts to CMES, conduct field observations and continue to assess the client's needs. Together with Timothy Prestero, the field team includes Holly Kretschmar and Sally Madsen from IDEO; and Stanford graduate students Atsushi Suzuki and Emily Ford. The Design that Matters field team will present five design concepts to Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim, founder of CMES. The concepts will serve as a catalyst for further discussion about CMES needs. Field team members will then be able to take this insight back to their design teams at IDEO, Stanford and MIT, and move toward prototype development and project fulfillment.

Design that Matters goal is to develop a full-function alpha prototype by the end of the year, for pilot testing in Bangladesh in 2007. Volume production of the final design is scheduled to begin by December 2007.

To read more about:
--The Client: The Centre for Mass Education (CMES)
--The Challenge: Peer-directed learning tools
--Our partners in Innovation
--The Design that Matter Field Team
You can download a pdf of the full press release here or continue below:

DtM Begins CMES Data Reduction Process With Help From IDEO

DtM met today with Mekayla Beaver and Kate Schreiber of IDEO to map out the process for transitioning from the CMES field study, during which team members collected massive amounts of information regarding CMES' needs, to the brainstorming process and eventually the generation of design concepts. Mekayla, who travelled to Bangladesh with Adam French and Timothy Prestero as a member of the field study team, and Kate both have extensive experience in bringing design projects from the starting stages of needs assessment to the final stages of product implementation.

As a first step in the process, Kate led Mekayla and Tim through a storytelling exercise in which the two discussed their experiences and categorized them into a logical framework for analysis, using pictures from the trip as prompts. As different categories of information emerged throughout the discussion, each category was mapped out visually and matched up with relevant trip pictures. By the end of the afternoon, they had created a board-filling web of ideas, packed with photos, note cards, and post-its, describing various aspects of the team's experience at CMES.

Mekayla Beaver (left) and Kate Schreiber (right) of IDEO working with DtM to generate "actionable" intelligence from the Bangladesh field study data

Making sense of it all

A lot of work remains to be done before DtM can move the CMES project into the brainstorming stage. In the coming weeks, the team will explore each category of information in greater detail, create various frameworks for examining the data, and eventually develop strategies for approaching brainstorming sessions based upon these frameworks.

DtM completes first CMES field study

The DtM field study consisted of three days of interviews at the CMES Service Center in Dhaka, two days of observations and interviews at the Tangail unit in rural Bangladesh, and four days of data synthesis both in the field and back at the local DtM office (converted from a suite in Dhaka's Eastern House hotel)--along with four days of round-trip air travel, including pit-stops to see Big Ben in London and the Oberoi Grand in Calcutta.

DtM's Service Center interviews focused on the percieved needs and opportunities among CMES staff, including director Muhammad Ibrahim, the Monitoring and Evaluation team, the director of the curriculum development program and many others. Our field visit to the Tangail unit included visits to the Suruj Rural Technology Center (RTC), hours of observations and interviews at regional Basic and Advance Basic Schools (BS and ABS), as well as student- and teacher-lead tours of the local community and school facilities. The data analysis and synthesis involved collecting and sorting the mountains of information into models and frameworks. We concluded the CMES visit with a presentation of our initial findings over dinner with Dr. Ibrahim and his staff.

The DtM field team identified three CMES objectives where we feel our collaboration could have a significant impact: attracting and retaining adolescent school drop-outs to the program, delivering an outstanding education to students in the program, and connecting CMES graduates with good, meaningful jobs.

Within these programs, key needs include:
+ reducing teacher workload in the CMES Basic School system
+ facilitating the process of student peer correction and peer instruction
+ helping teachers to establish "intellectual ownership" of the curriculum material and inspiring them to innovate and experiment with different methods
+ capturing and retaining student interest by providing a consistently stimulating and exciting environment
+ connecting the ends of the organization: helping CMES solve the hard problem of knowledge managements and the transmission of teacher and student innovation across the organization

The DtM field team consisted of Mekayla Beaver from IDEO, Adam French from the Stanford Design School, and DtM co-founder Timothy Prestero. Mekayla works as a Human Factors Specialist at IDEO, an internationally recognized design firm specializing in user-centered products, services, and environments. She has spent the last several years working to push the boundaries of design to facilitate people who are typically left to fend for themselves. Adam is currently a design fellow with Stanford's new d.school. Experienced in product design, appropriate technology and even boat-building, among other things Adam helped to launch the Xtracycle Access Foundation, a non-profit developing load-bearing bicycles for entrepreneurs in East Africa.

Design that Matters is enormously grateful to Mekayla and Adam for their hard work and consistent enthusiasm through monsoon heat and long hours. Their combined experience allowed us to quickly and efficiently dive into CMES's goals and needs from a variety of stakeholder perspectives, and present these goals and needs back to the organization in a sensible framework using CMES's own language.

We had a great time in Bangladesh, meeting the teachers and the students at the CMES schools, sampling the local food and careening through the Dhaka traffic in rickshaws. We can't wait to go back!

CMES Field Team Attends IDEO Workshop

The CMES field team of Adam French, Mekayla Beaver, and Timothy Prestero, along with DtM Co-Founder Neil Cantor, attended a workshop at the IDEO Boston office in preparation for the team's trip to Bangladesh at the end of June. This workshop was part of DtM's on-going design review of its field study process and followed up on the previous IDEO-led workshop on June 9.

Today's session was led by Mekayla and Kate Schreiber, both of IDEO and both experts in customer needs identification techniques.

Over the course of the afternoon, the group reviewed the field study process, including assessment methods to be used before, during, and after the visit to CMES. With the guidance of Mekayla and Kate, the team conducted dry-runs of IDEO-suggested needs assessment techniques, such as interviews and different strategies for documentation. This "dress rehearsal" was a great way for Adam, Mekayla, and Tim to refine and cement their team roles and responsibilities, before they arrive at CMES next week.

L to R: Adam, Tim, Mekayla, and Neil at IDEO

Adam and Mekayla review the field study timeline

Mekayla, Tim, and Neil examine an example of a photo-diary from an IDEO field study

About IDEO:
IDEO is a global design consultancy known for the human-centered design of experiences. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with full-service offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, London, Munich, and Shanghai, the firm employs over 400 people in a range of design and business disciplines.

IDEO helps companies innovate and grow in three ways. First, they design new offerings -- products, services, spaces, media and software-based interactions -- and can oversee every aspect of development, from strategy and research to concept to production to market. Second, they identify opportunities for growth based on consumer insights and help companies understand and respond to people's latent needs, bahaviors and desires. Finally, they assist companies seeking to build the culture and capabilities required to innovate routinely.

Expert in Non-Formal Education Leads Workshop for CMES Field Team

Krina Patel, an expert in non-formal education practices, met today with the CMES field study team (Mekayla Beaver, Adam French, and Timothy Prestero) for a pre-trip workshop, as part of the team's continuing customer needs assessment training. The specific goals of this workshop were to gain a deeper understanding of the Bangladeshi culture and education system and to learn interview and discussion techniques appropriate for the CMES context.

Krina is currently pursuing her doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she is studying cognition, culture, and learning. Prior to Harvard, Krina spent several years as a classroom teacher in the United States and has worked on a series of independent, educational consulting projects in the United States and Asia. Of particular relevance to today's workshop is Krina's experience consulting with the Sesame Workshop in India and working with the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee with support from the Center for International Development at Harvard.

During the workshop, Krina provided the team with an overview of the conditions, environment, and cultural and educational practices that the team is likely to encounter while in Bangladesh. Drawing from qualitative research methods that she herself has used in the field, Krina presented various interview techniques and discussion-generating methods, tailored specifically for team's use at CMES. These techniques should prove to be very helpful as DtM moves forward with the study.

The workshop concluded with some tasty Bengali fare from the Royal Bengal in Cambridge, arranged by DtM Fellow Matt Eckelman - two thumbs up from the DtM staff.

Krina Patel and Neil Cantor, Co-Founder of DtM, in discussion

Clockwise from the bottom: Adam French, Mekayla Beaver, Timothy Prestero, Krina Patel, and Neil Cantor

DtM Meets with IDEO Boston for CMES Field Study Design Review

DtM met with staff members at the IDEO Boston office for a 3-hour design review workshop, in preparation for the CMES field study in late June. Elizabeth Johansen, Bill Stewart, Kate Schreiber, Linus Park, and Mekayla Beaver of IDEO all contributed their valuable time and energy to what ended up being an extremely informative and productive meeting.

The goal of the workshop was to lay out a prototype for the needs assessment process with CMES for the wizards at IDEO to review and improve. IDEO provided DtM with loads of fantastic suggestions for how to make the field study process more productive and efficient, in terms of trip preparation, execution, and follow-up. DtM is looking forward to experimenting with IDEO's information-gathering methods, for both interviews and observations. Thanks to everyone at the IDEO Boston office for their time and sage advice.

Photo L to R: Bill Stewart, Elizabeth Johansen, and Kate Schreiber of IDEO

DtM Prepares for Bangladesh Field Study

As part of its continuing collaboration with the Center for Mass Education in Science (CMES) in Bangladesh, DtM is preparing for a field study to better assess CMES' needs and explore opportunities for DtM involvement. DtM and CMES, an NGO providing second-chance literacy and technical education to over 50,000 students throughout Bangladesh, are currently partnering on a new product development cycle around "Tools for Self-Directed Learning."

The field team, comprised of Mekayla Beaver of IDEO, Adam French of the Stanford Design School, and DtM co-founder Timothy Prestero, will visit CMES from June 26 to July 6. The primary goal of the field study is to help CMES identify its own needs and constraints by surveying the experience of the entire organization, from student beneficiaries and teachers to technicians and directors. Specific goals of the field study include observing and documenting classroom conditions at a variety of CMES facilities in rural Bangladesh, and evaluating existing education products identified during DtM's prior art research (Leappad, Kinkajou, etc). Upon conclusion of the study, team members hope to present CMES staff with their final needs assessment and lay out the next steps for the project.

Mekayla and Adam both have a wealth of experience and expertise in the product design process, and we are thrilled to have them on-board for the CMES project. Mekayla works as a Human Factors Specialist at IDEO, an internationally recognized design firm specializing in user-centered products, services, and environments, and has spent the last several years working to push the boundaries of design to facilitate people who are typically left to fend for themselves. She holds a M.S. in Biomedical and Rehabilitation Engineering from the University of Michigan. Adam is currently a graduate student at Stanford's Institute of Design and has been involved with numerous innovative design projects over the years. In 2000, Adam co-founded the Xtracycle Access Foundation, a non-profit partner to the U.S. bicycle manufacturer Xtracycle, that has designed low-cost and load-bearing bicycle concepts for distribution in developing East African countries. We are very excited to be working with both of them!

DtM Launches Collaboration with CMES Bangladesh

Design that Matters has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES) in Bangladesh. The MOU paves the way for a collaboration between the two organizations around "Tools for Self-Directed Learning".

Project Background

Building on our experience with the Kinkajou Microfilm Projector, DtM and partner CMES have launched a new product development cycle around "Tools for Self-Directed Learning". In most developing countries, there are not enough teachers to meet the demand for elementary, secondary and adult education. Our goal is to develop a low-cost, context-appropriate tool, or family of tools, that allow students to proceed with their studies as a supplement to, or even independent of, direct interaction with a teacher--along with the necessary manufacturing, distribution and customer financing channels to meet this need at scale.

Our client for this project is the Center for Mass Education in Science (CMES) in Bangladesh. CMES director Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim is an Ashoka Fellow and an expert in pedagogical innovation and implementation. Through CMES, this project has the potential to reach over 50,000 students each year.

About the Center for Mass Education in Science (CMES)

The Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES) is a national NGO in Bangladesh established in 1978. Its mission is to provide science and technology education to disadvantaged communities, with the goal of providing the technical skills necessary to lead a successful, healthy life. Focusing its attention on rural children and adolescents, CMES has developed an innovative, technology-based, vocational second chance education system.

CMES's Basic School System is comprised of life-oriented basic (primary) education, skills training and use of appropriate technology, and awareness of health and environmental issues. All three components interact with each other to make education more meaningful for the students. CMES currently runs complete School Systems in 20 areas of Bangladesh, serving more than 20,000 children each year.

During the course of this work, CMES realized that poor, adolescent girls have always been a severely disadvantaged group in Bangladesh, robbed of a healthy adolescence by traditional social constraints such as early marriage and childbearing. With the goal of empowering these girls to succeed within this traditional society, CMES started its Adolescent Girls Program (AGP) in 1991. This program now enrolls more than 30,000 girls. These girls learn about the social issues that affect them, take a pledge not to marry before the legal age of 18, and can take out loans from a microcredit bank to start small businesses using the skills learned at AGP. This has been a very successful flagship program in Gender and Development in South Asia, earning many accolades and inspiring imitations at home and abroad.

In conjunction with both of these educational programs, CMES conducts local research and development into appropriate technologies and their market-level adaptation. As they note in their 2003 annual report, "we take a technological concept and transform it into a small commercial enterprise earning money for the young people." CMES offers students training in various trades, out of which a student selects one or more as a vocation. Every year thousands of students are provided technical training at various levels in the Basic School System. These include a number of marketable trades, such as carpentry, production of candles and soap, poultry farming, home gardening, mushroom cultivation, vermicomposting, masonry construction, pottery, metalworking, garment manufacture and leatherworking. A student does not usually stick to learning one trade; rather, he or she receives training in minor trades at the beginning of the program, and later learns major trades such as electrics and various types of shop work.

Each module of technical education has been designed to transform the students into skilled workers and entrepreneurs. In a country where 35% of the population is under 14 years old, this early vocational education helps lay the groundwork for rural Bangladesh's economic and social development.

About CMES Founder Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim

Through CMES, Director Muhammad Ibrahim has devoted much of his time in the research and implementation of appropriate technology, livelihood-oriented education and gender empowerment for the rural disadvantaged youth. He is the author of 37 books and many published papers. His weekly or fortnightly television program on 'science for the people' has been a familiar feature in the country for three decades now.

Dr. Ibrahim has produced since 1961, while still in high school, Bijnan Samoeeki, the first popular science monthly in the country, and has been its editor and publisher ever since, over the 43 years of its regular publication. This monthly has helped create a rich popular science literature in Bangla language, and pioneered a vibrant science club movement around the country including the rural areas. He is an Ashoka Fellow and a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur.

Photos from CMES Bangladesh:

See the full Press Release [PDF]

Representatives from DtM and CMES at a workshop in January 2005

DtM visits CMES in Bangladesh

As part of its South Asia tour, the DtM team met with representatives from the Center for Mass Education in Science (CMES) in Dhaka. CMES was founded in 1978 by Ashoka Fellow Dr. Mohammad Ibrahim and provides basic literacy and vocational education to over 30,000 students annually.

Design that Matters visited CMES in order to explore a possible collaboration on tools for student self-directed learning. As part of the needs assessment, the team visited Mudibari basic school in Kayetpara, Gazipur District and brought out the Kinkajou.

Focusing the Kinkajou for a trial run:

Demonstrating the Kinkajou in a typical primary school classroom

New fans of the Kinkajou...