New here?
The Challenge
404 followers
How might we increase the availability of affordable learning tools & services for students in the developing world?
Concept
Stickypedia!
A resource for teachers (often pressed for time, resources, and inspiration) in APS to effectively explain their material by use of 'sticky' concepts that helps reduce time to teach.
What teachers would want is: material that specifically contains 'sticky' examples i.e. what are the best examples to use to teach a subject. For example, how does a maths teacher explain the concept of rational numbers? She could do it using the idea of a pie (or an idli/roti in India), or the idea of ratios, and so on. Good examples are likely to be universal, with minor cultural adjustments.
"Stickypedia" will be a publicly available, free resource of such examples, that helps teachers go beyond the confines of a textbook. The teacher needs inspiration in the form of ideas and instances, specific to a topic. How to illustrate figures of speech? What is the difference between proteins and carbohydrates - teachers have to grapple with creating material from scratch, and most may not have the time, effort or motivation to do this.
At the heart of Stickypedia is the concept of stickiness made famous by Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point), and the Heath brothers ("Made to Stick"), where concepts are made to 'stick' by addressing dimensions such as simplicity, concreteness (built-in here, because of the concrete examples), surprise/unexpectedness of looking at an idea around us, credibility, emotion, and storytelling. Stickypedia will be a Wikipedia-like site: people can collaborate on various topics. It can also have a crowd/expert rating for correctness and stickiness.
We may also need region-specific examples on the same page i.e. a collection of examples explaining proteins in a region needs to refer to local food.
We could also get teachers to contribute feedback, videos, photos to a specific article if they have used it in their teaching.
Who would implement this?
- A local entrepreneur or small organization
- A globally-based social entrepreneur
- NGOs and Foundations
- I would!
Cost
This follows the wikipedia model, and will be free for use by any one. There is likely to be near-zero investment for schools, especially if they choose to get a software version on a CD or pen-drive (which can be mailed to them).
The organization that sponsors this would need to invest in wiki-infrastructure.
The organization that sponsors this would need to invest in wiki-infrastructure.
Distribution & Delivery
Via the internet, word-of-mouth, by packaging it along with standard textbooks (which it seeks to complement, not replace), free distribution by volunteers who also demonstrate to teachers how to use this in practice.
Adoption
Piggyback on the experience of Wikipedia. Get Wikipedia, and while we are at it, the Heath Brothers & Malcolm Gladwell to spread the word.
By its very nature, sticky stories are likely to be easy to use. Teachers will need very little training to begin applying it. Volunteers could also be used to give short tutorials to teachers on how to access, search, and add to the material.
Stickypedia is likely to feed off a virtuous cycle of people contributing examples (easy to do) , seeing how they made a difference to a teacher, and a teacher getting the help of the crowd in his work, and telling the crowd how it went.
One can also give 'design quotient'-style brownie points to "stickies" - people who made the most stick.
By its very nature, sticky stories are likely to be easy to use. Teachers will need very little training to begin applying it. Volunteers could also be used to give short tutorials to teachers on how to access, search, and add to the material.
Stickypedia is likely to feed off a virtuous cycle of people contributing examples (easy to do) , seeing how they made a difference to a teacher, and a teacher getting the help of the crowd in his work, and telling the crowd how it went.
One can also give 'design quotient'-style brownie points to "stickies" - people who made the most stick.
Tweet this
Email to friends
