Q: So, tell us more about yourself. How did you end up working in education?
Early in my career, I struggled knowing where I wanted to focus my career – I explored nursing, sociology, and international development, among other fields. Shortly after college, I looked back on all my work experiences to date (professional, internship, and volunteer experiences) and noticed a trend that many of my roles were in education. I realized that these roles were where I felt the most fulfillment. Upon this little self-epiphany I dove into the field of education and started a role in international education as well as volunteering as an English language teacher. A short time later, I earned a master’s in international education. I now bring all this experience with me to TechChange where I get to work internationally to design and deliver engaging, interactive learning experiences that have a positive impact.
Q: How did you first hear about TechChange?
I first heard about TechChange from a former supervisor and mentor who encouraged me to follow Nick Martin on LinkedIn because he is so active in sharing resources and professional development opportunities on LinkedIn. When I started exploring the role of Senior Account Manager, I quickly learned that not only is Nick Martin a great person to follow on LinkedIn but also about the amazing work TechChange does. I knew I wanted to be a part of the effort.
Q: What are some of your favorite parts of working at TechChange so far?
I love the commitment to a supportive and collaborative work environment where everyone feels empowered to share their voice. I am also amazed by the wonderful work we do. Through TechChange, I get to support impactful organizations doing work such as helping strong women leaders achieve gender equality in leadership and improving learning experiences for those working in AgTech.
Q: What excites you about this role?
I’m excited to help bring TechChange’s online learning model and platform into new sectors such as agriculture. I am also excited to work with such wonderful people both at TechChange and with our partners!
Q: Anything you look forward to working on or learning at TechChange?
TechChange has really put themselves forward in designing and delivering engaging online learning. There is so much potential for remote learning including reaching diverse populations that normally may not have had the means or ability to attend an in-person training. I am looking forward to applying the TechChange methods, tools, and strategies for effective online learning to help partners achieve their unique and individualized learning goals.
Q: Lastly, what’s something that not a lot of people know about you?
I grew up on a small family farm and my first pet was a lamb. I have a strong appreciation for nature and dream of one day having my own farm with chickens and maybe some goats!
Over the last two years I have fielded a lot of questions about my two main areas of interest, education and user experience design. For many curious onlookers, education studies and UX/UI design studies present as two very different pedagogies, and thus, they require an explanation from me about how I can combine two seemingly unrelated areas of work.
I always appreciate those people who are interested in hearing more about my decision to pursue both interests. The following is a brief explanation of how I plan on leveraging my experience at TechChange to better serve the education community this upcoming year and beyond.
Following my completion of undergrad in June 2020, I moved from New Hampshire to D.C. to pursue a year of service with AmeriCorps. I worked for an AmeriCorps National partner organization called Literacy Lab, which provides one-on-one reading help to students in DC Public Schools.
As you can imagine, moving to a new city and starting a new job amidst the pandemic came with a lot of unexpected challenges. But I don’t think anyone at Lit Lab was really prepared for the level of chaos that would befall DCPS, especially Title I schools, and especially during that first fall of the pandemic. It was admirable to watch how DCPS staff and faculty rose to the challenges posed by online learning, but many of the issues they faced were unfamiliar and unrelenting.
Flash forward to this past summer; I traded in my reading assessments and student data tracking for course evaluation reports and user interviews here at TechChange. Having the opportunity to dive deep into adult online education after spending a year trying to teach kids over Microsoft Teams felt like a wonderful break. For nine weeks, I watched TechChange members put so much of their time and effort into creating engaging and productive experiences for their partners and participants; it was truly a joy to spend my time learning from my new teammates.
A few weeks ago, I started my second year of AmeriCorps. This year I am a VISTA member (meaning I’m sponsored by the national AmeriCorps organization) and I am working at Garrison Elementary as a community partners liaison. Already I can tell that the work is very different from my work last year in that I spend much more time on capacity building and community building, and my work is largely in-person (which is both terrifying and exciting after working virtually for over a year). As I begin my work at Garrison, I can already see how my past work at TechChange can help me solve for gaps and discover new opportunities to strengthen elementary school processes, and also help me reflect on my past year spent online teaching.
An Empathetic Approach
The difference between adult and student education planning that most immediately caught my attention was the extremely high level of empathy and research that went into planning TechChange’s online experiences. I was impressed by how much care and inquisitiveness went into identifying participants’ needs over the course of their time with TechChange. As a UX/UI designer, I appreciated the methodologies that go into creating a TechChange course. And to TechChange’s credit, they really emphasize human-centered design. Meaning that team members interview potential participants, work closely with their partners, and consider every aspect of a participant’s virtual needs (which vary greatly from their in-person needs). As the TechChange Summer Fellow, I spent almost all of my time analyzing the successes and challenges (which were few) of TechChange’s virtual synchronous courses. Much of the successes stemmed from participants feeling like TechChange facilitators could anticipate participants’ needs and adapt throughout the course to make participants feel heard.
Although I give DCPS a lot of credit for adapting to virtual teaching amidst a pandemic, I must say that more emphasis could have been placed on observing students prior to the start of virtual teaching, or talking to students and gathering their feedback the way people gather feedback from adults. One of my biggest takeaways from online teaching is that elementary students are people too — they deserve the consideration and respect that we give to adult learners. Their learning needs can and should be met. And the onus to be adaptable and engaging shouldn’t rest with classroom teachers; I believe DCPS has a responsibility to create a support system for students and teachers wherein both parties feel comfortable and heard. Too often the focus for classroom teachers is how to maintain a semblance of order in their classrooms (both online and in-person); I can see now that there were opportunities last year for DC educators to intervene and provide teachers with the tools they needed to increase student engagement and passion for learning so that teachers could have focused on teaching.
To put the problem in product development terms: the students should be the users, and their needs should be well-studied and prioritized. While the implementers of the education experience should be familiar with the students’ needs (and the teachers I’ve met definitely are familiar), many other parties have the responsibility to step in with research-backed strategies to accommodate online learning challenges. Education delivery should be a team effort.
Strengthening Ties with Stakeholders
As the new community partner liaison at Garrison, I spend much of my time listening to community stakeholders; our wonderful principal and assistant principal, the school dean, our head of after school programs, teachers and coaches, non-profit directors, the president of the Parent-Teacher Organization, among many others.
Emma’s Summer Findings
The relationship between TechChange and its partners is vastly different from the way I work with Garrison’s community partners, but there’s a lot to be gained from TechChange’s co-creation approach to designing experiences with their stakeholders. The open-ended nature of brainstorming with a new partner prior to course design provides so much opportunity to create an experience with myriad benefits. As I’ve begun introducing myself to Garrison’s partners (both old and new) I have found the most productive and creatively-minded conversations with partners are the ones where we spend time discussing our goals for our potential partnership. Framing the partnership with such intentionality really drives us to enthusiastically dive into new programs, new goals, and new opportunities for the students. And for my position in particular, I’m always cognizant that these partnerships are usually pro-bono for Garrison, and that many of our partners are donating their time to help our school (students and teachers alike).
Big-Picture Planning
One of the wonderful aspects of my Fellowship was the opportunity to synthesize a large amount of qualitative data all together; by analyzing feedback and user interviews regarding TechChange’s synchronous offerings, I had the chance to interpret insights across different courses (which were each tailored to a different audience and contained different learning objectives). Making those cross-course connections was key to my understanding of the strengths and challenges of TechChange course development as well as my familiarization with participants’ needs and constraints. If I were to have stayed on after my fellowship, I think I could have used my research to pursue even deeper understandings of both participants and the course development process.
Emma Utilized Dedoose to Synthesize a Large Amount of Qualitative Data for TechChange
But in my current capacity, I already hope to use that same kind of thinking to approach challenges within Garrison. One of the issues I want to address is a lack of organization within the after school program; there is an incredible amount of work that goes into planning after school care for students, and much of that work is completed by teachers, corps members from places like City Year, and team members from non-profits like Kid Power. With so many actors involved, coordination has been tricky, especially after a year of minimal in-person programming. As the community partner liaison, I’m in a unique position to approach this challenge by combining the expertise and suggestions from a variety of parties involved. I am already prepared to approach this problem using a tried-and-true design methodology (loosely speaking: research, brainstorm, design, test, iterate) and I am confident that I will be able to support my school better having had experience in design research.
Although I am no longer working in a design capacity, my work in education design research has truly shaped how I approach my work as a member of the DC education community. And while I am no longer teaching virtually or studying virtual teaching, I have learned so much about education and online engagement that I know will help me as I strive to support Garrison students, educators and partners. At the very least, my summer at TechChange has provided me the opportunity to reflect deeply on our roles as education developers/implementers, and for that I am very grateful.
We are very excited to launch our Events Product Video! In this video, learn more about we leverage our all-in-one virtual events platform to help our partners tackle the world’s toughest problems. Powered by mission-driven humans, our integrated approach quickly maps onto partner needs to successfully deliver results on any topic, to any device, in any language, to anyone.
I have had an amazing time spending this summer learning and growing with TechChange and their Education Team as a Summer Fellow. It has been such a blast, and the Education Team really made us fellows feel welcome and a part of their team throughout the entire summer. For example, one of the great things that the Ed Team did for us fellows was to host casual lunches throughout the summer to connect with one another. These were such great opportunities to chat with other members of the Ed Team and make connections beyond the projects we were working on together.
In one of these lunches about halfway through the summer, one of the icebreaker questions that came up in the conversation was, “What career advice would you give to someone who was just starting out?” As a recent grad, I was eager to hear what everyone had to say. As everyone shared their opinions, I realized that all of the advice — including my own — had revolved around one central theme: be adventurous and try as many new things as possible.
Momoka’s summer research questions focused on answering the question of “What is a TechChange blended course?”
Up until this point in my fellowship, I had been devoting most of my time to collecting and analyzing data for my fellowship research project on TechChange’s blended courses. I was fascinated by the insights I was discovering about blended learning, but I definitely was feeling curious about other ongoing course development projects at TechChange. I just didn’t know how I could start becoming more involved in work beyond my research.
Listening to everyone talk about the importance of putting yourself out there in new situations, though, really reminded me of the mentality that drove me to pursue this fellowship at TechChange in the first place. I came into this fellowship as someone who had experience working in the classroom, but I ended up choosing TechChange because I wanted to explore edtech as a field within education that I had not yet experienced. This entire world was new to me, but I wanted to work directly with the ongoing projects and the Ed Team members, learn all about their online platform, get my hands dirty with my research project, and develop new skills in instructional design. I knew that the only way to see if something is a good fit for me was to try!
I felt reinspired to take the advice that everyone had offered and embrace the mentality that I came into the fellowship with. I started actively reaching out to other members of TechChange to learn more about their projects, and I quickly realized that TechChange was the perfect place to learn with the abundance of opportunities provided. Anytime I reached out to any team member, they were always more than happy to help me explore something new — whether that be letting me sit in on meetings with a client, agreeing to chat with me about their experience on past projects, walking me through their advice on qualitative research methodologies, or allowing me to support ongoing projects.
And all of this effort of putting myself out there definitely paid off. The interviews I conducted with TechChange’s account managers heavily informed my final report and presentation, and my research would not have been as comprehensive if I had not reached out to them. I learned how to use Dedoose, a qualitative data analysis software that I had never used before, allowing my analysis to encompass multiple types of data. I had the opportunity to help brainstorm and develop different ideation workshop activities to inform the development of one project, and I applied what I had learned about instructional design by revising the quality of another project. If there was something I wanted to do at TechChange, there was a way for me to be involved, as long as I was willing to take the first step to explore.
I’m coming out of this fellowship having learned so much about instructional design and course development through my research project on TechChange’s blended courses, but my biggest takeaway has definitely been a newfound confidence to try new things. Even if something seems intimidating at first, like it may not be the best fit, or as if it is drastically different from what I’ve done in the past, I think my experience at TechChange has taught me to embrace that uncertainty and run with it. Overall, I am so grateful to the TechChange team for continuing to support me throughout the entire summer and for all the wonderful connections I made. I’m so excited to take this mentality to dive into my next new thing and continue learning in the future.
On March 29, 2019, TechChange and FHI360 will be celebrating the Digital Development Awards with another ICT4Drinks! Click here to register for this event and read below to learn more about the awards!
In 2018, USAID launched the second annual Digital Development Awards (the “Digis”). Recognizing USAID projects that harness the power of digital tools and data-driven decision making, the Digis highlight the important role digital technologies play in accelerating the achievement of development goals. After receiving more than 140 applications from programs around the world, USAID is proud to announce the five 2018 Digi winners:
Digital Inclusion in the Peruvian Amazon, USAID Peru – expands internet connectivity to rural areas while promoting digital skills training and opportunities to rural communities.
Feed the Future Tanzania Land Tenure Assistance, USAID Tanzania – uses GPS and government data to register and provide official certification of ownership to farmers, leading to increased access to inputs and financing for smallholder farmers, increased community trust in the registration system, and a reduction in land disputes.
FlaveDor and the Moldova Competitiveness Project, USAID Moldova – protects and strengthens the Moldovan wine industry by using technologies such as drones, remote sensing, and data analysis.
Jamii Africa and SHOPS Plus, USAID Tanzania – expands access to affordable health care and insurance to low-income Tanzanians through a cashless, paperless mobile platform.
WeMUNIZE and the Maternal and Child Survival Program, USAID Nigeria – increases early childhood immunizations in Northern Nigeria by using robocalls and SMS to influence, remind and persuade mothers, caregivers and their relatives to take children to health facilities. odessa.natashaescort.com
The winning projects operate in countries across the globe and focus on diverse development goals and sectors. They demonstrate the life-changing power digital tools and data offer when strategically designed and implemented using digital development best practices like the Principles for Digital Development. They follow in the trail-blazing path of the inaugural group of Digi winners last year, whose details can be found here.
As part of their award, the 2018 Digi winners will be recognized at a special ICT4Drinks reception in Washington D.C. on Friday, March 29. You can learn more about the reception here or learn more about the Digis inspiring work here. Be sure to also follow @USAID_Digital on Twitter for additional updates on the 2018 Digi Award winners, in-depth profiles on the Digi winners, and join the conversation at #2018Digis!
Our next event is coming up! And we wanted to share notes on how we’re trying to standardize the ICT4Drinks format for 2019.
What is ICT4Drinks?
This is a monthly happy hour sponsored by TechChange and, often, another organization in the development, tech, or public health industry.
Why are we doing this?
To provide an informal environment for nerds, do-gooders, and nonprofit types to socialize, share projects, and stay up to date.
What’s the format for an event?
A typical ICT4Drinks starts at 5:30pm in DC. We’ll give you a free drink ticket when you show up and register with our team, and then around 6:30pm the sponsors will give a light announcement.
Wait, are there any long speeches?
No. We abide by a hard 5 minute cap for event partners. Generally this is so you know who they are (and can go say hi in person!) and what they’re working on that might be of interest.
Why do you need me to register my email?
We have a variety of event organizing formats, but email is still the primary means. It helps us keep in touch with you for future events and maintain a high-quality networking event.
Are you going to send me unsolicited, irrelevant emails?
No. Only ICT4Drinks event announcements and follow-up will be distributed. Sometimes we may add promotional material to event emails , but will not do any stand-alone email campaigns on anything other than events.
Does anyone else get my information?
When we do an event with our partners, we share a full list of attendees and their emails with them. They may send one, single email to those who attend, asking if they would like to join a separate mailing list. But they may NOT add you to another mailing list without your consent. We see this as a way of using the event as a catalyst for other organizations to build their own communities.
What’s with the pictures?
We like to take pictures at events that show the warm, welcoming environment that we’re trying to create. If you are ever in a picture and don’t want to be, let us know! We’ll make sure it’s removed right away.
What if I want to partner or host my own ICT4Drinks?
Please do! They typical event cost is $300 per partner and we are happy to share the mailing list for approved partner events. The main requirement is that you stick to the format described above in order to be considered an approved event. Email info@techchange.org if you’re interested in hosting with us!
Since 2015, over one-hundred organizations have endorsed the Principles for Digital Development—a set of nine “living” guidelines that can help practitioners integrate a suite of best practices into digital development projects.
In the spirit of putting the Digital Principles into practice, TechChange is partnering with the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) to build an introductory training and workshop curriculum on the Digital Principles. This will enable digital development professionals to train their teams and equip their organizations with reference materials, tools, analysis, and relevant case studies to increase awareness of the Principles and enhance their application across programs.
As an example for gauging awareness, workshop participants join in on an activity where they can state how much they may agree or disagree with a prompted statement or question.
These prompts encourage participants to think critically about how the Digital Principles may be aiding or hindering digital development efforts on their teams. Examples of such statements include:
Colleagues across my organization have a strong understanding of the Digital Principles and are integrating them into projects and decision-making or;
I am confident that I know enough about the Digital Principles and have sufficient resources to advocate for endorsing them at my organization.
Through this activity, participants can see how their colleagues and partners view the effectiveness of the Principles and candidly discuss challenges that they may have faced in referencing or using the Digital Principles.
Outside of building workshop sessions, TechChange and DIAL are designing a set of training materials and tools that can be used by practitioners to talk about the Principles and see where they may fit in, or not fit in, with their own work. These tools could be used by anyone who may need more insight on how digital development relates to ongoing programs at their organization. They are meant to be accessible and shared with practitioners who may not have a strong technical background.
For example, a program officer could use a set of quick reference materials detailing how the Principles can be applied to uphold responsible data management during the deployment phase of a project or perhaps see how a potential program could address critical gender inclusion challenges.
Alongside these quick reference materials and workshop activities, TechChange and DIAL are building a self-assessment tool that can be used by practitioners to see how proposed programs or ongoing projects meet different aspects of each Digital Principle across different phases of a project phase. The tool can provide analysis of key gaps across different Digital Principles and offer initial steps to address any identified gaps for programs.
The Digital Principles are not stagnant nor are they compulsory; they are meant to invite critical discussions and perspectives on how organizations can adopt more effective digital-led practices across their operations for development programs. In addition to providing best-practice guidance, the Digital Principles serve as common ground for the digital development community to engage in these constructive conversations.
Does your organization endorse the Digital Principles? Do you want to engage with TechChange and DIAL as we build and publish these training materials and assessment tools? Email info@techchange.org to talk with us about this project!
On Monday, we had the pleasure of hosting TechGirls’s Job Shadow Day for the fourth year in a row! TechGirls is a selective exchange program that encourages and supports the desire of Middle Eastern and North African teenage girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). During the 3 week long exchange program, the girls (ranging from ages 15 – 17) travel around the U.S. getting a taste of the various careers one can have in STEM. One of the ways they experience a STEM career in the U.S. is by spending a day at a tech company during Job Shadow Day.
We were lucky enough to host Nada Abdelaziz Mostafa Abdelaziz and Lydia Ferial Oukid, who have interests in bioengineering and biomedical engineering, this year at our DC office. Both hope to learn more about the technology and engineering fields, and aspire to be leaders in both their local and international communities. We were able to show them a bit about what we do here at TechChange, and hosted workshops with our creative, industrial design, tech, and communication teams.
Nada and Lydia began their day by working with our creative team to create their own animated assets!
Check out what they created below:
Afterwards, they were able to learn about the projects that our tech fellows have been working on this summer.
As per TechChange tradition, we had lunch at a nearby Ethiopian restaurant.
After lunch, Lydia and Nadia worked with our instructional design team, and were able to create their own online course in Articulate! Check out Lydia’s articulate and Nada’s articulate.
Lastly, they learned how to build their own webpage in HTML, with the assets they created throughout the day, from our tech team!
All around, we at TechChange had a great time with the TechGirls! We look forward to hearing more of their future accomplishments — best of luck Nada and Lydia!
Do you want to apply your programming skills to make a difference in the world?
We’re excited to announce a summer fellowship program for recent graduates and rising college seniors and juniors. The fellowship will provide practical training in web development as well as a unique exposure to a range of applications and organizations using technology to tackle a variety of global challenges — from creating prosthetic limbs with a 3D printer to combating malaria with mobile devices.
As a fellow, you will spend three months designing and implementing a web development project related to education, technology, and social good. TechChange staff will provide training, mentorship, and a series of events to support you in your process.
Email any questions to info [at] techchange [dot] org.
We’re excited to be a finalist on the InTheCapital “50 on Fire” list for 2014 in the Education category! For this year’s list, InTheCapital received over 1,500 top-notch nominations for rising DC-based businesses who are “innovators, disruptors and trailblazers” and making an impact on how business is done in Washington, D.C.
