We are thrilled to have Blake Sirach of WillowTree, Inc. guest blog for us this week. You can learn more about WillowTree, Inc. here.
What do a software development company and an organization focused on interactions have in common?
It all began with a problem in early childhood programs. These programs have access to a wide and diverse array of tools to facilitate professional development. When used synchronously—online platforms, video recording equipment, pencils, paper, and other media help move teachers forward. While these tools have the capacity to produce helpful information, the data is often difficult to manage and creates more confusion than it’s worth. This leads to information loss, miscommunication, time-intensive manual digitization, and other inefficiencies that just get in the way of reaching the goals of PD: helping teachers improve their practice and boosting child outcomes. And did I mention that the PD is usually boring and not always relevant to what a teacher does everyday in her classroom?
It’s for all these reasons that WillowTree and Teachstone began working together. Teachstone knows how to improve teacher-child interactions through the CLASS system, and we know how to design and build user-friendly software. Together, we are creating a scalable platform to support organizations that are working to improve the quality of teaching in their programs.
Getting to know Teachstone, the CLASS system, and product users
At WillowTree, we know that the two most important facets of designing great digital experiences are:
- Understanding the product’s users
- Getting feedback early and often from the right audiences
Without getting real-world feedback from users, it’s quite easy to make false assumptions and get the simple stuff wrong.
So we’ve been immersing ourselves in the early education world: going to conferences; doing site visits; and interviewing a variety of educators. Most recently, we sent a team to the National Head Start Association’s Fall Leadership Institute to gain insight into the various positions within programs and how different Head Starts are implementing the CLASS system.
What we’ve learned
We found that roles are not necessarily cut and dry. Some Center Directors serve as coaches, some as coaches and observers; some teachers perform a coaching role; and some teachers actually do observations. And don’t even get me started on the different titles that exist (Coaching Specialist, Training Coordinator, Training and Technical Assistant; and the list goes on…)! While these insights may seem small, they are a really big deal as we design a platform that needs to meet the goals of each user in the organization. They have drastically altered the way we are designing our platform.
The other thing we’ve heard is that technology and online platforms are anxiety producing for some in the field. Learning new tools can be difficult, time consuming, and counter to the goals you have with adopting the tool in the first place. We’re aiming to offset this chore by ensuring the experience is catered for your needs, and only those needs. For example, If you’re a teacher, you won’t see the options that would only be relevant to a coach. We’re also designing the experience to be fun, rewarding, and delightful to use. Don’t worry, it will be a breeze!
What the future looks like
So, what are we really doing, you ask? We are working with Teachstone to create a solution that is part content delivery app, part observation system, part reporting tool — but really its core mission is synonymous with yours: support teachers in enriching their interactions with children and making sure that the kids in their classrooms are engaged and motivated to learn. It's a mission we have baked into the heart of what we are building.
We’re really excited about what we’ve been developing and we’ll have more to reveal in the coming months. In the meantime, if you are interested in helping us better understand educators’ needs, please sign up to help us test our products.
