Reflection - Mind mapping 

 Challenge 

 I work at the national agency under Mision del Nayar “ Emitter ” .   And we have two areas of our activities – foreign direct investment attraction and improvement of the   business conditions in Lithuania . Many projects for improvement business conditions are related to   Education and one project , which I was leading , was about improvement of the quality of studies at   Lithuanian vocational schools . Since our agency is specified in some areas of investment attraction , we   defined more than 20 vocational schools , where actual study programs for manufacturing investors are   implemented and tried to find out , what were the problems in their study quality as well as what   additional programs can be created and introduced to potential students . Our challenge was to make a   deep research of these vocational schools , including their teaching potential , assets , owned equipment ,   as well as their relationship with their stakeholders , such as local municipalities , business associations   and business companies . In addition to that , we set a goal to generate ideas ( and , of course , implement   them together with the help of our current and potential clients , business companies and government   institutions ) , how to improve vocational training system , including renewal of the equipment , attracting   professionals from business companies to share their practices with students , develop the improvement   of professional skills of the teachers , reviewing the study programs of the actual engineering programs . 

 During this project we had a small team from few different functions – one or two members from   Education , Manufacturing Investment Attraction , Regional Development teams . 

 Selection 

 During all the projects in my professional job I try to make a detailed research of the particular situation   and generate ideas for better solutions . But from this Design Thinking course , for me it was a real   discovery that there is a process in between the research and ideas generation – Mind mapping – a   pivotal phase , when we break down complex problem and ideas into simpler fractals . 

 As it was said during the Design Thinking Module 3 lecture , “ Mind mapping is looking for patterns and   insights in a large quantity of data you collected during your exploration of what is the current reality .   The goal is to establish criteria for the what - if idea generation phase . ” 

 So , this is what we really needed before generating ideas for the project about vocational schools – we   gathered so much information about the teaching process and methods , equipment , possible   improvement areas , business reviews about the students ’ skills quality , etc . and we had structure   information , analyze it and ensure , if we observed it properly . 

 Application 

 First of all , our project has started from initial discussion about the project scope . We had to decide –   which of vocational schools and in what locations are necessary to involve in the project and what   exactly study programs are needed for manufacturing investors . By knowing this we had to make a   questionnaire for the deep interviews with vocational schools . We divided our questions in some   bunches , that we could easily compare the information from various vocational schools and different   locations / regions . In addition to that , we asked some business companies to answer some questions   about their needs for employees with vocational education , so it helped us to compare the needs and   expectations from companies to the real situation what education is provided by vocational schools . 

 During the analysis phase we tried not only gather some data , but see , how this all affects each and   every student at vocational school and what can be his / her path wile studying or after graduating the   studies . 

 Since Mind mapping is a visual way to represent ideas and information , we took a sheet of paper and   wrote the main overall problem – quality of vocational training study programs – as the main thing in   the middle of the paper . Then we wrote more branches from this one main thing – such as teachers ,   study programs , teaching equipment , practicums , collaboration with local businesses , etc . We went   through the pathway of all study process from this moment when student chooses to study particular   program till the finish of his / her study process . 

 Later on , we have written down gathered data from vocational schools and business companies and   tried to define , what is the pattern of the situation and what do we need to do . We clustered the   learnings into themes and looked for connections among them . We constantly kept asking questions –   what we know about each branch and what we do not know ; what we need to know and based on what   we have learned , what ideas we can come up with . 

 From our initial understanding , we had to work on improvement of study programs of vocational   schools ( having in mind the review of the content and teaching methods defined there ) and fostering of   new study program creation and implementation in particular regional vocational schools . But during   the mind mapping exercise we understood , that Lithuanian vocational education has some serious   problems , such as lack of qualified teachers , old equipment used for teaching process , lack of experience   in use of modern teaching methods and pretty negative image of vocational training in the society . 

 This use of the Mind map within our diverse team switched our thinking from a single activity set to a   larger activity set . So constantly rising additional questions about gathered data and what we learnt   from it , let us create more ideas on improving vocational education quality in broader understanding . 

 Insights and Approach 

 I have learned from applying Mind mapping tool to the data analysis and idea generation process , that it   helps to avoid linear thinking and fosters creativity withing gathered data . During our exercise we   defined even more topics for our project , than we expected , and it helped us to see the big picture of   the situation in vocational training in Lithuania . This pivotal process in analyzing gathered data let us   create more ideas not only for this project , but as well let us think about broader business conditions   improvement projects within our organization . 

 Moreover , the putting topics in visual way , helps fostering discussions withing the multi - functional team   and encourages all members to raise their opinion and additional great ideas . 

 I think , Mind mapping can be applied in all the projects within different sectors – from business , to   education and governmental affairs . It helps in the brainstorming sessions and researching and   consolidating data gathered from various different sources . Also , it helps to better thinking and ensures   effective collaboration between the members of the team . 

 In addition to that , I really value the thought , which was said during the course , “ There has to be time   for reflection and disagreement , since these are core to new ideas ” . Diverse and different thoughts are   easily expressed in all multi - functional teams , but it is always difficult to find time for the constructive   reflection . Reflection during the mind mapping gave us more inspiration while sharing the insights on   bigger picture of the project . 

 Since I discovered the value of the Mind mapping tool , next time during the project creation and   implementation , I will definitely use this tool to foster creativity of the project team . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reflection - Mind mapping 

 Challenge 

 I work at the national agency under Mision del Nayar “ Emitter ” .   And we have two areas of our activities – foreign direct investment attraction and improvement of the   business conditions in Lithuania . Many projects for improvement business conditions are related to   Education and one project , which I was leading , was about improvement of the quality of studies at   Lithuanian vocational schools . Since our agency is specified in some areas of investment attraction , we   defined more than 20 vocational schools , where actual study programs for manufacturing investors are   implemented and tried to find out , what were the problems in their study quality as well as what   additional programs can be created and introduced to potential students . Our challenge was to make a   deep research of these vocational schools , including their teaching potential , assets , owned equipment ,   as well as their relationship with their stakeholders , such as local municipalities , business associations   and business companies . In addition to that , we set a goal to generate ideas ( and , of course , implement   them together with the help of our current and potential clients , business companies and government   institutions ) , how to improve vocational training system , including renewal of the equipment , attracting   professionals from business companies to share their practices with students , develop the improvement   of professional skills of the teachers , reviewing the study programs of the actual engineering programs . 

 During this project we had a small team from few different functions – one or two members from   Education , Manufacturing Investment Attraction , Regional Development teams . 

 Selection 

 During all the projects in my professional job I try to make a detailed research of the particular situation   and generate ideas for better solutions . But from this Design Thinking course , for me it was a real   discovery that there is a process in between the research and ideas generation – Mind mapping – a   pivotal phase , when we break down complex problem and ideas into simpler fractals . 

 As it was said during the Design Thinking Module 3 lecture , “ Mind mapping is looking for patterns and   insights in a large quantity of data you collected during your exploration of what is the current reality .   The goal is to establish criteria for the what - if idea generation phase . ” 

 So , this is what we really needed before generating ideas for the project about vocational schools – we   gathered so much information about the teaching process and methods , equipment , possible   improvement areas , business reviews about the students ’ skills quality , etc . and we had structure   information , analyze it and ensure , if we observed it properly . 

 Application 

 First of all , our project has started from initial discussion about the project scope . We had to decide –   which of vocational schools and in what locations are necessary to involve in the project and what   exactly study programs are needed for manufacturing investors . By knowing this we had to make a   questionnaire for the deep interviews with vocational schools . We divided our questions in some   bunches , that we could easily compare the information from various vocational schools and different   locations / regions . In addition to that , we asked some business companies to answer some questions   about their needs for employees with vocational education , so it helped us to compare the needs and   expectations from companies to the real situation what education is provided by vocational schools . 

 During the analysis phase we tried not only gather some data , but see , how this all affects each and   every student at vocational school and what can be his / her path wile studying or after graduating the   studies . 

 Since Mind mapping is a visual way to represent ideas and information , we took a sheet of paper and   wrote the main overall problem – quality of vocational training study programs – as the main thing in   the middle of the paper . Then we wrote more branches from this one main thing – such as teachers ,   study programs , teaching equipment , practicums , collaboration with local businesses , etc . We went   through the pathway of all study process from this moment when student chooses to study particular   program till the finish of his / her study process . 

 Later on , we have written down gathered data from vocational schools and business companies and   tried to define , what is the pattern of the situation and what do we need to do . We clustered the   learnings into themes and looked for connections among them . We constantly kept asking questions –   what we know about each branch and what we do not know ; what we need to know and based on what   we have learned , what ideas we can come up with . 

 From our initial understanding , we had to work on improvement of study programs of vocational   schools ( having in mind the review of the content and teaching methods defined there ) and fostering of   new study program creation and implementation in particular regional vocational schools . But during   the mind mapping exercise we understood , that Lithuanian vocational education has some serious   problems , such as lack of qualified teachers , old equipment used for teaching process , lack of experience   in use of modern teaching methods and pretty negative image of vocational training in the society . 

 This use of the Mind map within our diverse team switched our thinking from a single activity set to a   larger activity set . So constantly rising additional questions about gathered data and what we learnt   from it , let us create more ideas on improving vocational education quality in broader understanding . 

 Insights and Approach 

 I have learned from applying Mind mapping tool to the data analysis and idea generation process , that it   helps to avoid linear thinking and fosters creativity withing gathered data . During our exercise we   defined even more topics for our project , than we expected , and it helped us to see the big picture of   the situation in vocational training in Lithuania . This pivotal process in analyzing gathered data let us   create more ideas not only for this project , but as well let us think about broader business conditions   improvement projects within our organization . 

 Moreover , the putting topics in visual way , helps fostering discussions withing the multi - functional team   and encourages all members to raise their opinion and additional great ideas . 

 I think , Mind mapping can be applied in all the projects within different sectors – from business , to   education and governmental affairs . It helps in the brainstorming sessions and researching and   consolidating data gathered from various different sources . Also , it helps to better thinking and ensures   effective collaboration between the members of the team . 

 In addition to that , I really value the thought , which was said during the course , “ There has to be time   for reflection and disagreement , since these are core to new ideas ” . Diverse and different thoughts are   easily expressed in all multi - functional teams , but it is always difficult to find time for the constructive   reflection . Reflection during the mind mapping gave us more inspiration while sharing the insights on   bigger picture of the project . 

 Since I discovered the value of the Mind mapping tool , next time during the project creation and   implementation , I will definitely use this tool to foster creativity of the project team .
### Output: 