Coursera Assignment for Design Thinking Submission 

 1 .   Challenge   I am an educator and I teach business communication at a polytechnic in my country . Usually   at the beginning of the semester , one of the key things to be taught is that of the Purpose- Audience - Context ( PAC ) components . Understanding the Purpose of the communication   situation , who the Audience is , and the dynamics of the relationship between speaker / writer   and listener / reader will determine the tone , register and content used . My students are 16 - 17   year - olds , who are fairly good in the English Language , but not necessarily communicatively   competent . I usually tell them that being good in a language , does not make them good   communicators . Herein lies the pedagogical challenge – how to get young students to   appreciate the PAC of communication so that they are sensitized to the requirements of a   communication context , and be more effective communicators . 

 2 .   Selection   I teach across many schools in my institutions – Engineering , Design Arts , Engineering ,   Business . My teaching approach is never a one - size - fits - all thing . I am given leeway to vary my   approach and in one semester , I decided to adopt a learning launch by experimenting a new   and creative method to teach PAC , and fine - tuning it if need be . Rather than leaving this PAC   at the theoretical level ( just explaining the abstract concepts ) , I felt it was necessary to get an   experience of a simulated communication encounter . I would then get feedback from   students through their post - activity reflections on what they learnt while doing the activity . 

 3 .   Application   For each class , I divided 20 students into 5 groups and assigned each group one of the   following communication challenges :   ( i )   Explain the difference between RAM and hard - disk storage to a non - techy elderly   person 

 ( ii )   Explain the offside rule in soccer to a person who is watching a game for the first   time 

 ( iii )   Convince an anti - vaccination parent why his / her child should get vaccinated 

 ( iv )   Convince a meat lover why his diet may be harming the environment 

 ( v )   Explain “ birth control ” to a class of 10 - year olds 

 Each group was given 30 minutes to research and think how best to carry out the task . A   group representative had to role - play and enact the actual encounter to the class acting as its   audience .     Subsequently , in later classes , I varied the scenarios a little to suit the disciplines of the   students ’ diplomas . Not every group was able to adapt their communicative strategy correctly   to the right audience . For example , when a student had to role - play explaining techy concepts   to a non - techy senior citizen , he continued to use computer jargon – basically communicating   from his own perspective , rather than the audience ’s perspective . My point in this approach   was not to have the students come up with the best communication strategy for each   situation , but for them to appreciate the intricacies of each situation , and the empathy   needed to understand the challenges on part of the audience to understand the intended   message . 

 The feedback from the post - activity reflection showed that many of them finally understood   that linguistic competence alone did not always lead to communication success . From the   reactions of the class , I also sensed a higher level of engagement and involvement in what   would otherwise have been a dry abstract lesson if this activity was omitted . 

 4 .   Insight   By applying the learning launch in this pedagogical experiment , I had actually deviated from   the lesson objective of that Lesson 1 of the module which was to just introduce the objectives   and overview of the module . Through the first experiment , and checking on their students ’   reactions and reflections from the activity , I felt I had moved from teaching them ABOUT   communication to showing them the communication process .   I also told my students after   the activity that I honestly did not think all of them was going to get it right ( although a few   did brilliantly ) . Doing a learning launch requires a Growth Mindset , daring to try , and fail , and   re - trying again . 

 5 .   Approach   An alternative approach could be to use the Visualisation Tool to develop a pedagogical   approach .   By getting educators to think in terms of the various possible communication   encounters ( parent - child , seller - buyer , friend - friend , young - elderly ) and come up with ways to   teach students extrapolation strategies in the communication encounters they find   themselves in , we will generate a form of visual thinking in our students . 


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: Coursera Assignment for Design Thinking Submission 

 1 .   Challenge   I am an educator and I teach business communication at a polytechnic in my country . Usually   at the beginning of the semester , one of the key things to be taught is that of the Purpose- Audience - Context ( PAC ) components . Understanding the Purpose of the communication   situation , who the Audience is , and the dynamics of the relationship between speaker / writer   and listener / reader will determine the tone , register and content used . My students are 16 - 17   year - olds , who are fairly good in the English Language , but not necessarily communicatively   competent . I usually tell them that being good in a language , does not make them good   communicators . Herein lies the pedagogical challenge – how to get young students to   appreciate the PAC of communication so that they are sensitized to the requirements of a   communication context , and be more effective communicators . 

 2 .   Selection   I teach across many schools in my institutions – Engineering , Design Arts , Engineering ,   Business . My teaching approach is never a one - size - fits - all thing . I am given leeway to vary my   approach and in one semester , I decided to adopt a learning launch by experimenting a new   and creative method to teach PAC , and fine - tuning it if need be . Rather than leaving this PAC   at the theoretical level ( just explaining the abstract concepts ) , I felt it was necessary to get an   experience of a simulated communication encounter . I would then get feedback from   students through their post - activity reflections on what they learnt while doing the activity . 

 3 .   Application   For each class , I divided 20 students into 5 groups and assigned each group one of the   following communication challenges :   ( i )   Explain the difference between RAM and hard - disk storage to a non - techy elderly   person 

 ( ii )   Explain the offside rule in soccer to a person who is watching a game for the first   time 

 ( iii )   Convince an anti - vaccination parent why his / her child should get vaccinated 

 ( iv )   Convince a meat lover why his diet may be harming the environment 

 ( v )   Explain “ birth control ” to a class of 10 - year olds 

 Each group was given 30 minutes to research and think how best to carry out the task . A   group representative had to role - play and enact the actual encounter to the class acting as its   audience .     Subsequently , in later classes , I varied the scenarios a little to suit the disciplines of the   students ’ diplomas . Not every group was able to adapt their communicative strategy correctly   to the right audience . For example , when a student had to role - play explaining techy concepts   to a non - techy senior citizen , he continued to use computer jargon – basically communicating   from his own perspective , rather than the audience ’s perspective . My point in this approach   was not to have the students come up with the best communication strategy for each   situation , but for them to appreciate the intricacies of each situation , and the empathy   needed to understand the challenges on part of the audience to understand the intended   message . 

 The feedback from the post - activity reflection showed that many of them finally understood   that linguistic competence alone did not always lead to communication success . From the   reactions of the class , I also sensed a higher level of engagement and involvement in what   would otherwise have been a dry abstract lesson if this activity was omitted . 

 4 .   Insight   By applying the learning launch in this pedagogical experiment , I had actually deviated from   the lesson objective of that Lesson 1 of the module which was to just introduce the objectives   and overview of the module . Through the first experiment , and checking on their students ’   reactions and reflections from the activity , I felt I had moved from teaching them ABOUT   communication to showing them the communication process .   I also told my students after   the activity that I honestly did not think all of them was going to get it right ( although a few   did brilliantly ) . Doing a learning launch requires a Growth Mindset , daring to try , and fail , and   re - trying again . 

 5 .   Approach   An alternative approach could be to use the Visualisation Tool to develop a pedagogical   approach .   By getting educators to think in terms of the various possible communication   encounters ( parent - child , seller - buyer , friend - friend , young - elderly ) and come up with ways to   teach students extrapolation strategies in the communication encounters they find   themselves in , we will generate a form of visual thinking in our students .
### Output: 