Community Intervention:
Design rationale: Since New Song Do is being built from the ground up, a successful learning intervention has the opportunity to build a cohesive community from the ground up as well. This new city, which is supposed to be made up of 90% Korean residents and 10% international residents, is going to be the most diverse city in South Korea. Through our learning intervention, we hope to create an informed, involved and cohesive international community that feels ownership over their new home. If this is successful, New Song Do will be a model for international cosmopolitan living.
The Intervention: Our focus group informed us that Koreans love to shop, and the most successful learning space in which to design a community-building intervention is the mall. Our main design idea is to have interactive plasma screens posted in traditionally underutilized learning spaces such as near long lines waiting for the cash register at the mall or grocery store. Bored customers can look at the dynamic presentations on the plasma screens and learn about events that are happening all over the city, such as: - Top 10 Things to do This Week/The One “Place to Be” Tonight: o E.g. “Visit the Cultural Center for their exhibition on Korean food and drinking culture”, or “Celebrate Oktoberfest at Hans’ BierHaus tonight! No cover charge if you wear German colors.” - Big sales this week - Celebrity Visits o Our focus group also informed us that following celebrities closely is also a very popular activity in Korea. If a celebrity endorses a cause or product, everyone will support the cause or run out and by the product. We believe this part of our intervention can also facilitate more critical thinking by asking probing questions after the advertisement such as “What do you think of the cause that Celebrity X is supporting? Text your thoughts to 888-5432 and read other’s posts at www.celebrityqs.com” - Facts about New Song Do: o E.g. “Did you know that our city is made up of residents from over 120 countries? Learn more (and fact check!) at www.WhoKnewSongDo.com” - Community building activities: o Why don’t you… ß Bring a flower to someone you love ß Offer help to a stranger o Read about people’s experiences with random acts of kindness (and post your own!) at www.smile.com
Customers will be able to Bluetooth/download events which they want to attend to their phones or PDAs. Individual event reminders will be stored in their calendars. By allowing customers to download what they wish we are trying to prevent information overload and spam on people’s phones/PDAs.
Assessment: We can assess learning by: - Measuring the quantity of hits and posts to interactive websites. - Examining the quality of such posts. Are people responding to each other? Are different posters pushing each other’s learning? - Measuring how many people visit the advertised events and comparing this number to the baseline amount of visitors. - Conducting a city-wide survey that assesses people’s perceptions of the New Song Do community. The survey should contain both specific and open-ended questions: o Do you feel informed about what is going on in your community? Why or why not? o Do you feel involved in your community? Why or why not? o How would you describe New Song Do to a new visitor?