We now share our final application.

Although it is a bit different from the prototype, due to certain limitations, we would like to further iterate and update it in the near future and enable several more features.

You can download the app on mobile devices from the link below : 

Crafteach App

User Testing & Feedback

After completing we reviewed our app by some the old age people. Following are the feedback that we got-

1. Some said they are very happy with the app and our idea 

2. Few suggested about the quiz which will evaluate the experience level of a student -which will be created by themselves or by us

3. Some old age seemed very hesitance for their paradigm shift that is learning new technology. They thought that it will take time to learn and they are very old now

4. Some uneducated old age wanted to take help of the educated ones in their family or neighbour for filling of details as they did not know English and typing.

Insights After Feedback

1.We have to make our app multilingual

2.Create a quiz - evaluating student experience

3.We have to consider the family members and his relatives ( who can support old age in technical issues )as our user, who in turn may convenience them better and help in a paradigm shift,

User Testing Video

 Here is a prototype of the Craft Teach app before the final app production.

Through all the context and user analysis, we started building the conceptualizing the solution.

CONCEPT (1)

A platform that helps students learn from old experienced vocational teachers.

Government Policies in our favour- NEP 2020

“NEP aims to begin with vocational exposure at early ages in middle and secondary school, quality vocational education will be integrated smoothly into higher education.” NEP states that important vocational crafts, such as carpentry, electric work, metalwork, gardening, pottery making, etc., will be “sampled” as decided by States and local communities during Classes 6 to 8. The policy proposes that every child should learn “at least one vocation” and be “ exposed to several more”.The Policy also encourages a 10-day bagless with “local vocational experts” to help the students gain a better understanding of the vocation. NEP also proposes similar internship opportunities to students between Classes 6 to 12. "

The policy also proposes ‘local teacher education programs’ in which local resource persons can be hired by schools for shorter courses on vocational crafts.

Considering the Government policies we now see that there would be a vacuum in the market for vocational teachers and this would be the right time to fill this void. 

This vacuum in the market would be large enough to cater to the poor old and skilled labour.

CONCEPT (2) 

An alternate approach to solution was to make a set of ergonomic tools that are suited especially to older craftsmen. The tools could've been optimised to leverage joints and pressure application points of the body that lose the least function with age and relieving strain from parts of the body, which exert most in operation of regular tools and therefore(or otherwise) lose the most strength/function with age.

This is a tentative Check-list that we have evolved from our work on the first three C's or Concerns of Innovations

1. Accomodating age, location and time for teaching
2. Standardized curriculum
3. Sufficient remuneration 
4. Imparting smartphone and internet literacy
5. Intuitive UI

Through all the interviews conducted by various team members and some secondary search(referenced at the end) we had a better picture of the problem space than we had started out with. These are a few of the insights we acquired.

Issues

• Respect for the elderly

• Financial burden

• Inadequacy of current vocational training setup

• Lack of interest in practical education

Problems and Causes

• Smartphone usage 

• Unemployed engineers

There seems to be this curse for unemployed engineers where skills imparted or the quality or rigor of education don't match the requirements of the industry, leaving positions empty and educated joblessness increasing.

Papers reviewed:

https://www.cprindia.org/sites/default/files/articles/Skill_Training_or_Nipping_Potential_in_the_Bud-_0.pdf 

https://echetana.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/3.-A-E-Dr-Mahesh-Narayan-Dixit.pdf

https://www.kalsatrust.org.in/images/pdf/LABOUR_AND_EMPLOYMENT/KALSA%20RESERCH%20INSTITUTE%20%20LABOUR%20&%20EMPOWERMENT%20312.pdf

 The first interviewee was Suman Das, a 39-year old carpenter who has been working ot join for 15-20 years and expects to work till he's 60 years old. He had studied till 5th standard and was trained by his 'ustaad' who was himself a sexagenerian by the looks of it. That man only gave instructions, there was no demonstartions involved. He also his junior apprentices from time to time who take care of the less crucial work and learn by observing. He rued that carpentry work has gone down as people prefer more modern materials like stell and aluminium for furniture and much of the business is run off furniture stores that have sprung up. And thus he can find fewer apprentices. He cannot afford a smartphone, but is upbeat that he can learn to use the same in a jiffy. Similar is his enthusiasm to learn any extra skills necessary to be able to impart vocational training. As an use case, he described that he can teach students in groups of 4, one hour each week, and take approximately three months to teach them to make a chair. He would obviously need to be supplied 4 more sets of three basic tools for the same. 

The second interviewee was Srijon Chatterjee, a thirty-something B. Tech graduate from NIT Agartala who was a senior instructor at an ITI(Industrial Training Institute) run by Ramakrishna Mission. He gave an insightful overview of the current vocational training setup and revealed some attitudes in there about NEP 2020. He listed all the exit opportunities of students with vocational training(self-employment as small business, some big corporations and local production facilities). There he observed a lack of coordination with the corporate sector with regards to placements. He confirmed that there isn't much leeway in the current setup in most ITIs to accomodate newer students for trainign as may be required by the NEP. Another issue he flagged was the gap of knowledge in the tradesmen who were trained by apprenticeship, which need to be fulfilled in order for them to impart standardised vocational curricula, which he surmised might be covered with a week-long or fortnight-long training.

With the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic, the entire nation went into lockdown. So do we. This gave us an opportunity to understand and look closely at the problems being faced by the elderly at home to which we never felt and seen before.

 Trigger - 

As DE 331 students, we had an opportunity to work on a project that can help elderly people around us. We 3 were highly excited as this course was giving us an opportunity to do something for society and moreover, we can do something for elderly people.