Week 10: Solution Validation

Over the past week, we conducted an initial validation of our solution. To do that, we created a visual concept in Canva to illustrate our idea:

We interviewed two homeroom teachers — one teaching 8th grade in a middle school and another working in a religious high school. During each interview, we presented our scenario and walked them through a first demo of the solution.

Mixed Feedback

The feedback we received was mixed, with a clear tendency toward critical reflection rather than immediate validation.

One of the teachers described our concept as feeling like “helicopter parenting” — a situation in which all the information is centralized with the homeroom teacher, who then manages and navigates the class’s social dynamics from above. She emphasized that the core challenge in middle school is not only identifying socially isolated students, but fostering a sense of belonging at the class level. Even if students are not close friends, the class itself needs to function as a shared social group.

Throughout the interviews, a recurring theme emerged: the need to strengthen empathy, curiosity, and mutual awareness among the students themselves, rather than relying solely on insights held by the teacher. The teachers shared that they already use many game-based and experiential practices — such as rotating pair work, speed-dating activities, and structured social tasks — to encourage students to get to know one another. These practices may not fully solve social difficulties, but they do reduce alienation and increase a sense of inclusion.

Another important tension that surfaced was between technology and human interaction. While a digital tool can offer structure, visibility, and an additional perspective, the teachers were clear that it cannot — and should not — replace direct human connection, conversation, and students’ own social responsibility. The role of technology, therefore, should be to enable, not to control.

As a result of these insights, we made a significant shift in our thinking.

A Shift in Our Solution

Instead of designing a solution that strengthens an individual student through data that remains in the hands of the teacher, we decided to move the solution into the classroom itself. Our focus is shifting from individual intervention to class cohesion as a whole. Our goal is now to create a playful, practical, and repeatable classroom practice that helps teachers foster openness, familiarity, and connection among students — as a shared, collective process rather than a centralized one.

Next Steps

Our next steps include refining our scenario based on these learnings and conducting another round of validation — this time involving both teachers and students — to examine whether the updated concept truly supports long-term social cohesion in the classroom.

This validation process reminded us that testing is not just about confirming whether an idea “works,” but about understanding what doesn’t — and having the courage to rethink the direction entirely.