7B. Activity
In the previous discussion section of module 3, you began to understand the rationale and background research for the need to redesign professional learning environment and space. In this section, you will learn to think as a designer and begin to redesign your professional learning space.
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“The end of education is the dawn of learning”. A famous quote by Stephen Heppell, CEO of heppell.net, LTD., UK. In this video, a variety of speakers talk about learning in the 3rd millenium as contrasted to earlier models of education in classrooms full of rows. As spaces for learning change, so must the space in which Professional Learning Leaders train educators. The learning is referred to as “brave” because educators can learn to experiment and create with the new knowledge they attain. This leads to the understanding that classrooms and learning spaces as we know them can not function any longer and space now plays a vital role in learning. Hence the title: “Learning to Change-Changing to Learn”.
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The Third Teacher
Loris Malaguzzi established a premise in the 1940’s that children develop through three types of interactions. First, with the adults in their lives, (parents and teachers), second with their peers, and thirdly with the environment around them. Malaguzzi then identified “environment” as the third teacher. This label inspired a collaboration between Education architects Cannon Design, VS Furniture, and Bruce Mau Design to write a book about their studies on “The Third Teacher” and identified “79 Ways You Can Use Design to Transform Teaching and Learning”. The book is a product and display of the art of collaboration by design thinkers who are skilled at listening and observing to design solutions for learning.
Based on previous experiences, in what ways do environments, both familiar and new to educators, affect the way in which they learn? |
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79 Ways to Transform Teaching and Learning
Download the PDF on 79 Ways to Transform Teaching and Learning and think about your professional learning environment and space, select which of the ways listed would apply to your space and document them for later use in the activity. It is important to collaborate on a design project like this because you will need to incorporate the creative ideas of as many stakeholders that are associated with your Professional Learning Space.
Consider the following stakeholders and departments to invite individuals to collaborate with:
Consider the following stakeholders and departments to invite individuals to collaborate with:
- Teachers
- Students
- Parents
- Curriculum and Instruction (Across as many content experts as possible)
- Educational Technology
- Information Technology
- Media Services
- Administrators
- Support Staff
- Business partners
Professional Learning Spaces: 3 Redesign Approaches
01 Human Centered Design
Human learning is at the center. Therefore another way to approach “design thinking” is to consider the process as “Human Centered Design”.
Read the following to discover how learners can learn to fail better and translate the context to the professional learner. You will learn:
Link: Teach Your Students to Fail Better with Design Thinking |
02 Design Thinking for Educators
IDEo (pronounced “eye-dee-oh”) is an award-winning global design firm that takes a human-centered approach to helping organizations in the public and private sectors innovate and grow. (www.ideo.com) If you are looking to do a complete “hack” of your professional learning environment space, then you will want the Design Thinking for Educators toolkit that is created by IDEo. Design Thinking for Educators is an extensive approach to human centered design that is collaborative, optimistic, and experimental. Design thinking for Educators provides a workflow through five stages of design thinking that will help redesign your professional learning environment:
Link: Design Thinking for Educators toolkit |
03 Remake your Class: 6 Steps to get StartedTheThirdTeacher+ and edutopia teamed up to provide a process for remaking your classroom or professional learning space. It requires a mindset of 10 characteristics to “hack” your professional learning space:
Remake your Class TheThirdTeacher+ and edutopia also provide 8 tips and tricks to redesign your classroom based on real case studies. |
Activity
Choose only one of the three design thinking approaches above to begin your redesign of professional learning environment. Once you choose the approach,
- List all the participants/stakeholders you plan to include in the design thinking process. (No names, titles only)
- A brief explanation as to why you are choosing one of the three design approaches. (Consider timeline of project.)
- A brief explanation of your personal process that you plan to implement for each stage of the design thinking approach. (See bulleted points in each approach.)