Design. Learn. Solve.

My New “Office”

Over the past few months I’ve been diving into my new job. A small portion of this transition has centered on rethinking the role of learning spaces at my school and beyond. One of my goals has been to start conversations about the power of spaces in improving our teaching and learning.

I updated my working space and have used my “office” as a model: an opportunity to wonder/share/create/reimagine. It has already started some great conversations with students, faculty, and staff.

While I’ve been enjoying the space, I wanted to share the transition and hopefully it will start your own conversation about the learning spaces at your school. The space itself is meant to be communal. I’m not one for saying, “this is MINE”. Students and faculty are welcome to use my space for brainstorming. I am a believer in the value of collaboration and being open to new voices/approaches and that only comes when you open your mind or in this case, “your door”.

The Result

How It Happened

To create the space, we used Ideapaint Pro. I highly suggest either getting a professional to apply the paint or following IdeaPaint’s instructions to the T. For example, if you spread the paint too thin the ink will stain the wall and not wipe off completely. The desk and bookshelf were made out of recycled wood by Amanda Kovattana.

Community Use

As I mentioned, I have offered this space to the faculty and students. They are able to reserve my office and use it as they see fit. This week my office is hosting a video “Photo Booth” for our Multi-Cultural Festival. Students are recording their thoughts based upon a prompt written on the wall.



I hope this has given you some food for thought and I look forward to seeing your take on how we can reimagine our learning spaces.

Photo Credits: Earthworm & davidbill

Beauty and Curiosity

I found these two videos today. They are interviews of Richard Feynman, the acclaimed physicist, and both really resonated with me.

As educators, we are expected to assist our students as they grow and define themselves. These two videos highlight a few principles that, in my mind, are some of the most important lessons we could ever teach our students.

be “madly” curious

explore the little things

beauty surrounds us in all things

it’s ok not to know the answer

Hopefully these videos will inspire you as much as they did for me.

Beauty
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRmbwczTC6E[/youtube]

Curiosity
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmTmGLzPVyM&feature=related[/youtube]

Photo and Video Credit: damewse

Learning from Google’s Creative Lab

Google’s Creative Lab has been around for a few years but the concept has been a transformative one for the company and a model that schools should consider.

The Creative Lab

Google, which had been known more for their search than their advertising, has made a large impact in the digital media scene over the past few years. Their multi-disciplinary team in the Creative Lab has been responsible for some very critically acclaimed work including, their “Google Chrome Speed Tests”, “Wilderness Downtown”, and “Parisian Love”.

Projects like these have transformed Google’s image. The Creative Lab has been an opportunity to infuse creative talent into an Internet company while also training the “creatives” on the power of Google. Those who work in the Creative Lab stay for a year or two before being sent back into their respective industries. By following such a model, Google has been able not only train up and coming designers and writers on the power of Google but reap the benefits of their talent.

Bringing the Creative Lab to schools

The power of the Creative Lab has been in the fact that it has helped transform Google into a force in the digital media world.

Why can’t the same be done in schools?

It could be a “Teach For America” for creatives. Innovators and designers will spend two years working within a school to help bring innovation and an understanding of design thinking into schools while in turn they are trained as educators. The schools benefit by having access to amazing creatives who can help transform the experience of learning in an academic institution while the creatives benefit by being trained as educators. After a stint in a school, the creatives return to their professional worlds with an understanding of education that many dedicated to helping lack.

Far too often I meet very creative people who want to make a difference in the world of education but do not understand schools. By developing a program like this, a school will give those passionate creatives an opportunity to make a difference the world of education and in turn become a much more informed public. This type of work would provide an opportunity to solve two problems:

1. The need for schools to truly embrace a different way of thinking when it comes to learning


2. Create more informed social entrepreneurs, innovators, and designers

The Google Creative Lab has transformed Google into a powerful player in the advertising and media space. Schools can benefit from the same approach. Design and innovation are becoming more important in our schools and this is a great opportunity to create more “teachers” while benefiting from the power of creativity and innovation.

If anyone is interested in such an idea, let me know and lets dream this up together.

Serving Up PD

For the the past few years, I have been exploring the idea of professional development. While the mindset of helping educators has always been the same, the methodology has evolved.

There are a number of people out there who are doing the same thing. We are attempting to inspire and connect by using models that include edcamps and TEDx.

My first exploration started a few years ago when I ran across TEDx. In my mind, TEDxNYED and TEDxSFED were meant to be the answer, TED like events that brought inspiration to educators. These are powerful opportunities but these are once a year.

Over the past few months I have been thinking about the idea of community, learning, and innovation.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that TEDx as a one day event, while inspiring, does not bring the type of results I have been seeking. The real goal is to create opportunities for sustained interaction between educators, innovators, and designers.

What got me to this mind set was at first the TEDxNY salon. Then there was Detroit Soup. And finally, today I read Glen Lubbert’s post on Jeffersonian dinners.

These events all have something in common: bringing people together to connect, share, and explore what is possible. They are not difficult to produce and they are not time consuming. They are simple methods to connect and create opportunities that can transform education.

As I move forward, my goals are to:

1. Provide a platform for educators to connect on a regular basis
2. Introduce the worlds of education and innovation to each other

That is possible by:

1. Following the TEDxNY and TEDx Tuesdays at SMU models and create a regularly scheduled salon that bringing educators and innovators together to inspire, learn, share, and create opportunites that will transform education.

2. Create regularly scheduled dinners like Detroit Soup or the Jeffersonian Dinners that provide opportunities to inspire, connect, and plan over a meal.

I know these ideas are not new but I do not see many opportunities that connect the worlds of education and innovation. My goal is to bridge the divide of education and innovation by creating opportunities for the two worlds to meet. Far too often educators are not included in these type of events.

Hopefully, by introducing these models, I will be able to help feed the conversation around how we can assist our educators, expand their network, and transform their teaching.

In order to give credit where credit is due, the ideas mentioned stemmed from the following models:

TEDxNY
Detroit Soup
Jeffersonian Dinners
edcamp

While TEDxSFED is on April 9th, I believe these goals are definitely ideas worth spreading and plan to move forward soon after our first iteration of TEDxSFED is over. I hope that you do the same and create your own Jeffersonian Dinners or something similar and help bring educators and innovators together in order to serve up better professional development.

Photo Credit: Ed Yourdon