Here Be Dragons: Approaching New Educational Ecologies Through Speculative Design and Research (GESS-Dubai 2017)

Transcript

1. Here be Dragons Thomas Steele-Maley CTIO: Nations Academy-Dubai @steelemaley GESS-Dubai 2017 Approaching New Educational Ecologies Through Speculative Design and Research
2. 07 Our Goals for this session S E E A N E E D S E E E X A M P L E S D I S C U S S P O S S I B I L I T I E S Q A N D A
3. –Nassim Taleb “Milk uncertainty and try to exploit disorder”
5. We need to suspend our disbelief that education can change.
6. Design Fiction*- Design fiction is a method of critical design* that uses fictional and narrative scenarios to envision, explain and raise questions about possible futures for design and the society —purposeful —speculative —diegetic (a style of fiction storytelling that presents an interior view of a world) —playful —imaginative *Critical Design: This kind of design uses design fiction and speculative design proposals to challenge assumptions, conceptions about the role of objects play in everyday life. *Source: Design Fiction. (n.d.). Retrieved July 13, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_fiction
7. Four “near future” vignettes to consider. How are we mutating our educational ecologies for these futures?
8. Piper is a 15 year old who lives in Midcoast Maine, US. A year ago, Piper heard about a new way to learn, and decided to take part in a new learning experience called the Maine Networked Learning Project. Known as “the Mesh” to participants, this learning ecology offered Piper the chance to apply her passion for learning in highly experiential and collaborative ways with groups of young people of varied ages, adult and youth mentors with knowledge territory specialties and organizations focused on ensuring sustainable and resilient societies, economies, and the environment. This is a snapshot of her day. Piper gets ready for her week by sitting outside sipping tea and looking at her smart phone. She is checking project updates sent from the team she has been working with for the last two months on her Google Reader and Twitter feed. The project Piper is checking in on deals with food justice in the rural communities of her bioregion. Seeing many updates, and much activity she decides to look at the overall “mesh” schedule for the day. She notices that the MNLP van will be moving across the local region starting in an hour. To get a ride on this local transportation system she has to ride her bike to a station stop or have her parents drop her off at the regional mesh meet-up location. But before deciding this she reviews her weekly schedule on her mobile. Piper notices that she and three others will be presenting at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars organization to a large group on the history of local food cultivation in the region. She and her Food Justice project group have spent a good deal of time completing ethnographic studies of the areas “locals”. These participant interviews are seminal to their presentation as they show that local sustainability and resilience projects are not “outside” or “rich Peoples” pursuits, but can save local economies and the historical heritage this stakeholder group cherishes. The group has also been working in restoration crews on local farms as a service learning tie in to their studies. The project has been extensive. Piper and her group have covered mathematics, experimental sciences, writing, social sciences and much more in an integrated project framework. They have relied on their mesh mentors, local experts (educators, authors, historians, scientists….), and the internet for research, recording (writing, video) and exhibiting their knowledge and understanding to multiple community stakeholder groups. As the project presentation pre-work is done, Piper contacts her group via twitter hashtag to remind all that they will need an hour to meet-up before the presentation and to ride their bikes to the VAW hall from the meet-up. Immediately she gets a response from three of the four other group members that they will meet prior to the VAW event. They remind each other that a collaborative learning session will be going on for applied algebra and trigonometry concepts at Noon. This session will be special, as an innovative regional planner from rural Scotland will be mentoring at the Self Organized Learning Environment today along with their local quantitative reasoning/systems thinking mentors. She video chats with one participant letting her know that she will be at the SOLE, and is hoping to get a ride to her house (or dorm) after today’s VAW presentation. That done, Piper checks with her parents (or dorm parents) and decides to ride her bike to a mesh station stop. She then rides the mesh van into town and catches up on posts in her Reader and replies to myriad comments and responses in her network on the way. At the Meet-up location (a wide open space that reminds Piper of a open market of some kind), she settles in with the other young people in study, discussion and deliberation. Today she takes out her tablet and reads a work in global literature that was suggested by a mentor she has in South Asia. She will take notes on the P I P E R H A H N ’ S N E T W O R K E D L E A R N I N G E C O L O G Y Steele-Maley, T. (2011)
9. N E T W O R K E D L E A R N I N G E C O L O G Y U B I Q U I T O U S , M O B I L E , B L E N D E D , P E R S O N A L I Z E D N E T W O R K E D L E A R N E R : I N D I V I D U A L I Z E D L E A R N I N G P L A N B A S E D O N B L E N D E D L E A R N I N G E C O L O G Y: E X P E R I E N T I A L F I E L D W O R K ; E S S E N T I A L S K I L L S D E V E L O P M E N T; A P P L I E D R E S E A R C H ; E X H I B I T I O N S N E T W O R K E D P R O J E C T T E A M S : M U LT I G E N E R AT I O N A L A N D I N T E G R AT I V E R E S E A R C H T E A M S C O L L A B O R AT I N G I N D A I LY, W E E K LY A N D M O N T H LY L E A R N I N G N E T W O R K S L O C A L C O N N E C T I O N M E S H : I N D E P E N D E N T L E A R N E R N E T W O R K S , L E A R N I N G E X C H A N G E L A B S ; E X P E R I E N T I A L L E A R N I N G ; M E E T- U P S ; T R A N S P O RTAT I O N , L E A R N I N G M E N T O R S H I P S ( FA R M , S C I E N C E L A B , P O L I T I C A L O F F I C E , C I T I Z E N S C I E N C E , C R E AT I V E E C O N O M Y G L O B A L C O N N E C T I O N M E S H : F O R M A L / N O N - F O R M A L B L E N D E D V I RT U A L L E A R N I N G C O M M U N I T I E S , N E T W O R K E D L E A R N I N G ( M O B I L E , U B I Q U I T O U S , S O C I A L LY R E L E VA N T, S C H O L A S T I C ) S E L F O R G A N I Z E D L E A R N I N G E N V I R O N M E N T S I N T E R D E P E N D E N T A C T I O N S : N E T W O R K E D PA RT N E R S H I P S F O R A C T I O N I N S Y S T E M S ( S O C I A L , E C O N O M I C , E N V I R O N M E N TA L B E T T E R M E N T, S O C I A L LY R E L E VA N T A C T I V I T I E S , M U LT I - S I T E D I N T E R N AT I O N A L P R O J E C T C O L L A B O R AT I O N . S O U R C E : S T E E L E - M A L E Y, T. ( 2 0 1 1 )
10. By focussing on the speculative and fictional, design is no longer constrained by the practical reality of todays material, economic (and other) restrictions. The social, cultural and political basis of those ideologies need to be exposed, interpreted and explored. In DF the ideological drive is laid bare. Deconstructing the economic and political underpinning of design is an essential skill to develop. All design for schools is ideological As with any practice where contingency is mapped and explored, future ‘scenarios’ lay a framework for possibility…. Fiction can be a testing ground for reality Things to Remember Adapted from: Sterling, B. (2013, July 21). Design Fiction: Design Teaching with Design Fiction. Retrieved July 13, 2015, from http://www.wired.com/2013/07/design-fiction-design-teaching-with-design-fiction/
11. “A [person] who carries a cat by the tail learns something they can learn no other way” -Twain
12. Prototyping a future of education Mini-Workshop Storytelling: Answer the following question as a group. What are the barriers that make creating new educational environments difficult. (5min) What have been the best and worst experiences you’ve had creating new initiatives/educational environments/schools? (10 min) Critique: Answer the following question as a group. Vision: Write a design fiction Write/draw/map a narrative script for the most ideal educational environment you could imagine for students — what does your exaggerated picture of future possibilities look like? (20 min) Report out, discussion, networking
13. #GESS2017 DESIGN DRIVEN INNOVATION C H A N G I N G T H E R U L E S O F I N N O V A T I O N I N E D U C A T I O N @steelemaley
14. Education and Meanings W E M U S T M A K E S E N S E O F T H I N G S F I R S T Whether for pedagogy, services, processes, or business models, two levels of innovation are possible: improvements and new directions. Adapted from Keeley, L., Pikkel, R., Quinn, B., & Walters, H. (2013). Ten types of innovation: The discipline of building breakthroughs. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Ch.23.
15. Our Customers: Parents D O N ’ T R E A L L Y K N O W W H A T S P O S S I B L E I N E D U C A T I O N I N S T E A D , N E W M E A N I N G A N D D I R E C T I O N F O R E D U C A T I O N M U S T C O M E F R O M Y O U R S C H O O L S
16. Using Design Driven Innovation for New Directions • Diverse individuals • Reflect alone • One month (threshing) • Only new concepts of value Existing to new clearly defined • Work together in trusted pairs to refine their visions • Bill and Paul, Steve and Steve • 10-20 individuals (post spar) • Judge why and how of new concepts • Find synergy • Combine and narrow for new directions • Submit to critique • Not intended to generate new ideas • challenge to strengthen • “interpreters” Reflection Sparring Radical Circles Outsiders
17. Theorize: New Educational Ecologies Read into trends Mind your dragons Create Design Fiction
18. “As educators we need to be more like gardeners than engineers” -Sir Ken Robinson (2015) in Most Likely to Succeed A reminder….
19. Suggested Resources Thomas Steele-Maley CTIO, Nations Academy @steelemaley S L I D E D E C K Resources http://fieldnotes.in/search/designfiction http://steelemaley.net/2014/05/26/design-fiction-and-prototyping-disruption/ Super flux (http://www.superflux.in/): “is a collaborative design practice working at the intersection of emerging technologies and everyday life to design for a world in flux.” The Near Future Laboratory (http://nearfuturelaboratory.com/): who’s “goal is to understand how imaginations and hypothesis become materialized to swerve the present into new, more habitable near future worlds.” Arup Foresight Group (http://www.driversofchange.com/about/): who “research and raise awareness about the major challenges affecting the built environment and their implications. We also run events to help clients think more creatively about the long term future, and to manage risk and uncertainty more effectively.” Design Interaction Program at RCA (http://design-interactions.rca.ac.uk/): who “are interested in the social, cultural and ethical consequences of emerging technologies, and this means asking probing questions through design. To this end, we encourage students to consider the implications, as well as the applications, of new technologies, and thus to seek fresh approaches to interaction design – approaches that are meaningful and relevant today. In short, we see this field of design as a fertile way of thinking about the life around us, within us, and in the future beyond us”.
20. #DIGEDME @steelemaley Set Sail Innovation in education is not easy W H E N Y O U S E E A B L A C K S Q U A L L , S A I L T O W A R D S I T — F O R T H A T S W H E R E T H E W I N D I S - M E G L E S
21. Thomas Steele-Maley CTIO Nations Academy-Dubai @steelemaley