Responding to Flexible Learning Spaces.
This week we kicked off a new working relationship with a school community transitioning into a whole new school build composed of very impressive looking ‘flexible’ learning spaces.
A whole new school!
Now embraced by a very new ‘built pedagogy’ this learning community is tasked with the responsibility of deciphering their new place of learning and developing a community of learners with a focus on collaboration and innovation. As the immersion into this new physical space begins, it’s an extremely opportune time to also launch into another space of collaboration and innovation — design thinking, provoked by a whole new school! There was little need for me to stimulate open and divergent thinking as this group were already living and breathing immersion.
What emerged (very quickly) from our opening workshop were, very naturally, lots of concerns. We all know that ‘moving house’ is significantly stressful. However, I sensed that it was extremely beneficial for this new ‘design team’ to begin to make visible and publish into their ‘Project Nest’ the very first chapter of the story of their move. Straight away they found solace from this act of storytelling. Excites and ambitions also began to brim to the surface and I know from experience that these will continue to develop and direct their story.
We therefore discussed that as a learning community they have not only immersed in a problem space but also a very exciting opportunity space…the activation phase where “…players engage is a participatory process of activation, that is to bring a project into use once it is constructed (Knav & Fisher, 2021).
Sure, moving house is stressful but it’s also a great opportunity to begin to design and transition into new ways of doing. Designedly ways of thinking and doing encourage a mindful, patient and optimistic view of the world where we are empowered to design for change and to improve our situations. My hope is that this design team adopts a ‘community of practise ‘ approach and begin to patiently prototype and build delightful educational experiences informed by their unique context, grounded in good teaching and learning. But, at the moment this group have been tasked to stay immersed in this initial space of inquiry and discovery and resist the temptation to fall into the solutions space of design thinking. After-all, they are only just getting to know their new place of learning. As I said earlier, design thinking provides a patient path to innovation.
I also hope that this team of educators begin to realise that as designers they have the power to exploit their learning spaces by shaping culture and changing behaviours in their learning community. Again, thing is a place of optimism and innovation that is reflected in the build of the new school.
Ref:
Kvan, T. & Fisher, K (2021). Introduction to Part I: Change and risk. In W. Imms and T. Kvan (Ed.), Teacher transition into innovative learning environments. A global perspective (pp. 27–30). Springer. Retrieved from https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811574962
Graccon Learning Solutions specialises in design thinking, learning design and digital pedagogies. Our clients are from all sectors of education including K-12 and tertiary sectors. We have built significant relationships with the tertiary sector building and designing digital and online courses of learning.
