Hyper Island UK: Week 1
Reflecting on Hyper Island Way Week
On January 18th, I began my journey as a master’s student at Hyper Island UK, in Manchester. Working towards my M.A. in Digital Experience Design, I am a member of DXD Crew 2: the second ever group to undertake this specific learning path. The first week of Hyper Island all programmes is known as “Hyper Island Way Week”, during which you learn about the key methodologies underpinning the Hyper way of teaching and learning, and also participate in a number of team building and group culture formation exercises.
The overwhelming sense of relief I felt when I finished my undergraduate degree in 2014 was enough to convince me that I most likely did not want to go to graduate school, ever. But when a former co-worker and graduate of Hyper Island in Karlskrona told me about the school last year, my eyes were opened to the opportunity to learn in a new way. Hyper Island focuses on experiential learning and industry-led teaching, and the courses are constantly being amended and re-designed, guaranteeing a degree of ever-evolving relevancy that is rare to find in a more traditional academic master’s degree. Teaching students how to learn is something that, based on my own experiences, I feel is missing from many educational programmes.
Hyper Island Way Week, somewhat of an amplified Freshers’ Week, serves to highlight a school culture founded on openness and reflection. The activities that unfolded throughout the week focused on both team and self-development, allowing us to begin to get to know our peers, but also to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves through a series of team-building activities and self-reflection exercises. Though perhaps this may sound faddy on the surface, I experienced true personal growth over the week and emerged with a deepened sense of self-awareness and a set of key learnings.
Feedback Is A Gift
Feedback is a powerful influence on learning. The ability to give and receive feedback effectively however, is a delicate skill that takes time and practice to develop. Being open to the opportunity to learn from others isn’t as easy as it may sound, and over the five days of Hyper Way Week, I had the chance to practice being on both sides of the feedback process, and have identified clarity and trust as two of the ‘magic’ ingredients. Feedback can be an intimidating concept, but when it is used correctly, the effects can be truly transformative.
Baby Bird v Hunter Mentality
Hyper Island champions self-directed learning. In essence, you choose what you want to learn and the team helps you to facilitate these learnings where they can. From my prior experience with academia, I have found it to be a predominantly one-way system: as a student, you sit and absorb the information that is dictated to you and regurgitate it in the form of essays and exams, often leaving little room for your own ideas. During Hyper Island Way Week, we were introduced to the concepts of peer and experiential learning and have now been given the opportunity to design our own learning paths so that we can travel a route that has been tailored to ourselves.
Reflect, Reflect, Reflect…
It’s easy to get lost in processes, to get caught up in the routine and to fail to take the time to sit back and assess: what am I doing? Why am I doing this? What can I do to improve this? Making small, achievable resolutions based on precedent is important for development. Over the week, I was taught to reflect on and question things in a way that I had not considered before. I look forward to continuing to practice my personal and group reflection technique.
Note of reflection: I am publishing this article after a week and a half of mulling over a draft. A promise that I have made to myself on this journey so far is to work on the confidence it takes to put forth my thoughts and ideas, and embrace the feedback that these generate. This is step one.
