Designing for Learning: from Dojos and Discussion Boards to Classrooms and
Corporations
Mary Loftus
Designing for Learning: from Dojos & Discussion Boards to Classrooms & Corporations
Mary Loftus
Tony Wagner – Creating Innovators
The world does not ask, what knowledge you have?It asks what skills do you have?What can you do?Are you motivated?
Systems of Learning
Traditional • Assessment• Performance
Innovation focused• Making learners ‘awesome’
– Kathy Sierra• Engagement• Honouring the student• Creativity
Elizabeth Gilbert – creativity is a kind of divine intervention – arrived at by hard work
Creativity is not about creating ‘something out of nothing’…
Creativity encodes, selects, re-combines synthesises already existing facts, ideas, facilities, skillsArthur Koestler (1964) The Act of Creation
We used to think creativity was given to just a special fewWe were mostly afraid of them
What does a creative person look like?
My Grandfather cut more turf in a day than any other man on Toner’s bog. Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods over his shoulder, going down and down.
For the good turf. Digging.
70s oil shortages? Not a problem :)
Power outages?
Stove Starter
Stove won’t light?
Leftover Wavin pipe?
And he’s infected his grandchildren…
Do we educate these attributes out of young people?
Risk Taking
Tenacious, Never give
up
Not hung up on
process
Just Do It
• PISA scores inversely correlated with innovation – Pam Moran / Ira Socol
The font of creativity is vulnerability
How do you nurture your own Creativity
How can you do more?
Contexts
Classroom
Structure & Content
1->Many
Online
Structure & Interaction
Many -> Many
Work
Structure & Performance
1 -> Many
Dojo
Little Structure & Interaction
Many -> Many
Structure
Creativity
Dojo
Classroom
Work
Online Learning
Kathy Sierra - creating passionate usersAction, agency
Passion
Classroom
Features
• Prescribed Curriculum• Testing• Closed?• Colaiste Lurgan• Ballinode College• Coder Dojo in the classroom• Personalisation
What does that feel like?
3rd Level
Bridge to Learn - Trinity
Student as Producer – Lincoln University
Online Education – NUI Galway
MOOCs – Sligo IT
Online Classroom
Features
• Discussion: the heart of the programme
• Ask students to shape and drive discussion
• Give them ownership – but provide some basic structure
• Questioning is key
What does that feel like?
http://www.temple.edu/tlc/resources/handouts/discussions/Discussion_as_a_Way_of_Teaching.pdf
WorkFeatures
• Goal Driven• Problem Solving• Meetings• Performance Management• Continuous Improvement• Change Management• Standards
What does that feel like?
Plan
DoCheck
Act
Dojo
Features• Creativity• Freedom• Peer Learning• Shared/Open Curriculum• Performative• Participative• Puts young person in the
driving seat (power, agency)• Gets them comfortable with
‘not knowing’ and failure
What does that feel like?
•
CoderDojo – notice where the parent is (left) and where the children are (leading the room)
What would happen if….
• A company provided 2 team members to work with a group of 2nd level students on a community issue?
The world does not ask, what knowledge you have?It asks what skills do you have?What can you do?Are you motivated?- Tony Wagner
What would happen if….
• What if X did Y with Z to do P?
Battle or Opportunity
• Power: Central / Distributed• Assessment: Central / Self• Curriculum: Prescribed / Shared• Access: Open/Closed• Leadership: Hierarchical / Peer Led• Agency vs Control• Openness vs Closed• Other-centred vs Self-centred• Mindfulness…
Critical Pedagogy / Systems Thinking
• How do we collaborate
• Can we improve performance of the system?
• Why has this been happening?
• What is happening?
Personal MasteryMental Models
Team LearningBuilding Shared Vision
Cross Fertilisation – how?
CoderDojos Schools
CompaniesUniversities
Apps for Good
Youth Media Team
Student as Producer
What can each one of us do?
Nurture our own creativity
We have to be innovators, model, take risks, make mistakes, learn from them, work collaboratively
Where am I modelling play, passion, purpose?
How can I connect with others doing the same
DojoCon2014
Questions / Issues
• Junior Cert Short Course in Coding?• CoderDojos relationship with schools?• CoderDojos relationship with companies?• How do we manage the synergies?• What are the possibilities?
Carl Rogers‘Saw himself as a facilitator - one who created the environment for engagement.
•Active Listening•Creating a safe space
There were 'ways of being' with others that foster exploration and encounter‘ Smith (1999)
Further reading:Joe McCarthyDonald Clark
• Realness in the facilitator of learning • Prizing, acceptance, trust • Empathetic understanding
Mentors
Is there a teacher or mentor who’s made a difference – 2/3rds said yes
Many of these mentor teachers were outliers