The two disciplines are strongly intertwined and have profound implications when applied to designing learning experiences. This post seeks to define LX Design as an approach to classroom planning and as a framework for ongoing iteration and reflection.
Design Thinking
Completing the Macromedia University Design Thinking MOOC introduced me to the discipline of User Experience Design, or UX Design. When thinking in terms of user experience, a designer considers all human elements and possibilities related to a product or service, not only the material and economic.
For example, when designing a machine to make coffee, one must consider not only the cost and suitability of the materials used, but also the likely moods of users, often early in the morning, while using the coffee machine.
A common theme in Design Thinking is to understand people's emotional, social, psychological, and spiritual needs when designing products, services, and experiences. In the case of education, we design learning experiences, hence the term 'LX Design'.
Klaus Krippendorff's lecture, The Key Concepts of The Semantic Turn, and in particular his explanations of 'meanings of use', challenged and transformed my thinking about learning. I recreated the graphic below to represent what I consider an essential model for educators. It is the foundation for my approach to LX Design.
To summarize, when a person encounters a thing, whether it's a product or an idea, they must first recognize it and the opportunities it presents. Next, the thing can be explored, or used to try to accomplish a task. When a person becomes engaged with the thing, they might find it so useful as to become reliant upon it, using it naturally on a regular basis.
A great physical example is shoes. If you had never seen shoes before, you may or may not recognize how their shape resembles feet. If you did, you might try wearing them, even adjusting the laces for a comfortable fit, and walk. Before long, you would find yourself always wearing them for their comfort and safety until you can hardly imagine living without them.
The same model applies to knowledge, concepts, and learning tools.
In fifteen years as a professional educator, I have observed that everyone wants to learn what they can use. I suppose that is the reason the why Professor Krippendorf's model resonated so strongly with me.
In my inquiry based classroom, I have been moving away from the 'what students should know and be able to do' model. Instead, I seek to design learning experiences that empower rich opportunities to construct understanding.
Meanings of use
A great physical example is shoes. If you had never seen shoes before, you may or may not recognize how their shape resembles feet. If you did, you might try wearing them, even adjusting the laces for a comfortable fit, and walk. Before long, you would find yourself always wearing them for their comfort and safety until you can hardly imagine living without them.
Design Thinking in the classroom
The same model applies to knowledge, concepts, and learning tools.
In fifteen years as a professional educator, I have observed that everyone wants to learn what they can use. I suppose that is the reason the why Professor Krippendorf's model resonated so strongly with me.
Following the design process described in the IDEO Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit, the first stage, Discovery, consists of two primary elements. First, the learning artifacts, and in particular the formative reflections, of previous year students. Second, data gathered in about my current class from their portfolios, assessment files, and personal experiences. This corresponds to 'Recognition of opportunities' in the Krippendorf model.
The next stages in the design process, Interpretation and Ideation, represent 'purposeful Exploration' in the Krippendorff model, and the bulk of the learning experience design in the first weeks of the school year. As the students and I collaboratively make sense of our current understandings, hypothesize approaches to learning that will lead to constructing deeper and more relevant meaning, and pursue those inquiries through Experimentation, our 'Reliance' on that learning provides the foundation and raw material for the Evolution of our thinking, according to the IDEO process.
That evolution begins with 'disruption' in the Krippendorff model, which in terms of learning I consider synonymous with cognitive dissonance. As our understandings evolve, ideally, we engage in an infinite learning loop, constantly reflecting and reevaluating, utilizing various models of inquiry or design to guide and share our learning.
As this project unfolds, an overriding goal is that the students begin to harness the processes of Design Thinking. In this way, the entire class can become a cooperative and collaborative LX Design Team engaged in constructing their own independent yet connected lines of inquiry.
There are several excellent educators and organizations sharing their ideas on Design Thinking in education. I recommend exploring Jackie Gerstein's The Educator as a Design Thinker for its enlightening graphic and wealth of well organized information and links to essential resources.
Maureen Devlin has explored learning design on her blog, including the provocative post, Learning Design: Center Stage in which she asks the essential question, 'How can I synthesize materials, tools, strategies, standards, and students' needs and interests to serve students well?'
Ewan McIntosh's article, Design Thinking: Tools to help make thinking visible, provides an invaluable model for design thinking in action in the classroom.
I also recommend exploring IDEO Desing Thinking for Educators, the National Center on Universal Design for Learning, and Learning Designer, an exciting website for unit planning, sharing, and collaboration.
The next stages in the design process, Interpretation and Ideation, represent 'purposeful Exploration' in the Krippendorff model, and the bulk of the learning experience design in the first weeks of the school year. As the students and I collaboratively make sense of our current understandings, hypothesize approaches to learning that will lead to constructing deeper and more relevant meaning, and pursue those inquiries through Experimentation, our 'Reliance' on that learning provides the foundation and raw material for the Evolution of our thinking, according to the IDEO process.
That evolution begins with 'disruption' in the Krippendorff model, which in terms of learning I consider synonymous with cognitive dissonance. As our understandings evolve, ideally, we engage in an infinite learning loop, constantly reflecting and reevaluating, utilizing various models of inquiry or design to guide and share our learning.
As this project unfolds, an overriding goal is that the students begin to harness the processes of Design Thinking. In this way, the entire class can become a cooperative and collaborative LX Design Team engaged in constructing their own independent yet connected lines of inquiry.
The LX Design community
Maureen Devlin has explored learning design on her blog, including the provocative post, Learning Design: Center Stage in which she asks the essential question, 'How can I synthesize materials, tools, strategies, standards, and students' needs and interests to serve students well?'
Ewan McIntosh's article, Design Thinking: Tools to help make thinking visible, provides an invaluable model for design thinking in action in the classroom.
I also recommend exploring IDEO Desing Thinking for Educators, the National Center on Universal Design for Learning, and Learning Designer, an exciting website for unit planning, sharing, and collaboration.
Project Management
While a design team utilizes design thinking principles to achieve common and generally clear goals, my classroom is not necessarily so collaborative nor certainly so linear. The highly personalized nature of inquiry learning requires a chaotic environment with learning streaming in different directions and intersecting in unpredictable ways.
Project Management, while primarily business-oriented, can contribute much needed principles to classroom learning experience design.
I have begun by considering this school year as a project ten months in duration, with the primary goals of students demonstrating academic mastery, practicing 21st century fluencies, and engaging in meaningful and significant community action. The pursuit of these goals will be on display during our Exhibition.
Reflecting on last year's Exhibition, I utilized MindMup to organize essential tools and skills necessary for success in the document PYP Exhibition. By visualizing in this way, I was able to identify which elements would be best to introduce early in the school year and how the different elements could compliment each other.
For example, the one element which I found to be most foundational for success is Expository Writing. For that reason, in the first weeks of school, we have emphasized heavily the writing process and tools for gathering and organizing research data. As students engage with other tools and practice other literacies in their inquiries, this writing practice will continue to develop to become an increasingly reliable communication tool.
Another aspect of Project Management is sharing information. Using project management principles to identify stakeholders and establishing processes for increasing transparency can be a highly effective utilization of technology.
Another of Maureen Devlin's posts, Transition to Transparency, is an insightful reflection on how and why 'keeping communication fluid and transparent really helps to support a dynamic learning community'. An indispensable tool in this process is A Useful Framework For Transparency In Education, a graphic model around which I am attempting to design a robust online system for collaborative document and data sharing. In a world connected by digital technologies, connectivist tools are essential to learning.
I have begun by considering this school year as a project ten months in duration, with the primary goals of students demonstrating academic mastery, practicing 21st century fluencies, and engaging in meaningful and significant community action. The pursuit of these goals will be on display during our Exhibition.
Reflecting on last year's Exhibition, I utilized MindMup to organize essential tools and skills necessary for success in the document PYP Exhibition. By visualizing in this way, I was able to identify which elements would be best to introduce early in the school year and how the different elements could compliment each other.
For example, the one element which I found to be most foundational for success is Expository Writing. For that reason, in the first weeks of school, we have emphasized heavily the writing process and tools for gathering and organizing research data. As students engage with other tools and practice other literacies in their inquiries, this writing practice will continue to develop to become an increasingly reliable communication tool.
Another aspect of Project Management is sharing information. Using project management principles to identify stakeholders and establishing processes for increasing transparency can be a highly effective utilization of technology.
Another of Maureen Devlin's posts, Transition to Transparency, is an insightful reflection on how and why 'keeping communication fluid and transparent really helps to support a dynamic learning community'. An indispensable tool in this process is A Useful Framework For Transparency In Education, a graphic model around which I am attempting to design a robust online system for collaborative document and data sharing. In a world connected by digital technologies, connectivist tools are essential to learning.
Ongoing inquiry
What I find most compelling about this endeavor is how perfectly it mirrors the inquiry learning process I wish to foster in my students. I am utilizing design principles to learn how to effectively facilitate their learning of design principles to facilitate their own learning!
Indeed it is easy to see how our processes may quickly become inseparable and indistinguishable.
Indeed it is easy to see how our processes may quickly become inseparable and indistinguishable.
This is a long term project I look forward to pursuing using the label LX Design and would certainly welcome collaborators!
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