Hey there,
Just deivered a workshop as part of the Design in Education conference Kiran and the Riverside Team have organised.
Design in Education offers an opportunity for both students, practitioners and educators to make use of design systems to explore making education more meaningful and effective. There is a four stage process which goes like this:
1. Feel
empathise with the users - talk to parents, listen to students, try to get into the shoes of everyone concerned and find out what their needs are.
2. Imagine
How would we like this to be? how could we make it work better to get more needs met? This could be about classroom design, curriculum design or lesson planning.
3. Do, Do, Do
Prototype, experiment, try things out, ask what if, have a go, reflect and try again
4. Share
Share your findings, reflections, achievements with others.
An example:
How can we make lessons more interesting?
1.
Ask teachers where they feel students are disengaged and why.
Ask students why lessons work or don't work
Ask policy makers and examiners why they design education the way they do.
2. Explore how you could innovate to build a more interesting format.
What are others doing?
What would be fun to try?
What have you seen work elsewhere?
What is really out of the box?
3. Do, Do Do
devise some plans and try them out.
reflect on how they go and get feedback and try again
4. Share
Ask others to observe, give feedback and try out what you have created.
Kiran will be part of our conference programme, sharing her insight on person centered education - please visit www.thelifeproject.co.uk/conferences for more info.
Showing posts with label social enterprise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social enterprise. Show all posts
Monday, 14 February 2011
Monday, 7 February 2011
Indian Adventures
Hi Everyone
Greetings from Ahmedabad, in Gujerat, India!
I have been out in India now for five weeks, having delivered workshops to around 350 students and 400 adults. These have ranged from 21 year old automobile deesign student to ten year olds wanting to find their skill set and direction. Clients on the adult front have included Tata consulting and Synergy Electrics.
It has been fascinating offering interactive soft skills programmes here - the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
People feedback that:
1. They really enjoy interactive ways of learning
2. They love the practical tools as they can immediately make use of them in their lives
3. The informal education style makes learning a lot more fun than the traditional "chalk and talk" or " mug it up and chuck it out" forms of rote learning.
My aim being over here is to explore the market for alternative educational approaches and to offer schools, Universities, NGO"s and businesses an opportunity to try out the tools and seminars I have designed.
For the next week, I will be based at Riverside School, providing workshops and coaching for teachers and presenting at the Design in Education conference on the 12th and 13th. I have met with Kiran Sethi, the very inspiring Head here and will be giving you the full low down on their radicaly, interactive and person centered approach to learning. Kiran is one of the experts sharing their wisdom on our films in preparation for The Soul of Education conference, so keep an eye out for that here!
The key points on Riverside, as described by the students:
1. Segregation of play areas for each year group to meet their needs for safety and freedom
2. Self created student led projects including furniture designed from bottles and bespoke personal training programmes
3. Learning demonstrated by various forms of informal assessment including skits, presentations, projects and other creative methods
4. No school uniform and a school co-designed and built by the children, for the children, that resemble their home environment.
5. Focus not just on knowledge, but understanding from which innovation is encouraged.
In ten years the school has gone from 30 kids to 300.
Oh and I was in the paper today, together with 100 kids at the British Library!
Keep in touch!
Greetings from Ahmedabad, in Gujerat, India!
I have been out in India now for five weeks, having delivered workshops to around 350 students and 400 adults. These have ranged from 21 year old automobile deesign student to ten year olds wanting to find their skill set and direction. Clients on the adult front have included Tata consulting and Synergy Electrics.
It has been fascinating offering interactive soft skills programmes here - the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
People feedback that:
1. They really enjoy interactive ways of learning
2. They love the practical tools as they can immediately make use of them in their lives
3. The informal education style makes learning a lot more fun than the traditional "chalk and talk" or " mug it up and chuck it out" forms of rote learning.
My aim being over here is to explore the market for alternative educational approaches and to offer schools, Universities, NGO"s and businesses an opportunity to try out the tools and seminars I have designed.
For the next week, I will be based at Riverside School, providing workshops and coaching for teachers and presenting at the Design in Education conference on the 12th and 13th. I have met with Kiran Sethi, the very inspiring Head here and will be giving you the full low down on their radicaly, interactive and person centered approach to learning. Kiran is one of the experts sharing their wisdom on our films in preparation for The Soul of Education conference, so keep an eye out for that here!
The key points on Riverside, as described by the students:
1. Segregation of play areas for each year group to meet their needs for safety and freedom
2. Self created student led projects including furniture designed from bottles and bespoke personal training programmes
3. Learning demonstrated by various forms of informal assessment including skits, presentations, projects and other creative methods
4. No school uniform and a school co-designed and built by the children, for the children, that resemble their home environment.
5. Focus not just on knowledge, but understanding from which innovation is encouraged.
In ten years the school has gone from 30 kids to 300.
Oh and I was in the paper today, together with 100 kids at the British Library!
Keep in touch!
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
Supplying a Dwindling Sector
Hey,
Who else out there is a public sector supplier feeling the pinch? Over the last few weeks I have spoken to colleagues in web design, marketing, training, consultancy and recruitment, all of whom are really suffering from an absence of paying customers. If the same is true for you, here are a few tips to try and turn it around:
1. Consider your paradigm - who else would find your service useful? What would happen if you presented it to a different market?
2. Ask your existing clients to nominate others who might like your work and make a personal introduction for you.
3. Pull back from the business and look at the whole picture - are there new services that would be more in demand as the climate changes?
4. Who is doing well? What can you offer them? Remember, not everyone experiences a downturn as negative.
5. Stay calm, positive and determined - the worst that could happen is that you might need to find yourself a new role and a new direction. Within every crisis is an opportunity.
Who else out there is a public sector supplier feeling the pinch? Over the last few weeks I have spoken to colleagues in web design, marketing, training, consultancy and recruitment, all of whom are really suffering from an absence of paying customers. If the same is true for you, here are a few tips to try and turn it around:
1. Consider your paradigm - who else would find your service useful? What would happen if you presented it to a different market?
2. Ask your existing clients to nominate others who might like your work and make a personal introduction for you.
3. Pull back from the business and look at the whole picture - are there new services that would be more in demand as the climate changes?
4. Who is doing well? What can you offer them? Remember, not everyone experiences a downturn as negative.
5. Stay calm, positive and determined - the worst that could happen is that you might need to find yourself a new role and a new direction. Within every crisis is an opportunity.
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Yay!
Woohoo (punches sky!) We got a new grant, we got a new grant! So excited! Awards for All have given us a grant that kick starts our Putting Soul Into Education conference!
It's been a dream of mine for four years to have an event that brings together the most cutting edge, effective, engaging and meaningful work in the education field and show cases and shares it for the sector to learn from and celebrate. With Parliament recently passing ( like yesterday), legislation to enable the setting up of free schools, with Home Education increasing by 300% over the last year here in Sussex alone and with the debates ranging about Academies and the value and cost of a degree, this couldn't have come at a better time!
My vision is to create a conference that runs in real time as well as being virtual - so people all over the world can participate from their desks - both as speakers/workshop leaders and as participants. Luckily for me, Brighton is rich with the kind of geek that can make this happen!
How often do we connect education with soulfulness? And when we do, how much of that is tempered with fear and anxiety about religion/newage/heebeyjeebey not-the-place-for-it worries? But there are pioneers, who are bringing:
A deepening relationship with nature
A sense of freedom, fun and creativity
An exploration of meaning and purpose
A youth led curriculum
into their schools and environments.
Imagine what a soulful school would look and feel like? Maybe not for everyone, but very exciting to me!
Does anyone have any examples of practitioners, educational organisations, teachers, who ought to be on the rostra? Answers on a postcard!
Thanks Awards for All! x
It's been a dream of mine for four years to have an event that brings together the most cutting edge, effective, engaging and meaningful work in the education field and show cases and shares it for the sector to learn from and celebrate. With Parliament recently passing ( like yesterday), legislation to enable the setting up of free schools, with Home Education increasing by 300% over the last year here in Sussex alone and with the debates ranging about Academies and the value and cost of a degree, this couldn't have come at a better time!
My vision is to create a conference that runs in real time as well as being virtual - so people all over the world can participate from their desks - both as speakers/workshop leaders and as participants. Luckily for me, Brighton is rich with the kind of geek that can make this happen!
How often do we connect education with soulfulness? And when we do, how much of that is tempered with fear and anxiety about religion/newage/heebeyjeebey not-the-place-for-it worries? But there are pioneers, who are bringing:
A deepening relationship with nature
A sense of freedom, fun and creativity
An exploration of meaning and purpose
A youth led curriculum
into their schools and environments.
Imagine what a soulful school would look and feel like? Maybe not for everyone, but very exciting to me!
Does anyone have any examples of practitioners, educational organisations, teachers, who ought to be on the rostra? Answers on a postcard!
Thanks Awards for All! x
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