Where we started
In our final two Collab Labs last spring, we explored and mapped factors that drive feelings of safety and affirmation for students and teachers. Since then we’ve been tweaking the system map to reflect what we hear in Collab Labs and from educators who have used the map to spur conversations with their students.
While this is a great starting point, we think there’s a lot more that could be done to:
- develop the model,
- explore how it can be leveraged to elevate student voices, build stronger relationships between teachers and students, or address other key factors exposed within the model,
- develop a platform and processes that allow ongoing contributions, refinements, and extensions by students, teachers, and the broader school community.
At this point the model has been captured in Kumu as a system map. To move forward we’re putting together a series of challenges that students, in collaboration with their teachers and community partners, might take on to advance specific aspects of this effort. The design work for that challenge will get going this summer, but here’s a sense of what that could include:
Revise and Extend the Model
- Identify factors, relationships, or actors not already shown in the system model which directly or indirectly impacts factors that are shown.
- Produce content related to a factor or cluster of factors that would help others better understand the experience of students, teachers, or other members of the broader school community
- Identify assets in the community (resources, organizations, programming, etc.) that may be useful in addressing one or more factors or clusters of factors.
- Identify alternate, or more appropriate terms for factors and actors represented in the model
- Propose revisions to the system map where the factors, relationships, and actors shown fail to adequately capture the experience of students, teachers, or other members of the broader school community.
Platform Development
- Propose a method or platform by which the system map may be shared, amended, updated, and extended with input from individuals or teams working in different organizations, and locations
- Propose a method or platform by which user generated content (video, audio, text, images) related to a factor or cluster of factors may be shared with others.
- Propose a method or service by which 1) factors identified within the system map might be used to assess the current state of a school, school community, or district
- Propose a method or service to capture data that could be used to assess the relative importance of relationships between factors
Process
- Develop and document methods to validate the relationships shown in the system model
- Develop and document methods to elicit exploration of the model by one or more groups within the broader school community and capture that thinking.
- Develop and document methods by which students or other members of the broader school community might create compelling stories or images related to a specific factor or cluster of factors that would help others better understand their experience.
Solutions
- Design, prototype, and test an intervention to drive a specific factor or cluster of factors in a positive direction within a learning environment.
- Design, validate and implement a process (product) for students and teachers to build awareness and practice of the factors and how they can adopt them in their learning culture for improved learning results.
Design Goal
The week of June 17th we’ll pull a group of students, educators, and community partners together to frame the challenge. Our goal is to equip students and teachers to take on specific elements within the challenge that align with their interests and the learning experience educators want to create for their students. We’ll look for opportunities for students and educators to collaborate with peers from other schools, share what they have learned/developed, and engage with community partners that can support their work.
Intrigued? Let us know, and we’ll keep you up to date as we set up the work for June.
