I’d like to add to my last post about virtual third places by providing some design provocations that can help you to begin thinking more deeply about what such a space could be. As I mentioned in the previous post, it’s apparent that remote learning will be a reality for many schools when they reopen. That reality suggests that there is both a need and opportunity to develop more comprehensive and capable virtual platforms. Associated with this is a need to recommit to a more purposeful and critical application of technology to teaching and learning. The creation of a virtual third place can address both of these needs.
Image via Unsplash courtesy of Oluwakemi Solaja
At this point, I have more questions than answers. The questions - let’s consider them provocations or challenges - are intended to take you to a different place in your thinking about technology and how it might serve student engagement through a virtual third place.
As a designer, I’m always hesitant about making generalized recommendations about the design of learning environments. There is too much of that in the various learning magazines that can be found online. Rather, a good designer respects the need to develop nuanced learning environments that uniquely serve the specific needs of each school. With that in mind, I’ve composed a series of questions and challenges that can help you shape a design that meets the needs of your school and community.
Here they are:
First, and foremost, how will you make such a space human? Technology has been criticized for being isolating (kids with their heads down in their phones) and for promoting a sterile experience (“I can only see their heads in Zoom”). Challenge yourself and your school community to develop meaningful expectations for a virtual space that will do just the opposite. Challenge yourself to move past the simple application of a business conferencing tool to an ecology of technologies, each chosen for their ability to create a next-generation learning space that can address a potentially disconnected school experience. Seek ways to use technology to unite and you will have taken the first step towards addressing isolation and sterility.
To that end, how will the space help forge unique connections between kids and kids, kids and adults, and everyone to their school community? What will be your strategies for creating a space that extends past the artificial school structures of age groups, ability levels, jocks and freaks, and all the numerous other ways kids are classified and labeled in school? Can’t kids just be a member of a learning community? How can you create a space that presents opportunities for participation and contribution by all without the constraints of the typical school hierarchies and the expectations and roadblocks they create?
How will the space support wonder, curiosity, and an exploration of the world? Lofty, but real. And necessary. How can something be designed that is new each time students access it? How much of the space will be structured and known? How can you design a space that is adaptive enough to be responsive and organic?
How will you grant ownership of the space to the kids? How will they run it? Provide oversight, seed it with stuff to get the ball rolling, but let the kids own it. And help the kids where they need help - use your connections and experience as an adult to model how kids can expand their worldview and connect to people and experiences beyond the immediacy of school. Use the space to build relationships with your kids that are based in trust.
Image via Unsplash courtesy of Nicole Geri
It’s open 24-7, 7 days a week and that’s a good thing. Are there be elements of the space that demand synchronous participation? At the same time, are there elements that enable asynchronous participation.? How can you blend an “in the moment” experience with experiences that are available then they are available? How do you make it something that is an always-on, always-available space for kids? You know they don’t operate on your time schedule, create a space that is available to them when they need it.
Are you sure they can access it? The pandemic has made visible inequities associated with online access. Part of creating a space that serves kids ensures that they have access to it. Get serious about identifying the access gaps that exist in your community and develop a plan to eliminate them.
Let them design it. Make your IT department sit and listen to the kids. Engage in a design process. I’m not looking for a typical school application of technology here, designed by someone for kids. I’m looking for a bold, creative, I-sure-as-hell-didn’t-expect-it-to-look-like-that outcome designed by the kids themselves. But, that doesn’t mean you don’t have input because…
Your life experience is important. Your experience can help them. Suggest that they add art galleries, coffeehouse performances, guest lectures, design challenges, video creation contests, movie nights and social engagements, physical fitness activities, and discussions. Connect them with artists, poets, writers, and musicians. Add some beauty and diversity into their life. There is a chance that they might not want to do any of that but there is a chance that they might want to do all of it. Challenge them through a design process with options but let them shape it.
Expectations, not rules. Third places that students inhabit outside of school have a distinct social order that is different from either home or school. Respect that and work with the kids to create unique ways to participate that are respectful and safe but don’t say home or school.
And iterate and improve it. Put it out in a beta mode and expect it won’t be perfect. Learn along with your student leadership and get better at it. Ask for continual feedback but let your kids ask their peers. Allow them to present improvements - either additions or subtractions. Help them to understand that initial efforts to do anything are rarely successful and that success and creating things of value takes time, hard work and dedication.
It’s long been my opinion, from observation and experience as an instructional technology coordinator in both a school district and school, that technology and its application have rarely reached the potential that many believed it could.
There is no better time to change that than now.
So, there are no templates in design. I’m hoping that the questions and challenges that I have presented can be used in some way to create a really interesting and dynamic space for kids that is based on your specific needs. Thanks for reading.
Banner image via Unsplash courtesy of Kimpson Doan