AS PUBLISHED ON LEARNOGRAPHY BLOG - March 28, 2017

Earlier this month I was delighted to attend SXSWedu in Austin Texas! Not only do I love Austin as a destination, I LOVE getting my learning on – so this trip made for the perfect combo. As with any learning experience, there were a lot of impactful moments. Some of the learning didn’t even come out of the sessions but from the act of travelling itself – where you always learn something a little new and different about yourself and the world around you.  

Here are my top 3 A-ha! Learning Moments from SXSWedu: 

1. The Maker Movement & Project-Based Learning

The maker movement was a hot topic at SXSWedu this year. Independent inventors, designers, and tinkerers were leading the charge in learning innovation by providing solutions to project-based and real world challenges. In particular, the idea of an “incubator” classroom model is flipping traditional education on its head and disrupting the “education as usual” mentality. The hands-on practicality of project-based learning increases engagement and allows learners to problem solve, edit, revise, and reflect on high quality problems.

2.  Design Thinking

I could talk about design thinking all day, every day. “Design thinking” refers to human-centred and prototype-driven strategies of design. It is a hugely impactful methodology because really, the product is not the innovation. The innovation is what people can do with the product.

Design thinking is also an approach that can be used to consider issues and resolve problems more broadly than within professional design practice, and has been applied in business and to social issues. It has become one of the most valued skills by employers today, so needs to stop being considered a fringe elective and take its place as a key part of curriculums. It’s not just for designers anymore!

3. Critical Thinking

Going hand in hand with my obsession with design thinking, critical thinking is quickly becoming one of the most important skills to learn. It is a process by which learners actively conceptualize, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information. They do so through information gathered from observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, and communication.

One of the sessions I attended on this specific topic had us cycle through different games and activities to create patterns and guide our learning. There was no right or wrong answer here and each person in the room could have had a different learning experience based on how they critically approached the games and tasks.

My experience at SXSWedu just goes to show, every experience is an opportunity for innovative learning, whether it be a change in conceptual frameworks or the growth of concrete tools and strategies like those outlined in Kate’s SXSWedu post. There are many new practices and schools of thought out there to discover and engage.

Author - Lauralee Sheehan, Chief Creative Officer (CCO)

Blog Cover Photo - ian-dooley-298780-unsplash