The Snowball effect

At last Wednesdays class I learned a new activity, indeed it's more of a technique for gathering the collective wisdom of groups, and at the same time kick-started a design task that my Project, DigiSkills Cymru, was given a matter of hours previously.

The activity was called "The Snowball Effect", and here's how it played out:

Step 1: We were each given some sticky notes and asked to write a short sentence describing "An Inclusive Learning Environment. Here's mine

Step 2: We then paired up and tried to combine our two definitions, taking the best bits from each and trying to find the common ground. I was fortunate to be paired with our new coursemate, Fareeq, who had been a little more expansive than me. Here's his definition

 And this is what our combined definition looked like...
 

Step 3: We then added another perspective, that of Hajira, another lovely new coursemate of ours who happens to be Fareeq's wife.

Together, we produced a really great definition.

 Step 4: Finally, we joined the other pairs and groups to draft a definition based on all of our combined efforts.

I think it's an excellent description, "A friendly communal environment where everyone,regardless of their abilities and differences, feels included, comfortable and enabled to interact, learn and improve their skills"

This was a really valuable experience for me. It shows the power of crowdsourcing and is intrinsically linked to one of the core parts of my Project, namely to create digital learning hubs in public service workplaces.

Earlier that day I had a meeting with Cartrefi Cymru, a nationwide social care provider, and UNISON's Connecting Learners in North Wales Project, about potentially creating an interactive learning space in a new supported living service right here in Bangor. The space would have to be inclusive of the staff and the residents, and I have been invited to lead the co-design of the space.

I've chosen to adopt a methodology called Human Centered Design to ensure that the space meets the users needs and desires and as part of this, on Monday we held a hastily organised Group Interview session with the staff who will work in the new service.

Given the similarity to the task we were set in class last week, it seemed to me to be the perfect opportunity to try out "The Snowball Effect", and here is the result.


So, my reflection is that it's a great idea to continue to apply the lessons I'm learning as part of the "Award in Education and Training" course to my every day work as much and as soon as possible. In this way, I hope that my learning will "stick" as it becomes integral to the approach of the Project.