Challenge  I am the lead educator tasked with implementing a new maker space in our institution, which was  built this past summer.  I am responsible for innovating to raise standards, push boundaries beyond  the normal curricular expectations and this included procuring a set of resources to accompany the  makerspace, such as electronics, Raspberry Pi’s & some curriculum from a local company so that  people’s every day inventions and prototypes can be coded; that is, using IT to bring these projects  alive.    Before launching this product as part of mainstream learning, much training is needed for staff,  students and myself.  Training such as using the company’s platform to programme the devices,  learning about electronics, understanding the curriculum, health & safety, what do to when things  break, pieces get lost, organisation and continual access & monitoring of pieces in the maker space  room, etc are a few examples.   How is this taught?  What are other potential training needs for staff  members?  How do I store this equipment so that is usable and not packed away each day—and  therefore, not used?  I’m responsible for this expensive kit!    Imagine the difference between your kitchen & its cupboards at home and how a pizza restaurant  would have their ingredients on prep table, ready to go.  The pizza restaurant is ready to prep food  fast and efficiently because it’s out all the time.  So there is a design issue in the maker space to  think about, considering as our builders never came across a maker space like this before, which  requires minute attention to small wires, parts and expansive coding kit, so the room has to be  modified as time moves on.  This also means working closely with the IT Technicians to ensure the  technical side works—and they have never seen this stuff before, so they need to be trained up in  how it’s used.      Before launching this newly innovative product mainstream in the spring, the challenge is to learn it,  observe it, observer others using it and test & debug it, & modify & prepare the curriculum & make  physical room modifications, alongside doing the day job, too!    Selection  For this project I, have selected the learning launch tool.  “Broadly speaking, the learning launch is  an experiment meant to quickly test and idea or prototype.”1      Application  Firstly, a small extra-curricular after-hours club was set up called the Y Club (name changed), with  selected students (observed beforehand) who had an aptitude or general enjoyment for coding,  inventions and electronics, although abilities & strengths were varied.

A) This was to ensure that regardless of outcome of this learning launch, those who enjoyed  electronics & coding would still have fun and will have seen themselves having learned  something, whereas if this project was mainstream, one would be dealing with potential  students who do not like every subject and if this particular product failed, it would impact  negatively on their educational experience.      B) To have varying participants with varying abilities is great because it will inform future  planning on how to support & challenge all students and ensure inclusivity when the project  goes mainstream.

1 Quotation taken from Example Reflection—Learning Launch, part of the Design Thinking for Innovation  Course, on Coursera.

Secondly, this project would run over 10 weeks & after-hours in order to avoid the constraints &  pressures, such as managers wanting to know why this or that has worked/not worked, etc and  monitoring that occur in an educational institution—or any business organisation as the lectures  have referenced.    Thirdly, this learning would also be used to test assumptions about coding, electronics and  computers and how people view these, both staff and students. Would this product be intimidating?  Too hard? Too easy? Who would most likely use it?  Who would most likely shy away?  Why would  that be?  Which staff would not want to use it?  Who would be put off by technical issues?  Who  would have a growth mindset and rise to the challenge and deal with the technical bits?  What could  we potentially do with the project?  What could go well or wrong when we launch this mainstream?    Fourth, it was decided to not follow the procurement company’s prescribed curriculum, but instead  to teach the technical and coding skills, then let students work their way through project tutorials,  explore the kit in depth and then assign a small challenge at the end.  I wanted to know what could  be done with this kit.  It was assumed on my part that builder needs to know his tools before going  to work with them, so I would observe and participate with them to see just what the potentials and  limitations are to the equipment.        Insight  As is said in the lectures, innovation is messy!  Innovation can look like nothing’s been accomplished  or the project failed.  By applying this learning launch tool, I was able to find answers to my  questions, challenge assumptions and actually found a whole new set of questions in the end.    For starters, the IT/technical aspect worked really well, meaning there was no major technical  reasons for any user of the equipment for a potential naysayer to use as an excuse not to use the  product.  It worked well; troubleshooting was easy and empowering for all!    The tutorials were super helpful and taught a wide array of skills, but it was discovered that we  didn’t possess all of the required kit to do these.  The builder could know their toolkit perfectly well.   (In a future learning launch, I will explore the other potential tools).  However, the product was  accessible, easy to challenge those who need challenging, but provided the scaffolding to ensure  inclusivity.      Students used the tutorials, got some ideas and created some interesting projects, which weren’t as  polished or perfect or complete.  But that is OK; hence the learning launch.  Management would of  course would view things differently, once mainstream implementation occurs—as the lectures  point out in this course, would they understand that innovation is messy and a work in progress?!      I concluded I could launch the prescribed curriculum for this, with modifications as and when  necessary.    For this learning launch, I could have followed a prescribed curriculum to make X do this and that  and then think at the end of that unit, now what do I do with this equipment?  Repeat it?   I chose  instead to teach the skills and have students create, invent, experiment, many of whom never did  like this before with coding & electronic equipment,       However, a really powerful insight was this:  what problems were they solving? Apart from making a  small project, not much.  Where was the real-world problem? The investment of personal grit to  solve this problem?  The desire to improve the world around them?

And this is the topic for the next learning launch.  Would solving real-world problems, especially if  the user has a personal, vested interest,  take learning to a deeper, broader and more powerful  level?       Approach    The learning launch was the most appropriate tool for this.  It worked.  Every participant, including  myself, learned, had fun & made something.  But the next learning launch will test the idea of  solving real-world problems and broadening and deepening the insight gained from this and  incorporate the progress made, ready for a full and compelling rollout.   The design thinking course is  helping to give me new vocabulary and tools to re-evaluate past work and improve my current work,  but also how I make more measurable and focussed impact on future projects.

