Page Text: a box of Crayola crayons (24 count)
a pen you like to use
a notebook with lines (rule or grid)
a recording device (digital or analog, you choose)
an account on a social network
You matter to this, without you it won't be
Be here, be present, be on time.
Your grade is based largely on engagement. Listen. Contribute. Really try. Experiment balancing nervousness with excitement. The success or failure of your projects does not influence your grade. Your honesty, integrity and investment in this collective experience is what will be graded. Ask more questions than you answer. Reflect as much as you contribute. Work to know your self, your true self, and be it with us.
A Promise
We are in this together.
For this quarter, we will draw, write, color, talk, walk, notice, and experiment together. I will complete the assignments alongside you, learning with and from you. That’s because I believe learning is a transactive and self-directed experience. If I’m not learning, you’re probably not learning, and I’m doing this because I want both of us to learn about fear and courage and ourselves and each other.
CLASS CURRICULUM
You will need to exercise tolerance for ambiguity.
I imagine that much of your graduate work has supplied a ready set of expectations and readings and assignments at the beginning of the quarter. This course won’t be that way. I have a compass for the course and methods and ideas on how to get us from day one to day sixty- five, but I don’t know exactly what will happen given that a) I have never done this before; b) even if I had you are different and dynamic enough to change it; and c) I am committed to being flexible and responsive to the learning environment we co-create.
ALL IS UNKNOWN UNTIL IT IS KNOWN
Still, here is a rough geography.
We will value risk-taking, noticing, conversation, reflection and supporting each other. Each class will attempt to elicit these values in some way. For the first few weeks, we will think deeply about technology, learning, fear and failure. At the midway point, we will shift gears a bit and go into creation mode. We will team up to create projects that might not work. We will share candidly what happens. At the very end, we will each create a failure portfolio to share with the class. There will be a few exceptions to this, but in general:
Every class will require you to draw, write, and get outside.
You will be given readings/listenings/watchings at the end of class each Wednesday. You will have until Monday to read/listen/watch them (94 hour deadline).
You will be given assignments on Monday to be done by Wednesday (46 hour deadline). They will not be unreasonable. (Let me know if they are.)
Schedule
Week 1
You Have Been Assigned to Fail
We’ll discuss fear, failure, and technology this week. Together, we will create a list of websites, apps, and services that awesome museums and libraries have launched. We’ll collaboratively design an digital environment assessment. You will need to discover, research, and present to the class two projects that you feel are good examples of technology in museums and libraries.
Week 2
Facilitation Matters
We'll discuss learning and approaches for facilitating it in digital environments. We’ll review facilitation techniques and practice them in class and on professional museum and library community websites, networks, and hashtags. We will form small groups and brainstorm topics and pre-existing communities we can explore these topics with between classes. We’ll share examples of what happened as a result of our efforts with the class.
Week 3
It's Time to Quit
We'll brainstorm things that we feel museums, libraries, and graduate schools should quit doing, team up to make a case for these things, and pitch them to the class.
Week 4
The Sky's the Limit
We will listen to interviews with several professionals from museums, libraries, and tech talk about their work. We will take collective notes on Post-its and team-up around big questions we have as a result of our notes. These teams/questions will become our digital projects. We will brainstorm what happens when our projects go exceedingly well and pitch that scenario to win prizes.
Week 5
EXPERIENCE DESIGN AND NARRATIVE
This week we will use two resources, the Digital Experiment Canvas and the Digital Experiment Narrative, to further develop our projects. We'll spend in-class and potentially in-between-class time developing these ideas and stories. Each class will be divided into two parts: the first half will be to brainstorm together as a team and the second half will be to pitch to the class for feedback in the kudos/concerns/questions model.
Week 6
EXPERIMENT prototype I
This week you will launch your experiment and any formative evaluations. Teams will use class time to co-work or to go to museums, libraries, or around campus where you need to be to conduct your experiment. We will debrief and brainstorm adjustments for next week.
Week 7
Experiment prototype II
This week you will modify your experiment based on data received last week. Teams will use class time to co-work or to go to museums, libraries, or around campus where you need to be to conduct your experiment. We will debrief and brainstorm adjustments for next week.
Week 8
experiment prototype III
This week you will modify your experiment based on data received in the prior two weeks. Teams will use class time to co-work or to go to museums, libraries, or around campus where you need to be to conduct your experiment. We will debrief and conduct our summative evaluations.
Week 9
experiment debriefs
Your experiments wrap up this week. We’ll debrief them with each other in team-based presentations and revisit our intentions to take risks with technology and see how our projects evolved throughout the experiment life cycle.
Week 10
Failure Portfolios
You will prepare and present your failure portfolio — i.e. what you’ve learned about failure, learning, museums, libraries, people, each other, and yourself through your digital experiment and teamwork. The format of your failure portfolio can be an essay or blog post, an art project or handout, a powerpoint, a website, or something else you imagine. On the last day, we’ll celebrate our work with a last words exercise and plan how we'll use the reflective practices we've worked on over the last ten weeks.
Format
Drawing
Each class begins with a 2-minute drawing exercise on a blank index card. At the beginning of class, write your name and the date on the back of the card, and await the daily prompt. Draw until the 2-minutes are up without stopping. No stick figures.
This is an activity inspired by Lynda Barry .
Writing
Each class will have a period of reflective writing. You will be asked to spend somewhere between 1-10 minutes (it varies depending on the schedule) reflecting on a topic or question. Write until the time is up. If you do not know what to write, write the alphabet. Except for the last class, you will not be required to share what you've written with anyone.
Walking
Each class will offer an opportunity to get outside and walk, rain or shine. Most days you will walk with a partner and be assigned a conversation topic. Other days you may be asked to walk alone, in your teams, or in a big group. Walks generally last from 10-20 minutes (it varies depending on the schedule).
DISCUSSIONS
Each class will feature a group discussion of some length and topic. In the first few weeks, these discussions will center around themes and our readings. Towards the middle/end of the class, these discussions will center around our experiments and the feedback we've received from our participants.
Note Taking
Some classes will require you to take notes with Sharpies on Post-its instead of in your individual notebooks. These notes will be put on the wall and clustered by everyone in class.
FEEDBACK
Feedback on all class pitches will be on Post-it notes based on a color scheme. There will be a color for kudos, a color for questions, and a color for concerns. Feedback is recorded immediately and given to the pitching team so that they can incorporate it in whatever they do next.
This is an activity inspired by Cheryl Dahle .
Assignments
Week 1
draw sharks
Visit How to Draw a Shark and following the instructions, draw sharks for each thing you're afraid of regarding this course, (or other things if you like), right now. Seal your drawing in the envelope provided and write your name on the outside of the envelope. We'll revisit these later in the quarter.
Digital Engagement Research Project
Research two examples of projects (websites, apps, services, APIs, etc.) that museums and libraries are currently sustaining or about to launch. Make sure these examples are unique (that no one else in class is doing them) and that you think they're good examples of using technology in a museum or library space. Be prepared to brief the class on the projects you select.
Noticing Practice (Part 1)
Choose an object, shape, or behavior that has some significance to you. You will notice this object in your everyday life for the next ten weeks, so be thoughtful about what it is. For the first part of our assignment, using a digital or analog device, document whenever you find the object for the next two weeks.
Coloring: On Being Podcast w/Seth Godin
Select three sheets to color in class on Wednesday (if you were not in class, print some out... here is a nice site ). Go to this On Being interview with Seth Godin: The Art of Noticing, and Then Creating and listen to it while coloring. The interview is 52 minutes long. You do not have to color all three sheets, just color while you listen and bring whatever you make to class.
Week 2
Undercover Facilitator
Using these facilitation techniques , practice using at least two color groups (see below) in at least five conversations in the topic area and community you identified in your small groups.
Some examples may be one facilitation move, other examples may include several depending on what happened as a reaction to your facilitation. Check-in on your efforts before class and come prepared to share what you tried and what happened as a result. If something interesting happens, take a screenshot (with usernames blurred or blacked out) to share.
Coloring: Ira Glass on Storytelling
Select three sheets to color in class on Wednesday (if you were not in class, print some out... here is a nice site ). Go to this series of Youtube videos — Part 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 — and listen to it while coloring. The series is less than 20 minutes long. You do not have to color all three sheets, just color while you listen and bring whatever you make to class.
Week 3
Overheards
In addition to your Noticing Practice, pay extra attention to what you hear this week. Using a notebook or note-taking application on your phone or computer or the back of your hand, jot down snippets of things you overhear immediately after you hear them. Aim for at least seven overheards over the course of the next week.
Quit Pitch
Your quit pitches are 3-4 minute, team-based, informal, provocations intended to challenge your classmates and also the museum, library, higher education field-at-large. You do not need slides though you can have slides if you want them.
At a minimum, your pitch should include:
What do you recommend quitting?
Why?
What space would be created as a result?
How could you test this idea in reality? (make it small, fallible)
Any and everything else you may want to share w/in the 3-4 minute time constraint.
Morning pages
You have three weeks to write morning pages on at least one morning.
Morning pages are three handwritten pages of stream of consciousness, contemplative writing. There’s no wrong way to write them. It should take you about 45-60 minutes to complete this assignment. If it takes you less than 30 minutes to fill three pages, write for 30 minutes instead of writing for three pages (otherwise write until you fill three pages). Do this assignment before you check anything on your phone or on the Internet for the day. Bring the completed pages sealed and dated in an envelope as proof that you completed them. We’ll talk about the experience in class. Here are some links to help you get started, (they are not required reading):
A video and chapter on Morning Pages by Julia Cameron (the creator of the activity)
Week 4
Ugly Coloring: Eli Neiburger on Libraries and Love
Select three sheets to color in class on Wednesday (if you were not in class, print some out... here is a nice site ). Go to FLATLAND: A Statistical Romance of Many Dimensions and listen to it while coloring. Color these as ugly as you are possibly capable of. The video is 1 hour and 14 minutes long. Listen while you color and break from coloring to listen harder if you want to do that. Bring whatever you make to class.
The Sky's the Limit Pitch
3-minute in-class pitch with your experiment team about what you do and what happens if everything goes exceedingly well with your project.