Learning/Principles

Design Principles

The Principles guiding our work:

Learning to make by making. Less yak, more hack.

• Built around tools and making exercises that 'help teach'
• Learning is a byproduct of making

Help people hack on things they care about at the core.

• Support/encourage interest-based learning
• Have meaningful, authentic making (vs. arbitrary tasks or overly sandboxed environments)
• i.e. For StoryThing for journalists, we have them build out their stories online and in the process, learn HTML, CSS, etc.

More pathways == better. Avoid, and even fight, one prescribed way to learn.

• Leverage existing content and pathways, don't reinvent the wheel where we don't have to.
• Balance self-driven options, authority/faciliated options, peer options (Ultimately: choose your own adventure approach!)
• Offer multimedia options where possible (online, offline, synchronous, asynchronous, etc.)
• Support various levels / entry points (age, skill level, learning types, etc), embrace role fluidity

Support / encourage the social aspect.

• Encourage social interaction, peer learning and sharing
• Leverage peer assessments and mentorship

Build in fun / play.

• Explicit fun in cases where it makes sense, but also implicit fun (interest based learning)
• Promote / support interest-driven learning
• Capitalize on intrinsic motivations already existing

Embed assessments in the learning and learning in the assessments.

• Be innovative about assessment - honor the nature of the learning experience / making
• Authentic and relevant assessments built into the learning experience
• People should be able to learn more through taking the assessment as well as assessing other people's work

Support graceful degradation - Fail well

• Help users when they get stuck. -- and make it as easy as possible for their friends (or volunteers) to help them out when this happens
• Build in trial and error as much as possible
• Congratulate people for failing; congratulate people for trying alternative methods

Build in recognition.

• Legitimize this learning - make it count beyond the learning experience
• Build badges into our learning experiences

Design for extensibility / scale beyond ourselves.

• Make it easy to run events around learning content - event kit + plug and play content
• Modularity
• Mentorship and teach the teachers, nurture a community that can run itself

Reveal the universe.

• Show people everything there is to learn and how - let them see where they fit into it and where they can go.

Produce consumer grade web experiences and software.

• High quality, authentic experiences