What Drives the Wheel: On Becoming an Affective Opportunity Designer

And yes, I do mean 'affective'...

At the very core, I am a Middle School Teacher.  I can’t help it. It’s tough to put my finger on exactly what it is that lends to the comfort I feel around those between the ages of 11 and 15 - it’s certainly not the smell, but I find them to be some of the most interesting, inspiring, and authentic people on the planet.

I teach at a gifted school which means they can be some of the most anxious, intense, and abstract teens you can come across.  Recently I met “Landon.”

Landon had a falling out with his bus driver.  An issue of injustice arose and Landon has spent over a week trying to calm down in and out of the Administration Office.  His focus in class is entirely diminished, his capacity for positive contribution is at an all-time low, and the structure of school is continually rubbing salt into the wound.

When I met Landon, I had no idea of any of this.  He was just like any other student who comes to the Makerspace lately to gather around the new 3D printer I invested in.

I’m really passionate about Education.  When I say education, I’m really passionate about the Positive Affect of intentional designed pedagogy.  I create opportunities like this in the Makerspace and I’m always excited to share with the students that I’ve only just opened the door -- it is up to my “Makerbots” to take everything to the next level.

Landon was curious how he might get access to print off ideas of his own on the 3D printer.  This led to a conversation about creating a structured economy that could reward algorhythmic work with “Currie-Coins” and would provide a stipend for all students of 150 Vygots.  As an aside he noticed that there was an open design challenge in the Makerspace to create a handheld vacuum that would be well suited to clean the glue build-up at the bottom of the new Ultimaker.

Landon appeared two days later with a list of materials he was hoping to find in the makerspace and a napkin-drawing of a mini-vacuum.  He peppered me with questions about the mechanics and showed me what he was intending.  I was able to point out a few design flaws and he returned the next day with a working prototype.  People were amazed and inspired by his work and he was pretty proud of himself.  He wasn’t done.  He took it home and started designing nozzles for it.  He prettied it up, and here is a picture of the “finished” vacuum after a week of after school work.

That’s when Landon started to talk to me about a “Bank”.  It would seem that he was keeping himself up at night trying to solve the problem of managing and tracking the PLA currency exchange.  He had gone so far as drawing up a prototype cheque, ledger sheet, file-cabinet and even a work-plan for how to manage bank-employees should we need it.  Landon, in his hyperintense excitabilities was trapped in a problem-feedback loop that needed adjustment or he was going to meltdown.

Landon is in Grade 6.  Let that sink in while I provide the following tangent:

I collect evidence of how SSID applies in my line of work because I’ve become passionate about the Double-Loop Learning Model as the engine that drives the practices teachers have been asked to employ to improve learning.   It applies to Design Thinking, Understanding by Design, Backwards Design, Project Based Learning, Challenge Based Learning or any of the umpteen practices we’ve labelled to assess our practice.  It’s the magic that makes the work, well, work.

At the time I meet Landon I had just recently finished designing and creating a reward coin for the Middle School Robots club and I realized I had a great object-lesson for my Grade 10 Applied Design, Skills and Technology class that showed the opportunity design model as a series of “Marshmallow On-Top” moments.

 

I was able to share this story with Landon and we had a conversation about looking at what the real problem with the Maker-Economy is.  The conversation allowed us to establish that Landon needs to identify what he’s really passionate about.  In twenty minutes of intense and inspiring Empathy Mapping I was able to point Landon toward learning to find elements of the challenge that were appropriate for his level of technical skill, and in a direction that would ultimately excite and inspire him.

Landon returned the next day and said “Mr. Currie, I thought a lot about that model you showed me last night, and I realized that I do have to go slowly and start small with the Bank.  I really want to go in a direction of making something with my hands that sorts coins instead of trying to make an entire business model for a bank.”

My administrator approached me and related that Landon was suddenly doing really well.  I receive a lot of affirmation that my work has a tangible Positive Affect on the students who are exposed to what I do - My grade 8’s laughed at me the other day and mentioned they didn’t see me as a teacher, so much as “some dude who like teaches us what we need to know” which made me smile.  What I have noticed is that over the last three months the culture I hope to promote has been accelerating and spiraling outward at an increased rate.  But this story isn’t about me.  It’s about Landon.

Landon has arrived at a Procedural and Affective knowledge of Opportunity Design as a result of my own Functional skill as an Opportunity Designer.  I have refined that skill by teaching with Empathy, Imagination, Inspiration, Creative Confidence and the ability to Tell a Story.  Landon and I are both better for it.