I am now a freelancer (after 12 years employed by Hyper Island in Singapore) and this gives me the freedom to question everything anew. Why did we do things this way? How was our business structured and funded? And how could we have scaled what we did without scaling people (which is always very difficult)?… Read More Are we investing enough in learning design?
I’m trying to document some of my thinking around active constructivist learning for adults. In my experience everyone appreciates the idea of learning by doing but many find it hard to imagine the range of sessions that can be designed. Many learning designers fall back on talking and telling, and relegate making and reflection… Read More Designing active learning sessions
When we construct sessions for learners we should borrow ideas from a wide range of different creative industries. Harnessing the skills, tools and practices from a completely new field gives a group new perspectives and helps them make new connections between ideas. In this post I want to describe the process I have used… Read More Think, make and reflect like a board game designer
When we build worlds we populate them with characters, and give those characters challenges to allow stories to emerge. To create interesting stories, the world must fit the characters and the characters must fit the worlds. At the end of this post I will share an activity to help you design both. There are many… Read More Design for your heroes
I am fascinated by learning, by how we learn, by what might be going on inside my head and inside my mind, and how experimenting and making things might be at the root of all of these. I would call myself a constructivist educator. What is constructivism? This is a theory of learning that comes… Read More Learning through making has been a powerful force in my life
Many worldbuilders are solo pioneers spending months or years crafting intricately detailed universes in which to weave narrative stories, use as the basis for table top or computer games or form the setting for a movie. My interest is in using the same techniques with groups and in a business or educational setting to help… Read More How to design and facilitate a world building session?