The workshops will be conducted by ISKME facilitators who are trained in the Action Collab process. ISKME has created Action Collabs to help organizations successfully collaborate and build solutions to very difficult challenges.
Samantha Meazell, ISKME Action Collab facilitator, says ISKME will train the MCPS administrators and teachers at the workshop to apply a design-thinking framework to innovate new ideas with actionable next steps, from design to prototyping and implementation.
The workshops will be conducted by ISKME facilitators who are trained in the Action Collab process. ISKME has created Action Collabs to help organizations successfully collaborate and build solutions to very difficult challenges.
Samantha Meazell, ISKME Action Collab facilitator, says ISKME will train the MCPS administrators and teachers at the workshop to apply a design-thinking framework to innovate new ideas with actionable next steps, from design to prototyping and implementation.
Participants in previous Action Collabs facilitated by ISKME describe the collab as an immersive, unique, and intensely powerful experience. Others have remarked on how meaningful it is to build a system from scratch by conceptualizing and making a solution. Some participants say the process changed their lives by opening up ways for them to build programs they wouldn’t have otherwise ventured to create.
Participants at the MCPS workshop will break into small groups and first identify ways to solve the design challenge posed by the district, which is to strengthen collaboration between teachers and administrators. Using physical tools, such as paper, tape, and scissors, as well as improvisatory techniques initiated by the facilitator, participants will then design, name, and prototype a solution.
On the second day of the workshop, each group will present its solution and discuss implementation strategies. In the short term, the workshop might lead to identifying solutions to existing challenges and barriers that hinder successful teacher-administration collaboration. In the long term, teachers and administrators will also be better equipped to incorporate the design-thinking process of the Action Collab into their ongoing work in the school and classroom.
The workshop on design thinking is organized through the MCPS 21st Century Initiative. It is one of several actions being taken in the District to implement the 21st Century Model of Change, which is focused on six key elements – increasing student engagement, transforming learning environments, supporting innovators, personalizing educators’ professional development, enhancing communications and collaborating to make decisions.
For additional information about this unique workshop and the 21st Century Model of Change, please contact Karen Allen, MCPS Region 3 Director, at 239-9256 (cell phone).
For more information, Visit ISKME (http://iskme.org)
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The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education is an independent, nonprofit research institute dedicated to the study, spread, and strategic use of data use, information sharing, and knowledge collaboration in education.