fear

courage

patience

forgiveness

persistence

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

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.

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.

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):

• How to Write Morning Pages (my own advice)
• 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.

Week 5

EXPERIment DESIGN Pitch

Five minute in class pitches after working with the Digital Experiment Canvas.

Experiment Narrative Pitch

Seven minute in class pitches after working with the Digital Experiment Narrative.

Noticing Practice (Part 2)

For the next two weeks, renew your efforts to notice the object or concept you chose for your noticing practice. This time, instead of documenting the object you notice, use the moment of noticing to ask yourself a question. The question you ask can be whatever you decide, but be sure to ask the same question every time. I've listed some questions you might ask, but you can really chose to ask yourself anything. Also, if you still want to document the object, feel free.

Individual Project Check-In

Answer the following questions about how you're feeling about the project and your team.

Week 6

EXPERIMENT prototype I Launch 

Recruit participants, conduct any formative evaluation, and launch V1 of your digital experiment. 

Week 7

Experiment prototype II Launch

Continue to recruit, evaluate, and tweak your experiment in your V2 launch.
 

Week 8

experiment prototype III LAUNCH

Continue to recruit, evaluate, and tweak your experiment in your v3 launch.

Noticing Practice (Part 3)

Write a reflection on your noticing practice this quarter. Aim for something short, but of substance: ~250 words. What have you noticed about your noticing? What has this practice invited? Where has it led you? What will you do when the quarter is over? These questions are just suggestions, feel free to write about whatever you want to write about noticing.

Week 9

experiment debriefs

Sunset your experiments if need be, finalize any summative evaluation, and present to the class as a team. 

You'll have 10 minutes each. In this time, you'll also take questions. Please create a powerpoint slideshow or handouts so that we have visuals to reference. Do not rely on an internet connection for a demo.

Share the story of your experiment — how it began, evolved, and ended up. Share what you thought would happen, what actually happened, and any metrics you came up with along the way. Most of all, share the answer you currently have for the question you originally sought to answer. 

Imagine your audience for this presentation is the larger field. Share as if you are at AAM or ALA. What would you say to current practitioners and leadership who may also want to explore what you've just briefly delved into? How would you encourage them to proceed given the results of your experiment?

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 Portfolio

Your assignment is to create a portfolio of the failures you've experienced in the last quarter. Our class should be a rich source of these experiences, but you do not have to contain your portfolio to only class failures (though you certainly can limit it to class-only).

Some ideas that may inspire you or inform the contents of your failure portfolio are:

• How do you define failure?
• How big or small does something have to be to be a failure?
• What role do expectations play in having failed?
• Who or what failed?
• Where might shame or fear have played a role?
• What do you think about your own reaction to having failed?
• Why is it a failure?
• How or what would you do differently?
• Would you do it again if you had the chance?
• What did you think would happen?
• How have your thoughts about failure changed?

Feel free to have different interpretations of failure, different ways of measuring it, using a continuum or binary model for what counts. 

The format of your portfolio is up to you. It can be a performance, an essay, a picture book, a slideshow, information graphics, a work of art, a thing you pass around, whatever you like. You'll have up to five minutes each to share it with us on June 1, 2015.

We will talk more about this in class, but the day we share our failure portfolios will be a sacred day. Everyone should come to class with an open mind and heart. We will follow Chatham House Rules for that day, as well. 

Reflection | Reflection

Reflect on the various practices you've experienced over the last ten weeks: drawing, writing, walking, group discussions, morning pages, noticing, coloring. Which worked for you? Which didn't? What might you continue in the future?

Last Word

Select one word to describe your experience in class. Write it on a Post-it note and share with others why you chose it.