The Teaching Fab Lab

"We need more risk-takers!"

"We need to build a culture that not only accepts failure, it rewards it."

"I just want people to take a few chances around here.  You know, to try some new things."

In my position as District Principal of Innovation, I am constantly hearing these sorts of expressions from educators throughout the system about their students, their colleagues, and the organizations where they work.  If you spend a even a few minutes on social media, you will find tweets, Facebook links, LinkedIn posts and blogs talking about the importance of developing a mindset of "failing fast and often", "doing then knowing", or "iterate, iterate, and then iterate".  Are you puffing your chest out about having a Learning Commons?  Be careful, someone might walk by you and whisper "That is so 2010.". People are talking about maker spaces, hacker spaces, green screen rooms, and think tanks.   And let's be real, in my visits to schools and districts in British Columbia, I have yet to hear someone say "we need to be less innovative".

But what are we actually doing to develop and scale innovative practices?  Make no mistake, we would be hard-pressed to find a school or district that doesn't have exciting and interesting things happening, at least in small pockets. But we often are so tunneled into the day-to-day goings-on in our districts, in our schools, and in our classrooms that if someone were to ask us about an innovation at a neighboring school or nearby district, we most likely would be unable to answer.

And I get it!  Everyone is busy.  Coordinating schedules can be challenging.  Releasing people to be able to visit other schools is expensive, and sending them to other districts even more so.

In his book The Business Model Innovation Factory, Saul Kaplan talks about creating "the adjacent possible", a place in an organization where new ideas and service models can be live-tested in a real environment with actual clients.  This 'adjacent possible' environment still has the benefits of being a part of the larger organization, and is able to take advantage of the infrastructure and economies of scale that the company has to offer, but it is able to test out radically different models and ideas in a low-risk, high-reality setting with the goal of informing future practice.  It is a recipe for success, and without it, companies who focus solely on their current business model tend to fail miserably, or "get Netflixed", as Blockbuster Video found out.  Those who have their current model and think about new models by creating "the adjacent possible" are the organizations that will remain nimble, responsive and relevant as the needs of their clients change.

Just like the needs of our students are changing.

As a result, I believe we must to create the "adjacent possible" in education. In every school and district.  We could call it "The Teaching Fab Lab".  And it would be right down the hallway.

Any teacher in the school could book into the Fab Lab, and once in there, they would be free to test out new and interesting teaching practices, knowing that they might work, and knowing they might not.  Maybe for a day.  Maybe for a week.  Or longer.  And fellow educators would not have to take release days and travel hundreds of miles to see the inquiry process in action, or Project-Based Learning, or genius hour, or whatever was on display in the Fab Lab.  They could just wander down the hall and have a look!  They could ask their administrator or another teacher to watch their class for a few minutes or a period, and even jump in an co-teach for a bit with the Fab Lab host, just to get a feel for the activity.

Naysayers might be jumping up and down right now yelling "People can't just teach however they want!", or "But what if it doesn't work?", or "We can't waste time, we have too much content to cover!".  I guess so, but I am thinking that we could respond by saying things like

"We need more risk-takers!"

"We need to build a culture that not only accepts failure, it rewards it."

"I just want people to take a few chances around here.  You know, to try some new things."

I am going to do some more digging into this.  If you have examples of these in your schools or districts, please comment so I can come and visit!