Learning Sparks is a new initiative at ASU that feature short, 5-minute, videos showcasing the expertise of a range of ASU faculty members. These videos are carefully crafted, with high-production values seeking to capture big ideas in bite-sized chunks.

A few months ago I was asked to be part of this initiative. For my videos I focused on how the idea and practice of design plays out in education. Specifically, I decided to focus my videos on the Five Spaces for Design in Education framework that Melissa Warr and I have been working on for the past few years. In brief, we argue that it may be productive to think of the idea of design as playing out in 5 distinct educational spaces: artifacts, processes, experiences, systems and culture. Moreover, working within these spaces requires different tools, elements, practices, knowledge and judgement that we as designers need to bring to the task.

So we ended up with 6 short videos: the first one introduces the idea of design and our framework, followed by 5 other videos taking on each of the spaces (artifacts, processes, experiences, systems and culture) in turn. These videos are now available to anyone with an email address on the Learning Sparks website.

I have included them here, for the record, in the sequence they should be viewed (since the Learning Sparks website does not make that easily possible). A special thanks to the entire Think Four team, who helped with every aspect of creating this videos (from helping craft the prose, finding the visuals, shooting and editing the videos, and more). Thanks also to Melissa Warr and Kevin Close for feedback on the script. And Melissa, of course, deserves an extra-special shout-out. The five spaces work would not have happened without her. This has been a genuine collaboration and great fun. (Melissa maintains a page on the talkingaboutdesign.com website that lists all the publications/presentations that have emerged from this line of work.) If you would prefer to read the transcripts, rather than watch the videos, you can find them here.

#1—Design Artifacts: Bridging the gap between past & present

#2—The Power of Processes: Unlocking Efficiency in Education

#3—Creating engaging moments: The science of experience design

#4—Unlocking the Power of Systems Thinking: Designing for Education

#5—Designing for Culture: The Impact of Symbols and Meanings