Student Participation: The Missing Link to Systemic Change ...

Projects represents a component of the lab where we design, prototype and test new models with transformative potential. And 2011 marked the year we officially moved off the white board and into the real world with a series of experiments that took place in Utah and Rhode Island. These experiments were catalyzed by the foundational student experience research that took place in the lab during 2009 and 2011 and have led to the development of a new Student Experience Lab "participatory design" approach.?

Participatory design is design with a twist. It engages students themselves in the conceptual development of new educational experiences.

While many educational institutions seek to put the student at the center of their transformation effort, they often fail due to institutional barriers between departments and disciplines; incoherent engagement strategies that fail to deliver upon the needs of the student, insufficient innovation processes, inabilities to experiment and general inertia toward anything new and novel.

Through participatory design ? where students act as both participant and designer ? a meaningful partnership is created between implementer and user, teacher and student, administrator and teacher ? where everyone takes responsibility for the success of the project.?

It?s important to note that we are not belittling the role of expertise ? both at the academic and administrative level. Specialized training and experience, both technical and interpersonal, are critical. In the participatory model, however, this special expertise is yet another resource to be drawn on ? not a source of unchallenged power and authority.?

By building young people?s capacity, skills and competencies and, strengthening their ownership of the results within the lab, we are creating the right kind of environment for ongoing experimentation, culture change and radical student engagement. We view this as a missing link to systemic change.

To learn more about our system experiment in Utah, visit Not Your Typical Class.?

Source: http://www.businessinnovationfactory.com/weblog/student-participation-missing-link-systemic-change

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