As part of our research with the Facilitating Computational Tinkering project, our team examined the challenges and barriers that informal educators face in incorporating computing into their spaces as well as what supports their work. As we’ve designed activities and created resources for educators, we have always encouraged educators to adapt them to better suit their own contexts. We recognize that informal learning environments are not a monolith, and each space has its own deeply contextualized opportunities and constraints around new opportunities. However, we have since realized that encouraging “adaptation” is not enough, and instead this encouragement places a lot of responsibility on educators, who are already often overburdened to figure out what changes make sense for their spaces and communities with little to no guidance. We realized that there was an opportunity to make a tool that would support educators to get more concrete, to think more structurally, and to advocate for the resources they need as they implement new tools, activities or pedagogy.
We’re excited to share a new resource called “Now What: How can we be thoughtful about our next steps?” to better support educators in their implementation work within the infrastructural realities of their contexts. Check out the zine and the facilitator guide here and continue reading to learn about how we developed this resource.
Putting a spotlight on the infrastructures of learning environments
Through this sustained work with organizations we’ve come to see how infrastructure plays a key role in the practices of facilitators, in their design work and how innovations are taken up or not in different spaces. In our communities we might think about roads, power lines, bridges, bike lanes and plumbing all as examples of infrastructure that support quality of life. Learning environments also have their own infrastructures that shape what learning looks like in those spaces. This infrastructure can include physical infrastructure such as tools and materials but also the human infrastructure of educators, community leaders, and staff members — along with their social practices such as collaboration and facilitation moves. While there are many resources to support facilitators in developing their skills with new tools or activity guides to scaffold youth and families learning experiences, there are limited resources for facilitators on how to adapt and implement these new opportunities into the infrastructural realities of their institutions and communities.
Paying close attention to these infrastructures allows us to better view the whole context of a space. Rather than thinking an activity didn't work because participants were uninterested, for example, we can start to better understand how the layers of infrastructure such as physical space, social practices, and values all play a role. This zine invites educators to think about the multiple dimensions of infrastructure in their spaces, as well as imagine how those infrastructures might need to be redesigned towards their goals.
Pages 2 and 3 of the zine introducing infrastructures
Introducing Our New Zine: “Now What: How can we be thoughtful about our next steps?”
As we have shared previously, we enjoy creating resources that capture some of the spirit of creativity and joy that we feel when we work with educators. Inspired by our experience iteratively designing the “What Equity Means to Me” zine, we designed a new zine titled “Now What: How can we be thoughtful about our next steps?”
The goal of this zine is to support educators beyond just vague encouragement to “adapt activities to their spaces.” This zine is based on our team’s research around infrastructure that supports informal learning environments as well as the practices facilitators engage in to negotiate and redesign these infrastructures towards equitable and sustainable implementation of learning innovations. Through individual and collective reflection prompts, this resource aims to support educators to plan their next steps for implementing computational tinkering pedagogy within the structures and systems across their spaces, communities, and resources. This zine asks educators to consider what they and others need to navigate, change, and mobilize.
Pages 12 and 13 of the zine that guide educators in planning their next steps
Ricarose, Mimi and I worked collaboratively to develop the content of the zine from research our team conducted with informal learning educators, or facilitators, from 2020-2023 (x, x). Mimi then used her design and illustration skills to bring the zine to life.
Throughout the zine, we feature quotes from other Learning Scientists we admire as well as case studies inspired from our work with educators over the years to scaffold the reflective prompts.
Pages 16 and 17 of the zine that invite educators to imagine openings for change
In addition to the zine, we made a facilitator guide for educators to use the zine with their peers. The facilitator guide includes a sample workshop outline, facilitation tips, and other strategies that we’ve gathered from our experiences facilitating zine sessions with educators.
How Can I Use this Zine?
We want this zine to be one tool in your tool box. It is not meant to be comprehensive, but can be used as part of your process of thinking about concrete next steps. We think this zine makes sense to work through when you have a specific goal in mind and are trying to understand what you need to do on Monday to begin working towards accomplishing that goal. For example, you might want to increase participation of teens in your space, move towards more tinkering- oriented pedagogy rather than instructionist pedagogy in your makerspace, or consider how to incorporate a new tool like Octostudio into your programming. This zine aims to support you in unpacking next steps and revealing clarity around what you need to do, what your organization needs to do, and what resources your organization might need to be successful. We also hope that this zine can reiterate that change happens collectively. It’s not about being an individual superhero educator, but instead reflecting on the ecology of support (and constraint) around you.
Finally, we believe that just as in our previous equity zine, the magic is not in the zine itself, but in the conversation that the zine can spark between colleagues and what these conversations can enable you to do. We hope this zine, along with the facilitator guide, can be a useful tool for you and your colleagues to ground your goals and conversations. We encourage you to work through this zine in community with other educators so that you can support and push each other in your thinking. We would love to hear from your experiences!
These materials are based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. (2005764).