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154 pages
- PageHow this site worksWhat each kind of page is for, and a map of how they connect.
- PageHow I workSeven moves from reading a situation to extracting what transfers.
- PagePractice casesIdeas encountering reality: situations where constraints, institutions, people and judgement collide.
- PageNotes on practiceArguments being developed, each ending on what transfers.
- PageTalksIdeas said out loud so they can be tested.
- PageGuidesIdeas made operational: numbered, sourced references a team can work from.
- PagePathways through the guidesFour sequences through the guides for four kinds of work.
- PageEducational technology as a craftThe forms of judgement the work repeatedly requires, mapped to the guides.
- ToolA toolkit for seeing situations differentlyFuturing, complexity and ways of thinking, combined into practical moves.
- ToolMoves for thinking about educational changeTen candidate moves, each one question asked on purpose.
- ToolOne problem, four ways of seeing itA school wants to increase the use of generative AI, framed four ways.
- ToolLearning-space patternsTen patterns of activity, and the rooms they want.
- PageExploreThe toolkit, working propositions, open questions and counterpositions.
- PageQuestions I keep returning toQuestions that keep surfacing across projects, reading and design work.
- PageWorking propositionsClaims coherent enough to test and too early to treat as principles.
- PageThings I am unconvinced byCommon claims, taken at their strongest, then bounded.
- PageLibraryShelves, glossaries, the concept index and the lineage of the ideas.
- PageConcept indexStart from a problem and find the concepts that might explain it.
- PageIdeas I inheritedWhere particular ways of seeing came from, and where I have qualified them.
- PagePursuitsGames, making and other practices that shape how I notice and think.
- PageAboutA career across scales, from one class to one national platform.
- PageNowWhat I am currently building, reading, testing and trying to understand.
- PageColophonHow the site is built, and how to read its labels.
- DomainThe designed conditions of learningWhat becomes possible when the unit of educational design is larger than the artefact?
- DomainLearning spacesHow might space, participation, tools, and routines support the forms of learning intended?
- DomainImmersive and extended realityWhen does an embodied or spatial digital experience add educational value?
- DomainInteractive learning experiencesHow should learners act, receive feedback, and build explanations inside an interactive system?
- DomainMedia and multimedia for learningHow should words, visuals, and sound combine so that media clarifies rather than distracts?
- DomainEvidence of learningWhat can the learner now understand or do that they could not reliably understand or do before?
- DomainDesigning collective thinkingWhat conditions let a group think better than its members would alone?
- NoteThe room is an interfaceA classroom organises what learners can do the way a screen does, so it can be designed and questioned like one
- NoteA myth is a finding that travelledMost of what education gets wrong began as something true, and the fix is to measure how far it has travelled
- NoteEvery rule of thumb has an opposite numberA rule of thumb is right inside its conditions and wrong outside them, and the conditions can be named
- NoteA catalogue of faults is half an instrumentCatching a bad argument settles nothing. Arguing better is a short set of moves, and they can be taught
- NoteNobody in the room has to be wrongCollective work has failure modes of its own, and more minds do not cancel them
- NoteA bias is a design briefAwareness is the weakest counter, and the product controls the conditions
- NoteEase of use is not ease of learningThe effort that feels like failure is the effort that teaches
- NoteWhat design is, and how it gets practised in edtechDesign is a category of decision, not a layer added at the end
- NoteA principle is not a findingA canon that cannot grade itself is a reading list
- NoteA design system is not a component libraryComponents scale reuse; principles scale judgement
- NoteA thinkpiece is a designed objectA writing genre with a job, an audience, and a failure mode
- NoteDesign for translationResearch → principles → tools → changed practice
- GuidePrinciples for designing learning materials (opens in a new tab)What to do with words, pictures, layout, and interaction so that a resource teaches rather than merely covers the ground. Drawn from the learning sciences, multimedia research, visual design, user experience, and inclusive design.
- GuideDigital product management (opens in a new tab)What change in behaviour are we betting on?
- GuideService design and systems thinking (opens in a new tab)What does the whole experience look like, beyond our screen?
- GuideDesign thinking, used honestly (opens in a new tab)Are we solving the right problem?
- GuideDiscovery research: interviews, observation and context (opens in a new tab)What do people actually do, and why?
- GuideEvaluative research: usability testing, surveys and UX metrics (opens in a new tab)Does what we made work for the people using it?
- GuideDesign methods I: making sense of research (opens in a new tab)What did we learn, and what does it mean for the design?
- GuideDesign methods II: sketching, prototyping and critique (opens in a new tab)What is the cheapest way to find out if this idea works?
- GuideUX foundations and design systems (opens in a new tab)Why do interfaces help or hinder?
- GuideAgile and Scrum in practice (opens in a new tab)How do we deliver value in small, safe steps?
- GuideLean product development (opens in a new tab)What is the smallest thing we can do to learn whether we are right?
- GuideSoftware development for non-engineers (opens in a new tab)What is actually happening when engineers build?
- GuideDevOps and continuous delivery (opens in a new tab)How do we release often without breaking a school day?
- GuideExperimentation and product analytics (opens in a new tab)Did this change do what we hoped?
- GuideData strategy and governance (opens in a new tab)What data do we need, and who is responsible for it?
- GuideLearning analytics (opens in a new tab)What can logs tell us about learning?
- GuideAI in learning products (opens in a new tab)Where does AI help learning, and how do we know?
- GuideBasic statistics for educational technologists (opens in a new tab)What can a number tell you, and how far should you trust it?
- GuideAdoption and change in schools (opens in a new tab)Why do good tools go unused?
- GuideCommunicating change to schools (opens in a new tab)Does the right person know what changed, why, and what to do?
- GuideProfessional learning that changes practice (opens in a new tab)What kind of training actually changes what teachers do?
- GuideSupport and feedback loops (opens in a new tab)When something goes wrong, how fast do we hear and fix it?
- GuideAims of education: what schools are for (opens in a new tab)“Education's job is to transmit content efficiently.”
- GuideA short history of schooling and its technologies (opens in a new tab)“This technology will transform education.”
- GuideLearners: development, motivation and wellbeing (opens in a new tab)“Learners are just younger users.”
- GuidePedagogy: the approaches and the evidence (opens in a new tab)“Pedagogy is a style choice between traditional and progressive.”
- GuideTeachers' work and professional knowledge (opens in a new tab)“Teachers resist technology.”
- GuideClassroom realities: orchestration and differentiation (opens in a new tab)“A good tool works the same in every classroom.”
- GuideInclusion, diversity and special educational needs (opens in a new tab)“Inclusion is an accessibility checklist.”
- GuideLearning spaces: physical, hybrid and virtual (opens in a new tab)“A new room changes teaching.”
- GuideEmbodied, spatial and immersive learning (opens in a new tab)“More immersion means more learning.”
- GuideCurriculum: intended, enacted and attained (opens in a new tab)“The curriculum is the syllabus document.”
- GuideCurriculum development: design, review and enactment (opens in a new tab)“A syllabus is written once, then implemented.”
- GuideSubject disciplines and their pedagogies (opens in a new tab)“One design pattern fits every subject.”
- GuideFormative assessment and feedback (opens in a new tab)“Formative assessment means frequent quizzes.”
- GuideAssessment systems: validity, reliability and high stakes (opens in a new tab)“A score measures what the item says it measures.”
- GuideHow schools work: leadership, organisation and culture (opens in a new tab)“A school decision is made by the principal.”
- GuideBeyond school: early years to lifelong learning (opens in a new tab)“Edtech means school edtech.”
- GuideEducation policy: making it and enacting it (opens in a new tab)“Policy is announced, then implemented.”
- GuideGovernance, funding and accountability (opens in a new tab)“The system is one organisation with one owner.”
- GuideEquity and educational disadvantage (opens in a new tab)“Access to devices closes gaps.”
- GuideComparative education and international benchmarks (opens in a new tab)“Copy the top-performing system.”
- GuideReading education research (opens in a new tab)“Evidence-based means a randomised trial says so.”
- GuideProgramme evaluation (opens in a new tab)“Evaluation is research done on a programme.”
- GuideEducation reform: why change is slow and what scales (opens in a new tab)“Good innovations spread on merit.”
- GuideFutures of education (opens in a new tab)“The future of education is a technology forecast.”
- TalkDesigning for learning (opens in a new tab)Ease of use and ease of learning are different things, and they often pull against each other. Product instinct trained on shopping, streaming and feeds will mislead a learning system unless it is checked against how people actually learn. Seven things that are true about learning, where each collides with design instinct, and a method for turning evidence into principles a team can defend.
- TalkWhat design is, and what designers do (opens in a new tab)Design is a category of decision that sets what a system makes easy, hard, and impossible — and most of it is made by people who do not hold the job title. What the decisions cost when nobody owns them, what the evidence says design is worth, where that evidence falls apart, and the question each role around the table is actually responsible for.
- TalkZero is an average (opens in a new tab)Forty years of research finds that educational technology has an average effect of roughly nothing. The average is the least interesting thing about it — the spread around it is enormous, and design accounts for a good deal of the spread. What that means for what to build, what to measure before it ships, and what to stop citing.
- Library shelfLearning scienceEvery other shelf here assumes an answer to how people learn. This one makes that answer explicit, so the rest can be argued with.
- Library shelfLearning spacesBecause the room is already making decisions about who can speak and who can be seen, and most briefs treat it as an empty container.
- Library shelfEducational technologyEvery generation of technology arrives certain it is different. This shelf is the record of the previous ones saying the same thing.
- Library shelfMaker educationBecause building something is the fastest way to discover what you actually understand, and the slowest thing to argue for in a curriculum meeting.
- Library shelfComplexity educationBecause schools are not machines with broken parts, and almost every improvement plan is written as though they are.
- Library shelfDesign thinkingIt is the method I was schooled in and the one I am most wary of, because it is easy to run the workshop and skip the thinking.
- Library shelfBehavioural insightsBecause most educational design assumes people act on what they know, and the gap between knowing and doing is where the work really is.
- Library shelfUI/UX and interaction designA national platform is a room too. The same question applies — what does its structure make easy, and who does that leave out?
- Library shelfVisual communicationIf a framework cannot be drawn it is probably not finished. This shelf is how I test that claim on my own work.
- Library shelfMahjongA game held together by convention rather than documentation, which is exactly why writing it down is interesting.
- Library shelfContract bridgeThe best-designed information problem I know of, and the literature is unusually well written for a games shelf.
- Library shelfBooksScience fiction is the only literature that treats a designed system as a character. That is closer to my working life than most realism.
- Library shelfCartoonsThe most unforgiving compression problem in visual communication, and the only medium where failure is immediate and unmistakable.
- Library shelfCoffeeA daily ritual that turns out to be a measurement problem, where the variable deciding the outcome is usually the one nobody is adjusting.
- GlossaryThe craft glossaryThe vocabulary of making a learning product, from abandonment to zero-downtime release. Each term links to the place in its guide where it is referred to.
- GlossaryThe context glossaryThe vocabulary of how education works, from ability grouping to zone of proximal development. Each term links to the place in its guide where it is referred to.
- GlossaryThe field guides glossaryEvery bias, collective fallacy, faulty argument and working default in the field guides, in one A to Z. Each name opens its entry.
- Field guideA map of world views (opens in a new tab)Most people have never had to say what they think reality is made of. Twenty minutes with this and you will have said it, and seen who you are standing next to.
- Field guideThe cognitive bias field guide (opens in a new tab)Two hundred names is not a debiasing strategy. Read each one for the condition it describes, and most turn into something a product can be built to stop presenting.
- Field guideThe collective fallacies field guide (opens in a new tab)Nobody in the room has to be wrong for the room to be wrong. Read each entry for the structure it describes and most of the counter-moves turn out to be cheap: who speaks first, what the measure is attached to, who can stop the work.
- Field guideThe faulty arguments field guide (opens in a new tab)A label is not a rebuttal. Read each entry for the critical question it turns on, and you have something to say in the room while the move is being made.
- Field guideThe working defaults field guide (opens in a new tab)A default is a prior, not a verdict. Read each entry for the condition that makes it true, and a rule you quote becomes a rule you can check.
- PursuitMahjongSingapore mahjong is a scoring system pretending to be a tile game. A game held together almost entirely by undocumented convention is a small, complete study in tacit knowledge — and a decent argument for why documentation is design work.
- PursuitContract bridgeThe best-designed information problem I know of that you can finish in an evening. Bidding is a constrained language — a small set of legal utterances, all public, all ambiguous — and both partners have to build a shared picture using only those, while two opponents listen in.
- PursuitCartoonsA single panel has to carry setup, character, and turn simultaneously, which makes it the most unforgiving compression problem in visual communication — and the closest thing I know to a diagram with a sense of humour.
- PursuitTrying new techI poke at new tools by building something small and slightly too ambitious with them, on the theory that you cannot evaluate a tool from its documentation. Most attempts do not survive, which is the point — the fast, cheap failure is the finding.
- PursuitMaking espressoEspresso is a process-control problem you can run twice before breakfast. Everything that matters happens inside an opaque basket in twenty-five seconds, so you are never observing the process — only its output, and only after it is too late to change anything.
- Working propositionWP-01: A product becomes educational when its interaction changes what the learner must think about.Digital learning experiences
- Working propositionWP-02: Removing friction from an interface and removing difficulty from a learning task are different design operations.Digital learning products and the tasks inside them
- Working propositionWP-03: The unit of educational design should usually be larger than the digital artefact.Educational technology decisions in schools
- Working propositionWP-04: A scalable intervention must specify what may change as clearly as what must remain invariant.Interventions moving from pilot to many schools
- Working propositionWP-05: A group needs structures for independent thought before it can benefit fully from collective thought.Workshops, design reviews and decision meetings
- Working propositionWP-06: The usefulness of an educational metric decreases when the metric becomes a substitute for the construct it was meant to approximate.Measures used to judge learning products and programmes
- Working propositionWP-07: The most durable output of an innovation may be the capability the organisation develops while implementing it.Innovation projects in schools and education agencies
- QuestionWhat should a learner have to do, rather than merely see, inside a digital learning experience?A question I keep returning to.
- QuestionWhen does difficulty contribute to learning, and when is it simply poor design?A question I keep returning to.
- QuestionWhat can be standardised without suppressing professional judgement?A question I keep returning to.
- QuestionWhat should educational technology optimise for if engagement is not learning?A question I keep returning to.
- QuestionWhen does personalisation increase agency, and when does it remove productive choice?A question I keep returning to.
- QuestionWhat counts as convincing evidence that learning has changed?A question I keep returning to.
- QuestionWhich behaviours are meaningful signals, and which are merely convenient to measure?A question I keep returning to.
- QuestionHow can a system learn from local variation without eliminating that variation prematurely?A question I keep returning to.
- QuestionWhat happens when a good intervention enters a system that changes it?A question I keep returning to.
- QuestionWhat should remain after an innovation has disappeared?A question I keep returning to.
- QuestionWhich decisions should AI make, which should it support, and which should remain deliberately human?A question I keep returning to.
- QuestionWhat should education make scarce when information and generated answers become abundant?A question I keep returning to.
- QuestionUnder what conditions does adding more people improve a decision?A question I keep returning to.
- QuestionHow should disagreement be designed rather than merely encouraged?A question I keep returning to.
- CounterpositionEngagement is evidence of learningEngagement is a condition for learning, not a measure of it.
- CounterpositionGood UX removes frictionRemove the friction in the interface. Keep the difficulty in the material.
- CounterpositionFlexible furniture creates flexible learningMovable tables make regrouping cheaper. A routine is what makes it happen.
- CounterpositionEmpathy is user researchEmpathy motivates research. It does not replace observation.
- CounterpositionDesign thinking is a five-step processThe five modes are a teaching scaffold. The work is framing the problem.
- CounterpositionPersonalisation is inherently learner-centredPersonalisation serves learners when it adapts to what they know, not to what they prefer.
- CounterpositionInnovation should be novelAn innovation is new to its setting and better there. Novelty in the world is optional.
- CounterpositionDashboards create visibilityA dashboard shows what was measured. Visibility needs a question and an action.
- CounterpositionBest practice transfers across contextsA practice travels when the conditions that made it work travel with it.
- CounterpositionProfessional development changes practiceTraining changes practice when it continues into the classroom.
- CounterpositionSuccessful pilots should be replicated faithfullyScale the load-bearing parts faithfully. Let the rest adapt, on purpose.
- Practice caseWhen ease of use is not ease of learningHow might we reduce unnecessary interface friction without removing the cognitive effort that contributes to learning? In preparation.
- Practice caseDesigning the room around the learningA learning environment designed from the activity outward, rather than from the furniture inward. In preparation.
- Practice caseFrom educational principle to usable resourceWhat a principle has to become before a teacher can use it on a Monday. In preparation.
- Practice caseWhy a good intervention changes when it scalesWhat happened to a working idea once many schools began to adapt it. In preparation.
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