Steal Our Model!

Instructions for adapting an old lesson plan into a learner-directed workshop where the only materials needed are participants' mobile devices.

How to craft a Play Anywhere workshop

Find a frequently-used presentation you expect to use often in the future. (Co-op 101, board trainings, train-the-trainer, whatever.)
Critique your previous learning outcomes: How did your old presentation succeed and fail to meet those outcomes? What critical or experiential outcomes need to be emphasized? (e.g. Unlearning, contrasting point of views, empowerment and fostering civic participation)
On a piece of paper or a digital whiteboard, draw a simple outline for what your presentation might look like on a long, single page website.
We’ve all seen thousands of webpages. Trust your gut. You know how to mix visuals and text to get an idea across. Include only the most functional graphics from any slide shows you used in the past. Stuck? Try our learning model canvas.
Turn as many statements into questions as you can. Which questions stand out as the discussion prompts with the most promise?
Consider what a class facilitator would need to know. Consider whether any other facilitative roles are needed, like a time-keeper or scribe. Write instructions for those roles.
Trim the fat in the “content” and make space for social activities. Consider pre-work, self-directed assignments or other techniques for ensuring that time together is spent on applied learning and socialization. Browse the toolkit for examples of ice-breaking and team-building activities that align with your learning outcomes.
Double-check that you are following the foundations of experiential education such as a Kolb cycle, an adventure wave and lots of time for debriefing.
Trim the fat again! You don’t want participants spending most of the workshop with their heads down, reading on their devices. You want lots of human engagement.
Pick a simple, ideally free, platform for making a webpage: GitBook, Google Sites, WordPress - whatever. Move your ideas onto the webpage.
Optionally, add features that may help facilitate your workshop. I found that “accordion” boxes or toggles were essential. They allowed me to hide instructions from some participants and set up important surprises.

Experiential Critical Pedagogy Canvas (ECPC)

We have tried to make experiential lesson planning even easier with this "easy peasy" tool. Download, print, and adapt it here:

Other Techniques to Complement this Approach

A Play Anywhere workshop is a learner-directed experience where becoming activated and involved in cooperative development is the most important learning outcome. This model can be applied to any subject matter, but we believe it is most effective for lessons that align with mutualism, self-determination, high trust relationships, and emphasizing our innate human potential.

A Leveled-Up Experience

A Conventional Classroom

Learner-directed

Teacher-directed

Low retention portions of the learning pyramid (lecture, reading, watching)

Focus on skills

Focus on information

Live, emergent and experiential

Scripted lecture, not interactive

Smartphones as learning tools

Smartphones as classroom distractions

Classroom ownership is designed intentionally to foster empowerment

Conventional classroom ownership undermines empowerment

Genuine choice (scenarios where students are likely to share different opinions and disagree with one another)

Superficial choice (scenarios like "what should we all have for lunch?")

Cognitive and affective outcomes (learners gain new attitudes, self-beliefs and values)

Cognitive outcomes

Community building as a natural learning outcome

Learning that does not generate community

Learning outcomes are focused on increasing interest and independent study

Learning outcomes are focused on what the teacher decides is important

Flipped classroom (brief homework primes students for learning)

In-depth homework serves as an assessment after learning

Debrief discussion (self-assessment)

Tests & quizzes at the end, when it is too late for meaningful feedback

Portable, open source curriculum (easily duplicated and modified)

Proprietary and/or mixed media (slides, handouts, and source material that is difficult to distribute as a package)

Last updated 6 months ago

How to craft a Play Anywhere workshop

Find a frequently-used presentation you expect to use often in the future. (Co-op 101, board trainings, train-the-trainer, whatever.)

Critique your previous learning outcomes: How did your old presentation succeed and fail to meet those outcomes? What critical or experiential outcomes need to be emphasized? (e.g. Unlearning, contrasting point of views, empowerment and fostering civic participation)

On a piece of paper or a digital whiteboard, draw a simple outline for what your presentation might look like on a long, single page website.

We’ve all seen thousands of webpages. Trust your gut. You know how to mix visuals and text to get an idea across. Include only the most functional graphics from any slide shows you used in the past. Stuck? Try our learning model canvas.

Turn as many statements into questions as you can. Which questions stand out as the discussion prompts with the most promise?

Consider what a class facilitator would need to know. Consider whether any other facilitative roles are needed, like a time-keeper or scribe. Write instructions for those roles.

Trim the fat in the “content” and make space for social activities. Consider pre-work, self-directed assignments or other techniques for ensuring that time together is spent on applied learning and socialization. Browse the toolkit for examples of ice-breaking and team-building activities that align with your learning outcomes.

Double-check that you are following the foundations of experiential education such as a Kolb cycle, an adventure wave and lots of time for debriefing.

Trim the fat again! You don’t want participants spending most of the workshop with their heads down, reading on their devices. You want lots of human engagement.

Pick a simple, ideally free, platform for making a webpage: GitBook, Google Sites, WordPress - whatever. Move your ideas onto the webpage.

Optionally, add features that may help facilitate your workshop. I found that “accordion” boxes or toggles were essential. They allowed me to hide instructions from some participants and set up important surprises.

Other Techniques to Complement this Approach

A Leveled-Up Experience

A Conventional Classroom

Learner-directed

Teacher-directed

High retention portions of the (practice and group discussion)

Low retention portions of the learning pyramid (lecture, reading, watching)

Focus on skills

Focus on information

Live, emergent and experiential

Scripted lecture, not interactive

Smartphones as learning tools

Smartphones as classroom distractions

Classroom ownership is designed intentionally to foster empowerment

Conventional classroom ownership undermines empowerment

Genuine choice (scenarios where students are likely to share different opinions and disagree with one another)

Superficial choice (scenarios like "what should we all have for lunch?")

Cognitive and affective outcomes (learners gain new attitudes, self-beliefs and values)

Cognitive outcomes

Community building as a natural learning outcome

Learning that does not generate community

Learning outcomes are focused on increasing interest and independent study

Learning outcomes are focused on what the teacher decides is important

Flipped classroom (brief homework primes students for learning)

In-depth homework serves as an assessment after learning

Debrief discussion (self-assessment)

Tests & quizzes at the end, when it is too late for meaningful feedback

Portable, open source curriculum (easily duplicated and modified)

Proprietary and/or mixed media (slides, handouts, and source material that is difficult to distribute as a package)