The Agile Professor - Creating an Agile Learning Environment for Classrooms and Schools

As we enter the 21st century with increasing levels of universal interdependencies, we need to provide tools to review and restructure educational systems. This is in order to provide a means for universal education. One of the means that would contribute to this process is the Agile method used in software development. This is partly because the Agile concepts are relatively straight forward, and in large part allow for continuous change to be integrated into a planning process.

Whatever measurement we finally use to frame an educational system it needs to provide for an increase in the capacities of the individual in an evolving relationship to those around themselves.

Structures of education vary across economic and social strata and from one nation state to another. Analysis of this variety is not always helpful in terms of developing models for success. In a sense what is measured is often more of the same, that is, one educational model in terms of another. Instead it may be helpful to measure educational systems against models that are not so specifically focused on educational objectives. Measuring against mechanical or factory methods may be useful in some respects and measuring against organic and ecological processes may be useful in other respects.

An Agile methodology is not usually understood as related to an educational process. Rather, the Agile methods are applied to organizational structures usually in terms of some aspect of software development. However, along with creating a system for getting work done, there is an inherent learning structure that comes along with Agile methods. This learning is in terms of teamwork that is independent from the project requirements. Within this team development learning occurs in a variety of ways and at levels that we are not used to measuring. While efficiency is measured in terms of the time it takes to get work completed and passing tests, the learning related to team work may not be so easy to get a grip on even if it is deeply felt.

Agile methods can be used for developing a learning environment that evolves as it is applied to large or small-scale projects. Certainly, alternative processes for a whole or universal system of education are difficult to entertain without the weight of past experience imposing serious and well-intended limits and constraints on the development of that process. The last hundred years show how difficult it is to break out of any particular system and view it from a new angle. Traditions with cultural habits and current knowledge with very rich detail to draw upon both present resistances to change.

The current acceleration of climate change in itself presents an inescapable and urgent requirement for change of educational systems. The simple fact is that universal education presents an exponential increase in human resources that are ultimately the means for an intelligent evolution of global action. If Agile methods will help in that intelligent evolution why not use them?

[Note from Mishkin: This video underscores the need for dynamic or agile educational systems: http://dotsub.com/films/didyouknow20/]

The last entry outlined a relationship between the backlog and learning in the context of course work. Further to that consultation our team ranked the ten projects in terms of which ones provided the most learning for them as individuals.

We had ten projects so the number ten was given to the project with the most learning and the number one for the one with the least learning. The three that ended up at the bottom of the rankings were then discussed. The discussion centered on how these projects could be improved to become more useful as learning experiences.

The discussion proved to be valuable as students brought features of their norms of engagement to light. In effect they were engaged in “pulling” and shaping the course work for the next group of students.

As planning is a developmental and strategic part of the learning circle these contributions from students give insights into how the backlog can be used in contributing to each part of the learning circle. Action, reflection, learning and planning as an integrated process provides more focus as the team participates in consultations that concern both the backlog and the sprint backlog.

Symbiotic Learning between the team and the individual.

After being with Mishkin for a three day Scrum training I saw the possibility of using the backlog as a model for a review of coursework. As the instructor or product owner of the course I bring to the class a backlog of requirements. When the class acts as a team they can be seen as participating in a series of sprints that make up a project. The project is the completed course.

This is an outline of steps taken to try out that possibility.

The first step was to arrange seating around a table long enough for each person to be seated comfortably with writing materials. This is comparable to a collocated team.

The second step was to outline the purpose of the session as the learning part modeled by the Learning Circle. The Learning Circle presents a sequence of Action, Reflection, Learning, and Planning carried out in terms of guidance.

http://www.agileadvice.com/archives/2006/04/connecting_voca.html

The Action part of the Learning Circle can be compared to the sprint activities and the Reflection part of the learning circle is comparable to the demo and retrospective in the sprint.

The third step was to have the team list each of the main elements that were worked on in the class through the semester. There were ten Media Activities, ten Movies analyzed, and six Handouts. Each of these elements could be compared to a sprint.

The fourth step was to have each person spend between one and two minutes to write what he or she had learned from the first of these elements. After finishing the writing in this time-boxed manner these thoughts were shared with the group. This simple process was used for each of the twenty-six elements that composed the main features of the course work in the semester.

The fifth step was to remind the individuals to take notes and to recognize the learning that is acquired through having the team focus however briefly on the whole of the course in terms of each of the main elements. This is to indicate the symbiotic relationship between the individual and the team.

There was excellent feedback from students after this exercise.

It may be that after a demo and a retrospective the team would benefit from such an activity as outlined above in order to make what was learned more evident to each individual, including the product owner and Scrum Master. This kind of review of each of the pieces of a backlog would take some time when applied in terms of either a finished sprint of a completed project. The results would be of benefit to the team as they advance into the next sprint or whole project with increased understanding of each other and the work.

NEXT: a mapping of the Learning Circle and a sprint/project.