#AK12DC = The Atlanta K-12 Design Challenge
The Atlanta K-12 Design Challenge lives as a collaboration among 11 Atlanta schools – half of them independent in governance structure and half of them part of the Fulton Co. public-charter system. The original grant proposal leapt from a jumping-off point of believing that public and private schools in Atlanta could partner as an innovation nucleus to amplify the trajectory of powerful educational transformation for ALL Atlanta schools.
Through generous funding from the Howard R. Dobbs Foundation and an operational collaboration precipitated by The Center for Teaching and bolstered by connections with Stanford University’s d.School, this inter-school workforce (read “dream team”) is employing design thinking to explore the needs of educational users and to expand the power of iterative prototyping to enhance learning for virtually countless people throughout Atlanta.
The Summit
On Friday and Saturday of this week (March 21-22), the 11 schools gathered as a whole cohort for a second time (the first time was January 14). This mid-stream design summit provided time and opportunity for schools to advance the empathy gathering they’ve been doing at their schools by defining their challenges, developing their POV (Point of View) statements, and iteratively prototyping solutions for the needs of a particular user they met during their initial discovery immersion.
Below are a few links that provide windows into the work accomplished on Friday and Saturday, March 21-22.
What’s Next?
The next stage (“Stage 2”) involves continuing the school-based work through further testing and iterating of prototypes, implementing emerging solutions, and transforming practices.
Stay tuned. It’s exciting times in Atlanta education!
Windows:
- The Atlanta K-12 Design Challenge Site
- #AK12DC “Tick Tock v1”
- #AK12DC Design Summit Week Twitter Archive
- #AK12DC Tweet Archive #MVPSchool Specific
- (Photo)Snaps of the 2-Day #AK12DC Design Summit (from @SciTechyEdu)
- Storytelling at Ak12DC Summit (from @centerteach)
- “Atlanta K12 Design Challenge Forging Ahead” (blog post from @centerteach)
- “Follow Ground-Breaking Team of 11 Atlanta Schools Re-Designing How We ‘Do’ School” (blog post from @grantlichtman)
it's about learning 
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Thanks for aggregating these resources Bo and for promoting our collaboration with the 11 schools and 85 teachers. It was a fabulous event that will now lead to further work on the part of each school’s Design Team and Atlanta K12 Design Challenge to support each and every team.
Bob