Off the Rails Episode 78: What color is your Volvo?

Recorded December 8, 2023

Today’s news is a summary of the Geometry of Learning research project from friend of the show, Dr. Jon Dorbolo, about teaching in round classrooms. Done well, these are fantastic learning spaces with untold opportunity. Done poorly, they are technology-driven failures. Those two outcomes are not mutually exclusive.

Then, we attempted to discuss how to document projects so that external contracted integrators deliver what we need, regardless of who is providing the design and programming. We really didn’t get anywhere and the conversation devolved into an almost-argument with one side simply repeating that they have it all figured out and the other swearing in frustration. It was… weird. We’ll have to return to this project, but if you have suggestions for ironclad language to ensure what is delivered meets project specifications, we’d love to hear it.

Finally, we all summarize 2023 with an item that surprised us. For some, it was poorly conceptualized room systems, for others it was a return to building wide (or campus wide) AV systems, and at least one of us was pleasantly surprised by our own internal team’s skillset.

Article discussed: https://er.educause.edu/articles/2023/12/collaboration-for-teaching-and-learning-in-the-round

Attend NWMET in March 2024: https://www.nwmet.org

Alternate show titles:

• Does it work, does it help?

• Does it do what you want it to do?

• Well-choreographed

• Success 10 years ago is not success now

• What’s easy for them to do is not what’s correct to do

• Soup to nuts

• Knowledge labor and manual labor

• Limited amount of knowledge workers

• Island unicorns

• It’s just another layer on top of this BS

• Repeat, rinse until you get what you want

• It doesn’t matter if it’s useful stuff, but it’s “stuff”

• You have to think about the culture here

• Flex our manpower