Since last year, AgileDT has been a project dedicated to promoting agile methodologies in education, especially in Vocational Education and Training (VET). The focus of the project is to promote creativity, collaboration and adaptability in both students and educators, with the aim of transforming classrooms into dynamic spaces for learning and innovation. Through a process based on design thinking, we aim to create solutions that enable students to do their best and ensure that the teaching-learning process has a significant impact both on their academic training and on the skills they develop as citizens.
The project involves schools from several countries and is led by the Learnovate Centre (Trinity College Dublin) in Ireland and supported by the University of Galway. The member schools are: EŠNM and SIC Brežice from Slovenia, AEVA and AES Serta from Portugal and CPR Daniel Castelao and CP Liceo La Paz form Spain.
In each leadership team from the participating countries, we created the DT Forces, made up of vocational education students and teachers. This year, the participating students began their training in Design Thinking, Sprint and Agile and Collaborative methodologies, culminating in a few days of face-to-face workshop in Aveiro, Portugal.
To prepare for the Aveiro sessions, our journey began virtually, with a series of online workshops designed to introduce and prepare students and teachers from different fields in VET (such as Digital Marketing, Finance, IT and more) to a new way of thinking and working.
During these sessions we explored practical tools such as Crazy 8, customer/user profile definition and interviews. The results of the series of activities using these techniques were essential in developing the basic principles of rapid prototyping. For example, we worked on problem definition using the “How Might We” method, user/client profiling using hypotheses and validation through short interviews, hybrid idea generation and rapid sketching using Crazy 8.
These activities built a strong foundation of knowledge and skills that eased the transition to collaborative face-to-face work.
It was at the face-to-face workshop in Aveiro that we finally had the chance to put into practice all that we had learned. During the event, students and teachers were challenged to identify problems and design innovative solutions in record time. The result was an explosion of creativity and collaboration, reflected in the first prototypes created by the participants themselves.
Throughout the workshop we used different dynamics to encourage reflection, agile decision-making and effective teamwork. Techniques such as the Idea Alphabet, Opposite Thinking, Brainstorm Cards and the Idea Shopping Cart were essential in enabling the DT forces to begin to develop solutions to the proposed challenge: “How can we create a new space in our school where students can collaborate on their own projects?”
It’s important to understand that we can’t just attack a problem head on; we need to define it, really understand our goals and choose the best way to find a solution from the many options available. This involves considering the context and, most importantly, the users.
This is where agile methodologies really shine, offering far more benefits than older approaches, such as the ‘waterfall’ methodologies common in IT. In these traditional methods, problem solving started on day one, and significant resources were committed for months until a solution was found – often only to discover that the solution wasn’t ideal.
Agile methodologies, on the other hand, provide iterative prototypes that allow us to refine and adapt solutions to better meet the needs of our users at every step of the process.
It was inspiring to see students and teachers overcoming challenges and taking ideas from paper to reality using simple yet powerful tools. In the images below you can see the initial proposals from the exercises that led to the creation of the first DT-forces prototype:
And finally, in less than an hour, they achieved one of their first milestones: the creation of a first prototype. Creativity knows no bounds, and teamwork gives it a powerful boost. As proof, we present the first prototypes developed by the DT forces, which show the diversity of ideas. They even created a short video to complement their work (visit our Instagram to check it out).
Don’t forget to have a look at the students’ excellent work on our social media channels.
What we experienced in Aveiro is a clear demonstration of the transformative potential of agile methodologies and user-centred collaborative creation processes such as Design Thinking in education. This experience confirms the importance of continuing to train and inspire educators so that these practices can spread and have a positive impact both inside and outside of the classroom.
We conclude this phase of the project with the certainty that we are on the right track. We thank all those who participated and contributed to the success of the Aveiro workshop, especially the students, and we invite more educational institutions to join this pedagogical revolution.
After all, the education of the future is being built today. We can transform every classroom into a space of change and opportunity by adopting agile methodologies and shifting mindsets towards a more innovative, collaborative, reflective and resilient approach.
Mónica Pérez Sueiro
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