I’ve seen this video a couple of times, really enjoy it and think it means something for education design.

What I find interesting about this are the following points:

• Take a mundane experience, and apply some creative thinking to make it new and fun.  As we think about designing learning experiences, can we take something that has become run-of-the-mill (boring) and reinvigorate it with this kind of thinking?  For example, mundane experiences in learning might be getting a reading list, or access to a list of other program participants, reading bios of faculty, traveling to a classroom-based event.  Could we connect the reading list to a mystery, or some kind of challenge?  Could we have participants comment on each others’ and faculty profiles?  Could we use the traveling time as an opportunity for participants to gather data?
• Question the conveniences we have put in place that allow us to be lazy, and offer a fun alternative that puts us back in the driver’s seat.   From a learning standpoint, and examining my own ‘lazy’ behavior, I’d say we have an opportunity to arrest the convenience of classroom-only delivery models, and apply greater discipline to how we can support learning over a natural span of time and contexts.  It’s entirely UNnatural to think that the unconscious incompetence to conscious competence (and behavior shift) can be accomplished inside of a classroom-only event.

Be brave, fellow educators!  Let’s find the way to turn the staircases of our designs into unusual and enjoyable experiences.

Related articles:  Purposeful Fun (elearnmag.org); Learning Spaces (e-book, Educause)