A lot is stuck right now.
5 questions help us be unstick-ers.
Quick start and stories
Innovators’ Compass is 5 common questions that get us unstuck—from everyday decisions and conflicts, to planning and leadership.
One short walkthrough: Designing COVID19-Downtime with kids
Below are some 1-3 minute videos & tools for common situations in our work/home/school COVID-19 life, in-person or remote.
All videos have subtitles you can turn on in YouTube, and are on this channel.
Work videos
SXSW EDU 2020 WORKSHOP: DESIGNING WITH ALL VOICES
In this workshop you’ll identify a voice that isn’t, but should be, a part of designing what happens in your school, class, organization, or community, understanding why that might be, and considering how to raise that voice. You’ll leave with productive questions and new perspective. By Manjula Karamcheti, David Coffey, and Ela Ben-Ur.
UNSTICKING LIFE (WORK-LIFE BALANCE)
Highlights from the full video as entrepreneur and leadership professional Caustan De Riggs uses Innovators' Compass to explore ways to support his creative work along with his sleep and wellness.
ONLINE PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION AND WORKSHOPS
Audrey O'Clair shares her use of the Innovators' Compass online app, icompass.me, for teachers to collaborate and apply their learning during professional development.
PRODUCT DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
At a cafe in Boston’s Innovation District, Kyle Savage talks about using Innovators' Compass in a digital product development firm—to offer a usable approach to design for the team, scaffold client meetings and engagement, and support creativity.
CONVENING/CONFERENCES AROUND CHALLENGES
People using Innovators' Compass—5 questions that unstick us—at the US and California Conferences on AIDS, and the Front End of Innovation Conference.
School videos
SHARE OBSERVATIONS AND IDEAS ABOUT TEACHING STEM IN COVID TIMES
A short intro with Valeria Rodriguez's stories using the Compass from STEM to SEL to staff meetings. Then participants around the world created a shared icompass.me about teaching STEM in COVID times. For the National Science Teachers Association 2020 Forum.
STUDENTS AND STAFF UNSTUCK
A powerful overview of students’ project-based learning and navigating personal, team, classroom, and community challenges, and staff designing experiences, at Nashoba Regional High School in Bolton, MA by Taryn Grigas, Melissa Foley-Procko and Mary Marotta.
SCIENCE PROJECT & PARENT-TEACHER COMPASSES
Miami teacher Valeria Rodriguez shows two Innovators' Compass templates she created: a Google Slides one for students' science projects, and a hand-drawn one for collaborative conversations with parents at conference time.
CO-CREATING CLASSROOM CULTURE
Erin Quinn is a middle school educator in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, whose class was "homeless" for half a year until their new school was built. She shows and tells how she used Innovators' Compass with her class, in conjunction with other Design Thinking tools, to enable them to design their own class "space" and culture despite this.
STUDENT PROJECTS AND SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING + PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Catherine Stines and colleagues at the Darrow School use Innovators' Compass—5 questions that unstick us—for student projects and social-emotional learning; staff collaboration; and in professional development conferences.
COLLABORATING ON VISION & CHALLENGES
Dawn McWilliams and Mitch Davison, Principal and Assistant Principal of an Elementary charter school in Aurora, CO, walk through Compasses made by their teachers to collaborate on school culture topics.
Home & kids crisis/conflicts videos
DESIGNING DOWNTIME WITH KIDS (COVID-19)
Ela using the Compass with her girls to design COVID-19 downtime together.
PROCESSING CURRENT EVENTS (HURRICANE IRMA)
Science teacher Valeria Rodriguez invited students to share Hurricane Irma experiences and design actions with Innovators' Compass.
KIDS RESOLVING CONFLICTS
Principal Dawn McWilliams invited students to resolve a playground challenge with their Innovators' Compass
Tools
Use <> at right for more
A lot is stuck right now.
Be an unstick-er.
Use these questions in any way that moves things forward.
Share as widely as you can (please cite innovatorscompass.org).
Share back your unstucks and experiences by tweet or email, so that many others may learn from them.
Please find more background and resources on this site, and reach out to ela@innovatorscompass.org—I’d love to hear and help!
