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RESOURCE COLLECTIONS
GRAPHIC RESOURCES
APPS & DIGITAL FORMATS
VIDEOS (also in YouTube channel)
All videos have optional captions in YouTube.
Short intros and longer workshops from Ela Ben-Ur
Short stories people contributed from homes, schools, workplaces, and communities (in that order)
AUDIO
INTERVIEW FOR LINKED UP BREAKING BOUNDARIES IN EDUCATION Podcast
Kim, Manuel, and I recap our SXSW EDU 2023 session (social-emotional learning + visual thinking + Innovators' Compass) on the LinkedUp podcast (this YouTube video has links to all video and podcast platforms in the notes).
INTERVIEW FOR Transformative Learning Experiences Podcast (SPOTIFY or Apple):
In this November 2022 podcast, I joined Michael and Donna Dawson sharing their incredible program, Innovators for Purpose (iFp), with host Kyle Wagner. iFp equips teens with Innovators’ Compass and many other tools to create positive impact in the world.
INTERVIEW FOR THE LEADERSHIP TALES PODCAST WITH ELA BEN-UR
In this fun May 2022 interview, Colin Hunter, CEO of PotentialSquared, asks me about human-centered leadership.
INTERVIEW FOR GET A CUE PODCAST WITH ELA BEN-UR
In this September 2020 interview for the Massachusetts Computer-Using Educators (MASSCUE) podcast, Brandon Hall is an engaging interviewer—and a great sport, as he jumps into a compass about a challenge the golf team he coaches was experiencing.
interview for inclusive technology for all PODCAST with Hillary goldthwait-Fowles
Mike Marotta interviews Hillary Goldthwait-Fowles just after a July 2019 workshop they’ve done together on Inclusive Technology and Universal Design For Learning using Innovators’ Compass, in conjunction with the SETT framework. Transcript here.
INTERVIEW FOR DESIGN THINKING 101 PODCAST With ela ben-ur
Dawan Stanford, Director of Design Thinking at Elon University and I talk about making Design Thinking accessible in March 2018.
INTERVIEW FOR PODCAST JOURNEYS with ela ben-ur
Bogata-based educator Chris Davis got curious at the end of SXSW Edu in March 2017 about the background of design thinking and my work, and asked me to sit and chat with him for his podcast. Note: the sound dramatically improves at 16:08.
INTERVIEW FOR RESULTS MAY VARY PODCAst with ela ben-ur
Recorded in August 2015 for their Results May Vary podcast about what would happen if we used Design Thinking in our daily lives, Tracy Deluca and Chris Waugh ask great questions about the development of the compass. While it has evolved considerably since, the discussion is great and the core questions still hold.
WRITING
By Ela Ben-Ur
Final chapter of Taking Design Thinking to school
I'm honored to have the last chapter "Developing Portable, Powerful Design Thinking: The Innovators' Compass" in the book Taking Design Thinking To School edited by Shelley Goldman and Zaza Kabayadondo of Stanford University’s Research in Education and Design Lab (Routledge, November 2016). I can't post it here, but will happily send you a copy.
MURAL.CO BLOG POST: WORK THROUGH ANY PROBLEM
Short blog post with practical tips, written for the design collaboration platform Mural.co (online sticky notes!), which offers the Compass as one of its framework templates (along with Business Model Canvass, Empathy Maps, and others).
UP WITH COMMUNITY PASSION PROJECT INTERVIEW
In response to Nicola Chin's thoughtful questions, including: Tell me about your passion project? Who's shoulders are you standing on? Your greatest learning? Challenge? Fear? Risk? Fun? How are you organizing people for this project?
HIGH SCHOOL and COLLEGE Course descriptions & CURRICULA
More details and materials around Compass-based courses: Caroline Meeks’ high school app design course; my design-your-life course at Olin College; and my with-an-older-adult course with anthropologist Caitrin Lynch at Olin College (for which Olin has made an incredible curriculum-share site).
KIDS BOOKS at INNOVATORSCOMPASS.ORG/KIDS
Written with my daughters during COVID lockdown! The Unsticker Sisters and the Battle of the Bricks storybook (the start of a series!) and 5 Questions That Get Us Unstuck. Available as PDFs and video readalouds.
By Others:
Tara Martin's chapter about the Compass in her book Be REAL: Educate from the Heart
Tara Martin's wonderful book about using our human technology to educate includes a chapter about how she adapted and used the Compass to understand and support educators when she began as an administrator. She’s also blogged and tweeted about it extensively. Thank you for educating from the heart, Tara, and enabling people to do so—including with Innovators' Compass!
NAOMI HARM’S SECTION ABOUT THE COMPASS IN HER BOOK THE UNIQUE INDIVIDUAL YOU
Naomi writes about using Innovators’ Compass to as a leader to “navigate my visionary roadmap and overcome the hiccups, bumps, and struggles that are thrown at me unexpectedly.”
TOM VANDER ARK & EMILY LEIBTAG’S STORY IN THEIR BOOK DIFFERENCE MAKING AT THE HEART OF LEARNING
The authors celebrate the Design Thinking Academy at Grand Valley State University (GVSU), director David Coffey, and their use of Innovators’ Compass to for “creative problem solving in ‘high impact activities’ that contribute to social, civic, and business innovation.”
KAYLAH HOLLAND’s SECTION ABOUT THE COMPASS IN HER BOOK, PUTTING OUT FIRES
Kaylah Holland featured Innovators’ Compass in Chapter 3, “People at the Center” as a way to see design thinking as a journey, and tangibly keep people at the center of it.
MICHAEL HERNANDEZ’ SECTION ABOUT THE COMPASS IN HIS BOOK, STORYTELLING WITH PURPOSE
Michael writes about using Innovators' Compass for "any stage of the storytelling process" to tune into one's audience, generate ideas, and align goals.
DAVID AND KATHRYN COFFEY’S EBOOK DESIGNING MATH ADVENTURES
Dave and Kathy are treasure troves of engaging teaching ideas. Through seven teachers' stories, they offer the Compass, other design tools, and research to jumpstart and unstick K-8 math lesson planning.
TOM VANDER ARK & Justin AGLIO for EDUCATION WEEK & GETTING SMART: COMPASS QUICK-START
I’m honored and grateful that Tom VanderArk and Justin Aglio posted this lovely, short overview in Education Week and Getting Smart—sharing the Compass with many new educators!
DAVID COFFEY FOR GETTING SMART: ENABLING STUDENT CHANGE-MAKERS
David Coffey writes about using the Compass in the Design Thinking Academy he leads at Grand Valley State University to enable student change-makers on campus and in the community. One event—a workshop with the university President to envision the future of the university—is captured by the school newspaper here, and its outcomes here.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR COVER ARTICLE: COPING IN COLLEGE
Stacie Hagenbaugh’s “life design” work with Smith College students is profiled, including her use of an adapted Innovators’ Compass. While we wish they kept her careful attribution, it’s a lovely piece.
Jessica bacal in the Boston globe: managING job uncertaintY, Ambiguity & disruption
Jessica calls out Innovators’ Compass—and looking for new who, what, when, where, or how in our career—in part 5: Think Iteratively.
CHELSEA RIDGE & SUE LENARD FOR MSTA Links: Using The Innovators’ Compass to Help Middle School Students Energize Our World
Chelsea, Sue, Ginger Rowher, and David Coffey iterated a summer camp for middle-schoolers to be scaffolded on Innovators’ Compass—from community observations to experimental prototypes and a “shark tank” review with professionals.
GARRET MASON’S CORPS AFRICA FIELD GUIDE (EXCERPT on Innovators’ Compass)
“A collection of the most important tools and strategies to help volunteers catalyze and facilitate community building, empowerment, and action.” Garrett uses Compass as a tool, and to organize other tools, in Human-Centered Design (primarily), Asset-Based Community Development, Human-Centered Design, and Facilitation. Reach out to him for the full guide or to discuss his experiences. More from him and volunteers in videos above.
CORPSAFRICA CASE STUDIES
Samuel Kibebe, a CorpsAfrica volunteer, shared this remarkable, detailed case study about a community in Kenya that used the Compass and a lot of creativity on a cascade of challenges in establishing kitchen gardens to make fresh food accessible to families. Martin Twesigye, a Ugandan CorpsAfrica volunteer, shared this story with schoolchildren. More case studies from Kenya and Malawi briefly mentioning the Compass are here, here, here, here, and here.
OLIN COLLEGE “THE WIRE”: INNOVATORS’ COMPASS AT SXSWEdu 2018
Anne-Marie Dorning wrote about Innovators’ Compass and its impact at SXSW EDU for the Olin College news channel.
TANYA AVRITH FOR ADOBE SPARK: STUDENT VOICE SUMMIT
Tanya calls out Innovators’ Compass as one of the main takeaways in the Adobe Spark/Flipgrid Student Voice Summit, for building a culture of empathy.
BARBARA SOLOW FOR SMITH COLLEGE NEWS: DESIGNING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE ON CAMPUS
Student teams in Emily Norton’s program use Innovators’ Compass to discover and prototype ideas for improving life at Smith College ranging from student self-care kits to a speaker series about life after Smith.
Dan ryder on MEDIUM: DESIGN FOR BOOK CHARACTERS
Dan's Medium piece highlighting a project he did with his English students using the Compass that bridged English and Engineering to design for characters' needs in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
ERIN QUINN on MEDIUM: CREATING CLASSROOM CULTURE
Erin Quinn's medium piece about working with a class to use the Compass, alongside other wonderful tools, to design their own, inclusive, culture.
ARI YARES’ BLOG: DESIGNING FAMILY MORNINGS
Psychologist and administrator Ari Yares wrote about the Compass to help his family co-design a way through the chaos of family mornings and lunch packing.
HILLARY GOLDTHWAIT-FOWLES’ BLOG POST ON INNOVATORS’ COMPASS
Assistive technology coach Hillary Goldthwait-Fowles shares her and other educators’ experiences with the Compass, along with the experiences of participants she helped co-facilitate at the Bates College May Conference 2018.
Trang Trem of Fulbright University Vietnam: DESIGN FOR AGING IMMERSION
Trang Trem was part of a 1-week version of an Innovators’ Compass-based course at Olin, which Caitrin Lynch and I recreated for students and professors at Fulbright University Vietnam. Her writing about the experience in Fulbright’s blog deeply inspired us.
TEACHING, COACHING AND SPEAKING
The mission of this work is for it to be able to pass from person to person, without training.
That said, a little contact goes a long way when we’re learning and deepening anything new. Please reach out about pay-what-you can webinars and coaching, or in-person workshops and speaking—which are what pay for all the no-cost resources I make available.
LICENSING
INNOVATORS' COMPASS® is a registered trademark and service mark owned by Ela Ben-Ur. The content of this website is protected by copyright.
Many years have gone into the tools shown here so people can use them to make a difference. These tools are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. You may use, copy, and modify the tools for your own use and not for resale, provided that you:
1. Label them with “InnovatorsCompass.org” clearly—beside and of similar size to any other label, inseparable from the graphic. If using Innovators’ Compass verbally, give this full attribution right away.
Do this every time you use/show/share/adapt these materials in any way, and note if it's an adaptation. When you share the original unmodified tools, keep or reproduce my copyright notice and trademark, INNOVATORS' COMPASS®, on each copy.
2. Share back your uses and experiences either by tweet to #innovatorscompass or email to ela@innovatorscompass.org for me and perhaps others to learn from.
3. Remind others to do the two things above.
Please use these tools to make anything better, including the work you are paid to do—just do the 3 things above. If you’re considering being paid specifically for teaching/using this tool, please reach out and talk to me.