We are keen to work on partnership projects that align with our focus on community-driven, ethical and sustainable approaches to education and technology.
Research Partnerships
We collaborate flexibly with academic institutions and other partners through community-focused, ethical and sustainable approaches to education and technology. Our work in this area includes:
- Academic and exploratory collaborations: Open-ended research and creative development with universities, local government and other institutions, including learning design, pilot project facilitation and documentation.
- Learning design and facilitation: Support for designing and delivering educational experiences, workshops and courses, with a focus on informal education, inclusion, neurodiversity and playful approaches.
- Open Educational Resource (OER) creation: Project-based learning kits developed for community and educational use. See more details below.
Partnership case studies
- Manchester Metropolitan University (RISE programme) – co-created OER on systems thinking and physical computing and supported outreach activities.
- Northern Broadsides – campaign support and installations for end-of-project events.
Lead: Mick Chesterman
Facilitation and training
Our experience in diverse forms of education and community based projects has involved exploring and integrating varied forms of facilitation and training techniques.
In terms of providing training for other educators we are able to work with your organisation to identify your needs and provide a bespoke training programme for your educators. We can draw on our existing training materials and adapt them to your needs and leave your organisation with a carefully tailored project toolkits.
Regarding facilitation more broadly, while not part of our core offer we can lead or support the facilitation of creative workshops with external participants where our subject knowledge or informal approaches are relevant.
Lead: Steve Summers
Outreach
One of our key strengths is connecting with audiences of varied backgrounds and within diverse settings.
We deliver outreach events and interactive activities to engage communities.
We also provide consultancy on designing collaborative outreach strategies for contexts where direct engagement is not practical.
- Examples of recent work:
- Northern Broadsides – campaign support and installations for end-of-project events.
Lead: Steve Summers
Resource Production
Lead: Mick Chesterman
Summary of service area: We can support you with:
- Creating Open Educational Resources in accessible digital and printed formats.
- Facilitating collaborative resource writing.
- Developing and training partners in the creation and use of video-based materials.
The FLOSS Manuals documentation project has given us a solid basis for creating open educational resources in a diversity of formats and for varied audiences.
One of the key challenges of supporting documentation in partnership work is to find ways of bringing out, discussing and then recording the knowledge and working practices held by your team. Our workshop-based facilitation techniques help this process.
Another challenge of documentation for informal learning processes how to support a learner-led process within often linear help resource formats (like manuals). We find web-based documentation, based on an an accessible menu of choices is often effective in resolving this tension. We can help you identify and plan an approach that support on flexible learner pathways.
While the format of resources created will vary depending on the needs of the project the following two levels of production value can help guide discussion.
Prototype OER format
Lightweight draft resources suitable for small teams / short projects or for testing and future development iteration. Typically delivered as online and printable word documents, and quickly produced video explainer content.
Example: Documentations for Battle Buggies created by Steve Summers for Noisy Toys.
Professional OER format
Co-developed, evaluated and polished online and printable resources for wider distribution and external partnerships.
Example: Game Making resources created for the 3M Pedagogy as part of Mick Chesterman’s PhD thesis and practice.
Contact Us
Please do get in touch if you want our help or want to discuss anything related to the services on this page.
WEBFORM / EMAIL.