Collaboration & Experience Design
Purpose-driven collaborative processes, meetings, & facilitation to convene colleagues and produce concrete outcomes.
At the heart of our work is the belief that we can collaboratively bring about positive change in and through learning – and do so in a way that supports and energizes the people involved. Virtual meetings can be useful and fulfilling (and even fun!). Committee work can be both productive and meaningful. It’s possible to create space for a plethora of community ideas and focus to get something done.
Check out the examples below and contact us to explore how we can make your collaborative projects easier, more productive, and more enjoyable.
Driving K-12 Innovation with a 140+ Advisory Board
I’ve had the joy of facilitating this process for the past four years as the project director for CoSN’s Driving K-12 Innovation initiative. Each year, CoSN convenes an Advisory Board of international educators, technologists, and changemakers to identify key opportunities for innovation and enable action around them. My team and I, with support from CoSN staff, guide the Advisory Board members through a survey and discussion process to identify the the top barriers, catalysts, and tech tools for driving innovation in K-12 for the coming year and produce a robust, action-oriented report. This involves discussion design and facilitation (both live and asynchronously), regular communication, graphic facilitation, data analysis, storytelling, and graphic design.
The project culminates in a 2-hour virtual summit designed to inform, inspire, and connect education changemakers around the new report . Facilitated by the PumpkinBerry team, the event event features a playful theme, expert speakers, and time set aside for attendees to meet in small groups or listen to bonus speakers (their choice!). This energizing gathering celebrates the persistence and hard work of people innovating in K-12 schools and districts every day – and equips them with tools and inspiration to continue their important work.
What do stakeholders say?
“You did a great job orchestrating the process, completing the report, and on today’s meeting. It’s a pleasure to advise when everything is so well organized and run. Congratulations on reaching the end of the triathlon, even though we know it just marks the start of the implantation marathon.”
Glenn Kleiman
Senior Advisor, Stanford Accelerator for Learning,
Stanford University Graduate School of Education
“Congratulations on the fabulous job you and your team did in creating and leading today's Driving K-12 Innovation Summit. Your strategies for keeping well over 100 participants engaged and participating was amazing. And, the work you lead in putting together the annual Driving K-12 Innovation Report is appreciated more than you can know.”
Ann McMullan
Project Director, CoSN’s EmpowerED Superintendents Initiative
STARTALK E-SCAPE Virtual Escape Rooms
Whether you’re working with teammates, students, or community members, we all want our stakeholders to be engaged in – and enjoy – the work we do together. Play is awesome for learning and community engagement and escape rooms are one interesting tool in our toolbox!
It was a delight to work with the Online Learning Consortium to design, build, and illustrate three virtual escape rooms to spark students’ passion for learning critical languages (plus a course and toolkit for educators). Creating the STARTALK E-SCAPE escape rooms required intentional, collaborative design by a team of creatives, language experts, instructional designers, and technologists working mostly asynchronously. I was involved in structure, story, and puzzle design, project management, goal alignment, technical build, and illustration.
The team also designed and hosted two conference sessions at OLC Accelerate 2023 to help educators interested in leveraging escape rooms for learning.
Interested in exploring escape rooms more?
Check out this free playbook
(authored by project team members Colette Chelf, Bucky Dodd, Laura Geringer, Cody House, & Madeline Shellgren)Dive deeper with the STARTALK E-SCAPE Teacher Resources (free)
Contact Laura at PumpkinBerry to discuss how an escape room might support your educational and stakeholder engagement goals.
