D.A. Freccia : You're a pretty smart fella.
Joe Moore : Ah, not that smart.
D.A. Freccia : If you're not that smart, how'd you figure it out?
Joe Moore: I tried to imagine a fella smarter than myself. Then I tried to think, "what would he do?”
Heist, 2001
I’ve always been enamored with heist flicks. The Great Train Robbery. The Score. The Thomas Crown Affair. Heist. These films feature character that engage in careful planning to design for various outcomes and interruptions in order to get away with the goods. As I became an educator, many of my best ideas came from taking the perspective for a mastermind in a heist movie. I became away of Canvas being used in my district ten or so years ago. At that point, they weren’t allowing elementary school teachers to use it so I had to petition the powers-that-be for a special permission. I hadn’t taken any classes on how to use the product, but I stumbled onto blog posts and forums discussing how one might use it. I then leaned heavily on my passion for heist flicks.
Why was I interested using the product?
What would my users gain by using this product as opposed to composition notebooks?
What did I know I needed to know? What was I unaware of?
What was the point?
Through trial and error and lots of jaunts through the internet, I became a competent user of Canvas. I learned that as long as I knew what my goal was, I was smart enough to make Canvas do what I wanted it to do. I didn’t need to take the time to “master” Canvas. I wanted to exploit it. If you’re interested in starring in your own heist flick continue, if you’re looking to learn how to “use” Canvas turn back.
Everything Begins at Inception
Eames: Listen, if you’re going to perform inception you need imagination.
Dom Cobb: Let me ask you something, have you done it before?
Eames: We tried it. We got the idea in place, but it didn’t take.
Dom Cobb: You didn’t plant it deep enough?
Eames: Well, it’s not about depth. You need the “simplest version” of the idea in order for it to grow naturally in the subject’s mind. It’s a very subtle art.
Inception, 2010
Before considering tools or strategies, what possible or what isn’t, it’s important to take a journey into your own imagination. When we use “imagination” here, we’re referring to the judgement free zone that exists in your mind where the word “no” has never been invented. This the seat of the most radical, creative, and downright outlandish thoughts you’ve ever considered. This is where you are being of pure possibility rather thinking about bumping your head against what “can’t” happen.
In the film “Inception,” Christopher Nolan takes us along for what is essentially a reverse heist. How might we plant an idea in the head of another and have that person believe it’s their idea?
- Use your imagination: Don’t be limited by what you perceive Canvas can or can’t do. There is a way to do anything you’re thinking about with enough time and creativity.
- Focus on the user: Who needs to be “sold” this course? How will you know that you were successful? You’re not designing the course for yourself. You’re designing the course for users of your course. Therefore it needs to appeal to them.
- Focus on the Simple: Don’t misconstrue “imagination” and “complication.” The best solutions are the ones that get to your destinations with the fewest turns.
Being Joe Moore
Joe Moore: You ever cheat on a woman? Girl, something, stand her up? Step out on her?
Jimmy Silk: What?
Joe Moore: Ever do that?
Jimmy Silk: Yeah.
Joe Moore: When you called her, did you have an excuse?
Jimmy Silk: Yeah.
Joe Moore: What if she didn’t ask? Was your alibi a waste of time?
Heist, 2001
The road to “mastery” is fraught with uncertainty. There is no direct pathway there. We aren’t fortune tellers. We can peer into the future. Yet this doesn’t negate the fact that we need to engage in planning. Planning is constantly considering the question “How might we?” in an effort to prepare for a number of possible outcomes. Conversely, having a “plan” is often being in an intractable state. A plan tends to feature one pathway for success and when the unforeseen or uncontemplated occurs, mayhem arises.
In the film “Heist,” Gene Hackman is Joe Moore, a master thief who, through planning with his crew, considers a myriad of pathways to acquiring a gold shipment and getting away with it. How might we design courses so that users have multiple avenues to express their mastery?
- Get a Crew: If you’re looking for betting planning, consider bringing in folks that can think about outcomes from different perspectives.
- Product Based Thinking: Users of your course shouldn’t be “learning things.” They should be “productive.” Creating a product is applying what has been learned in other demonstrate this learning in a way that is authentic to the world. This allows everyone’s alibi to be different.
- Think Asynchronously: Just because you’re meeting “in person” doesn’t mean you shouldn’t design for learners to move at their own pace.
Use Discussion Pages
The Nick Wells Treatment
Jackie Teller- I’ve never seen anything like that! What do you have in mind?
Nick Wells-I don’t know, but if somebody built it, somebody can unbuild it.
The Score, 2001
Often when we use the term “building,” we are inviting complication and frustration. In “building” a course, we might look at all the things we have to do and become overwhelmed. Instead, think from the “unbuilding” perspective.
In the film “The Score,” Nick Wells, played by Robert DeNiro, is presented with a safe that seems uncrackable. He motivates himself to continue by realizing that if a person put something together, there must be a way to take it apart. There is a path to success, it just needs to be found.
- Think from the Outside: Like a safe, Canvas is a container. There are valuables there (connection to your grade book, analytics, organization), but exploit them it’s best to bring tools from the outside. Execute your coursework using links, embeds, and LTIs from other tools and then add them to Canvas.
- Keep it Clean: Spend sometime simplifying your course. Your modules don’t need 20 pages. You don’t need to have paragraph upon paragraph of text. Use images. Use video. Use audio.
- Use Discussions: The discussion page type in your course should be you default page type. Allow your users to fill your course full of their ideas as well as give them a forum to help one another and challenge your beliefs as a designer.
Build with Poptake
Finding the Biggest Ella Fitzgerald Ever
Rusty- You’d need at least a dozen guys doing a combination of cons.
Danny-Like what, do you think?
Rusty- Off the top of my head, I’d say you’re looking at a Boeski, a Jim Brown, a Miss Daisy, two Jethros, and a Leon Spinks, not to mention the biggest Ella Fitzgerald, ever. Where are we going to get funding for this?
Ocean’s 11, 2001
Often when we use the term “building,” we are inviting complication and frustration. In “building” a course, we might look at all the things we have to do and become overwhelmed. Instead, think from the “unbuilding” perspective.
In the film “The Score,” Nick Wells, played by Robert DeNiro, is presented with a safe that seems uncrackable. He motivates himself to continue by realizing that if a person put something together, there must be a way to take it apart. There is a path to success, it just needs to be found.
- Think from the Outside: Like a safe, Canvas is a container. There are valuables there (connection to your grade book, analytics, organization), but exploit them it’s best to bring tools from the outside. Execute your coursework using links, embeds, and LTIs from other tools and then add them to Canvas.
- Keep it Clean: Spend sometime simplifying your course. Your modules don’t need 20 pages. You don’t need to have paragraph upon paragraph of text. Use images. Use video. Use audio.
- Use Discussions: The discussion page type in your course should be you default page type. Allow your users to fill your course full of their ideas as well as give them a forum to help one another and challenge your beliefs as a designer.
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