We're 3 years into the AI lab at VLS and before we launched the practicum (semester-long projects with students), I realized that building things with external partners over the course of the semester wasn't the way to go. I still haven't articulated it as clearly as you do in this post, or as well as Sateesh or Jason do. But it's the feeling I've had all along.
It's also the reason why I've never liked hackathons.
All of these approaches spend far too little time and effort in the problem, in the lives of the people who are challenged, and in the systems and communities that ultimately bear the burden of making things better.
For these reasons (and others), we've focused on being a "learning lab" for our students and communities we're lucky to work with. Instead of a "building lab." Someday the two may coexist but right now we must do a lot more learning before we start building.
Love following your journey here. Thank you for sharing!
I love this reflection, Cat. It's one of the reason we've decided to make our clinic a year long next year. We learned that we need to spend the majority of our time learning about systems and people before we ever start building anything. And we didn't have the time to do that in one semester.
I think Sateesh Nori's post speaks to this, and as I read his post this morning, I thought of Jason's post, too. There's a convergence happening here that is shining a bright light. https://sateeshnori.substack.com/p/agency-the-invisible-problem-in-access
We're 3 years into the AI lab at VLS and before we launched the practicum (semester-long projects with students), I realized that building things with external partners over the course of the semester wasn't the way to go. I still haven't articulated it as clearly as you do in this post, or as well as Sateesh or Jason do. But it's the feeling I've had all along.
It's also the reason why I've never liked hackathons.
All of these approaches spend far too little time and effort in the problem, in the lives of the people who are challenged, and in the systems and communities that ultimately bear the burden of making things better.
For these reasons (and others), we've focused on being a "learning lab" for our students and communities we're lucky to work with. Instead of a "building lab." Someday the two may coexist but right now we must do a lot more learning before we start building.
Love following your journey here. Thank you for sharing!
I love this reflection, Cat. It's one of the reason we've decided to make our clinic a year long next year. We learned that we need to spend the majority of our time learning about systems and people before we ever start building anything. And we didn't have the time to do that in one semester.