Agile E-Book: Update 2 (of 3)

There’s an updated version of my e-book up at LeanPub!

The first version was reformatted and lightly edited content from the online course I made for the Agile Learning Center NYC in 2021. While my writing in the Starter Kit, Annual Reports, and elsewhere is typically focused on facilitation, I made the course for people who are interested in education. Instead of including a bunch of information about community ecosystems, communication with kids, and other topics an experienced facilitator would offer to cover with an apprentice, I focused the course on the institution of school, the science of learning, and concepts that make an Agile Learning Center an Agile Learning Center. It’s an introductory overview, with links to resources for learning more at any point.

In putting the book together, my plan for the second version was to update and expand the text, as well as to swap out the color photos for simpler images. That version is now online!

While writing the new text, I noticed myself wanting to incorporate whole essays on topics that aren’t covered. In some cases this makes sense: there aren’t sections defining “agile learning,” sharing how we move through conflict, or offering frameworks for understanding change and co-design in community. But I notice I keep noting topics I want to explore, beyond those basics. I have an essay I want to add on Data Feminism and critiques of Agile, and how they relate to what I’ve been part of over the last decade in ALC spaces. I have another that reviews Mitch Resnick’s Lifelong Kindergarten and connects the concepts with what we’ve developed at ALC-NYC. It feels useful to add content families have been asking me for recently related to Internal Family Systems, to neurodiversity, to attachment theory. It feels like it could be impactful and inspiring if I spent some time explaining how centers design governance structures for their organizations that align with the values and practices that guide their work with kids. The current book spends almost no time comparing different agile learning and open-space projects, ALCs and otherwise, and when I’m writing late at night after a day of school I wonder if there’s a point to writing an introduction text that doesn’t at least gesture at all these threads. Then again, I worry that trying to cover so much at once could be overwhelming for folks. How much is enough of an introduction and still light enough to be just an introduction?

For the final version of the e-book, I’ll need to answer that question and incorporate an amount of new content that hopefully feels satisfying for readers. I’ll also be turning the references into full citations and footnotes. Since ultimately my intention is to have the book available in formats where incorporating links won’t actually be useful, some of the resource suggestions will get reformatted into footnotes or paragraphs highlighting key excerpts. Currently anticipating having those updates ready to publish by the end of April.