Learning by making things: introducing an experiment
The team behind Dysgu trwy greu (pronounced duss-gi true-ih grey), Learn by making, introduce their experimental digital lab which explores how people learn by making things.
4 November 2022
Shwmae! We’re the Learn by making team.
The Learn by making team is sponsored by the Centre for Digital Public Services (CDPS). This initiative forms part of our Campws Digidol.
Dysgu trwy greu will run alongside digital training courses, communities of practice and informal meet ups where teams from across Wales can share their skills and expertise.
The essence of Dysgu trwy greu is to create practical, immersive lab sessions where people learn digital skills and make digital products and services – in the open, for real.
- Learn: introduction to new concepts from experts
- Make: try out what you’ve learned, with hands on support
- Reflect: Share what you’ve done in the open (and continue learning…)
From theoretical to practical
One of the most effective ways to learn about something new is to experience it for yourself. By trying out what you’ve learned through actual experimentation, you can turn theoretical knowledge into practical skills.
We’ll lead participants step-by-step through:
- applying user-centred design skills
- prototyping
- bilingual service design
- user research
- Agile delivery techniques
- data-led decision making
- working in the open
By the end of the sessions people taking part will have a piece of work online that they can point at and say, ‘I made that’.
Testing and iterating
Our first Dysgu trwy greu lab is a 4-week experiment, designed for entry-level practitioners or people seeking to move into digital roles.
To start with, we’re working with one of our existing partners to help us create it, test it and iterate it. If it works, then we’ll extend it to others in public sector organisations across Wales.
It’s early days and we’re still figuring lots of things out. But we’re practising what we preach by making things to help us learn and sharing that in the open.
Follow our progress
You can follow along on our team website, and if you’d like to read our weekly updates then email us at hello@learnbymaking.wales
Drop the phonetic pronunciation tips. It’s patronising.
Helô Angharad, Promoting the Welsh language is at the heart of all our work. See, for example, our Digital Service Standards for Wales. As part of this, we’re very keen to name some our projects and services in Welsh. ‘Campws Digidol’ is our training programme’ and ‘Dysgu trwy greu’ is an important new delivery project. Staff here at CDPS – both those who speak Welsh and those who don’t – agree that offering a phonetic pronunciation of such names at the start of the project is a good thing. It helps us to normalise the use of Welsh names in the future – even amongst those who don’t speak Welsh fluently. From our experience, people who may not be familiar with Welsh phonetics appreciate learning the correct pronunciation. This is so that they feel like they’re showing respect to the language and feel confident to use these names in their day-to-day work (and they may even be inspired to learn more Welsh?) We’re certainly not trying to teach those who already speak Welsh how to pronounce the names. As such, we didn’t include this phonetic spelling on the Welsh version of the blog. I hope this explains why. Diolch! (Dwi’n hapus i drafod yn Gymraeg hefyd)
I am studying MSc in Leading Digital Transformation, and interested in this experimental approach to learning