What are the rules of rapid prototyping?
According to Tom, rapid prototyping follows four main principles:
Rule #1:
You must find the quickest path to experience. Ideas are nothing until they have been tested; prototyping is the quickest path to go from guessing into direct experience. You will soon see an idea’s strengths, weaknesses and potential once you have tried it.
Rule #2:
Doing is the best kind of thinking. People are very good at imagining things, but until we try them, we won’t know what works and what doesn’t. By actually doing something, we’ll come up with new ideas, new challenges and new solutions.
Rule #3:
Prototyping follows a distinct pathway: from conjecture, to experimentation, to results and finally decision-making.
Prototyping rule #4:
Prototyping helps us reason in time and space: instead of lots of planning, imagination and guesswork, it makes us build something real, considering real use cases and real situations.
How does rapid prototyping affect progress?
The rapid-prototyping learning loop follows this pattern:
- Building a variation
- Testing with customers
- Observing results
- Adjusting from results
This process allows us to increase the chances of success in any given project dramatically. For example, if an idea has a 5% chance of success, by trying it 20 times there is a 64% chance of success and by trying it 50 times, there is a 92% chance of success.
Considering that each time an idea is prototyped, learning takes place, the chances of success are likely even higher with every trial.
But wait, what has rapid prototyping got to do with the ELT classroom?
Tom shows how a technology giant like Google can innovate and produce results quickly and efficiently through rapid prototyping – and all the while, he is explaining how much faster learning is when we experiment and do things.
Encouraging project-based work
Of course, our students are not innovating or building new products for tech companies, they are aiming to learn a language. But as Tom said, learning by doing is much faster and more effective than simply conjecturing and talking about theories.
Following his first rule of prototyping (find the quickest path to experience), we need to give students the experience of using the language as fast as possible. Project and task-based learning allows students to build their vocabulary, and test their grammar and overall communications skills in an authentic way.
This also covers Tom’s second rule (doing is the best type of thinking). If we can tap into our students’ creativity, we can allow them to experiment with language, discover what they know and what they don’t know, and then really work on learning the things they need for certain tasks.
When it comes to Tom’s third rule (conjecture, experimentation, results, decision-making), the teacher has more responsibility. We need to look at how we benchmark, measure and analyze our learner’s progress. Without a pathway, our students will not know how they are progressing and may easily lose motivation. The students therefore need to have a firm idea of their abilities, when they need to learn and how they are currently performing. We can then make decisions regarding individual class plans and syllabi.
Finally, by exposing our students to authentic materials, we cover Tom’s fourth rule (reason in time and space). Authentic readings, listenings and videos give learners the opportunity to work with real-world language, trying out what they are learning in authentic contexts. It helps them imagine using the language outside of the safe environment of the classroom too, giving them the challenge they need to push them into learning faster.
Fostering a growth mindset
The very fact that Tom’s team is able to imagine and prototype what seem like impossible ideas – that then have the potential to change the world – is awe-inspiring.
We can all learn from his vision, tenacity and methodology. At the heart of the experimentation and learning at Google X lies a growth mindset.
If we help our students develop a growth mindset, they will see failure as an opportunity to learn, as well as a challenge as a chance to grow, and feedback as a constructive way to improve.
Learning is a dynamic process. As teachers, it’s important for us to look outside the world of education to find inspiration and ideas. We hope this has sparked your curiosity and added a dash of inspiration for your future classes.
