Kathryn Laster

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Designing

I began my career as a secondary math teacher, therefore I've always been a designer and facilitator of learning experiences.I transitioned to designing learning for adults, and here are a few highlights:
- 2007: became our campus' professional learning facilitator (in addition to teaching math classes);
- 2011: transitioned to a campus instructional specialist, with the primary responsibility of assisting teachers in their learning (to improve student learning);
- 2015: began working as a Digital Learning Consultant; created learning for internal staff and for all educators we serve;
- 2016 - 2021: invited to join an internal committee tasked with creating a new professional learning model for our staff; developed high quality training and resources to implement the new model.
- 2020 - present: because of the pandemic, I'm constantly working to refine how I design and facilitate effective learning experiences that help others learn in meaningful ways.See a more detailed resume here. Find additional work samples on this page of my site.

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Connecting

Connecting with people and curating and connecting ideas from a variety of resources is how I learn and grow.Connecting to ideas:
Gayle Allen's book The New Pillars of Modern Teaching completely changed how I think about teaching and learning, and I constantly refer back to her work. Our organization based our professional learning model on tenets from this book.Priya Parker's The Art of Gathering is the book that transformed how I design and deliver professional learning (and all gatherings!)

Connecting with people:
My DFW #CoffeeEDU group is a monthly unconference of learning, sharing, and growing. We've met regularly (face-to-face and virtually) since 2016.Two other colleagues and I formed a MasterMind group in 2021, and these thought-partners, collaborators, and feedback-friends have helped me refine my work in countless ways. My work is better because of conversations with these friends.

Learning, Growing, and Sharing
Various teammates and I have hosted the Digital Learning Radio podcast since 2017. The most recent series, Inspired to Learn, provides a platform to connect ideas and share what I'm learning. In the episode below, my co-host and I discuss our favorite learning inspirations and things from 2021. Listen here to hear how I connected all of my learning and grew over the previous year.

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Transforming

Because the pandemic transformed the ways we learn, I've transformed the ways I design and facilitate learning.When I begin designing a new experience, I keep two questions in the forefront of my my mind:
1. What is the clearly defined purpose, goal, or WHY for this session? (Creating session -INGs provides my focus.)
2. What is the best use of our synchronous time?Ideas from The Art of Gathering continue to influence many of my design decisions and details. In addition, I constantly #AdmireAndAcquire ideas from others' trainings, sessions, and events. Here are some considerations and questions that have helped me enhance my design process during the recent years:
- Accessibility is at the forefront of my mind, and for my work, that means inspecting the color contrast on slides and websites, ensuring there's a transcript for audio and video, and including alt text in all images.
- In what ways can I create inclusive communities of learning? I want to make certain participants feel respected, heard, seen, and equalized.
- Providing a choice for "input" and "output" is a must. Do learners have a choice in time, place, medium, and socialness for how they learn? For how they show what they know? These elements of powerful learning design apply to synchronous (virtual or face-to-face) and asynchronous experiences.
- How can I extend the learning experience? What reflections or processes lead to behaviors actually changing from the learning experience?
- What are the best platforms and technologies to "package" session materials and curate resources?Some of these ideas are the result of our Digital Learning Radio podcast series, Transforming Professional Learning. The interviews in this series provided new insights and clarity about how to design learning in our "new world."Inspired by Priya Parker's Gathering Makeover, I asked my PLN what they wanted to bring from the pandemic? I curated their ideas about PD GlowUps in this Wakelet. A recent Twitter chat led to my summary of best practices in professional learning.One of my favorite quotes shared in The Art of Gathering is "90 percent of what makes a gathering successful is put in place beforehand."I've discovered that it's the small, intentional decisions that can truly transform a learning experience, and I'm striving to make these "gathering" details a regular part of my design practice.

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