Chapter 3: What influenced us
Our idea of a playful and privacy-aware feedback app for learning has been around for a couple of years. If you want to learn more about our approach, it is good to know about the influences that helped form it. Some key influencers have marked our approach to feedback, learning and privacy as well as our company culture. Here is our shortlist.
Books
- John Hattie (2009): Visible Learning
- “Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement.”
- Felix Stalder (2016): Kultur der Digitalität
- The internet won’t go away. We (still) have the choice between life in a post-democratic world of permanent surveillance or in a culture of participation.
- Steffen Mau (2017): Das metrische Wir
- This is a good introduction into the “quantification of the social” (and the self). Keep in mind the triple meaning of the German word “vermessen”: (1) measure, (2) mismeasure, (3) presumptious.
- Krommer, Lindner et al. (2019): Routenplaner #DigitaleBildung
- The authors are teachers and education experts who have “printed out the internet”, that means a collection of their blog posts. It’s a good starting point before entering the online debate about “contemporary/digital” education.
- Carissa Véliz (2020): Privacy is Power
- Privacy is a collective endeavour, not a personal one. Privacy, autonomy and democracy belong together. Privacy is a “veil of ignorance” and a principle of justice. Let’s fight the data economy and take privacy back in our hands.
- Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson (creators of Ruby on Rails, Basecamp, Hey)
- Rework (2010): If you found a business, make it easy, make it fun, and make money.
- Remote (2013): A manifesto for remote work written long before the corona pandemic.
- It Doesn’t Have To Be Crazy At Work (2018): Rejecting the common idea that long hours and “whatever it takes” are required to run a successful business. With concrete ideas how a company should organize and treat its employees.
- Eric Ries (2008): The Lean Startup
- The lean startup method emphasizes customer feedback over intuition and flexibility over planning.
- Alexander Osterwalder (2010): Business Model Generation
- We have used the Business Model Canvas several times. It helps us to systematically understand, communicate, design, and implement a new business model or to analyze and improve older ones.
- Denise Quinlan, Lucy Hone (2020): The Educators’ Guide to Whole-school Wellbeing
- During the corona pandemic many people began to realize that school is not only about learning, but also about wellbeing. This book from New Zealand helps schools and educators to decide where to start, what to prioritise, or how to implement wellbeing whole-school change based on positive education.