Working as a learning designer across the Great Plains, I’ve found that conventional instructional design approaches often wither when they’re transplanted into rural and otherwise unusual contexts. That’s what started Homegrown Learning: A Seed Packet for Trainers, my ever-in-progress book on a more organic approach to learning design.

One of the Earthseed verses in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, a personal favorite, says in effect that whatever you touch you change, and whatever you change changes you in return. That’s the relationship I keep finding between a designer and a community. When we build learning experiences with real care for context and sustainability, the work changes us too.

The book brings together 1) context-sensitive design approaches, 2) natural systems thinking and biomimicry, 3) low-tech, accessible alternatives, and 4) community co-design principles. It’s a working draft that I keep adding to, and you can read the current version through the link below.

If you use any of it with your own trainers or teams, I’d like to hear how it goes. You can reach me at licht.education@gmail.com, and there are more tools, articles, and resources at bradylicht.com.