Hello and welcome to the first entry in our series, Reflective Dispatches. As the founder of StoryLab and Salween Learning Journeys, I’ve dedicated my career to rethinking how we teach and learn in the digital age. These dispatches serve as a bridge—linking lessons from my past experiences in ‘conventional’ education settings to the innovative approaches we’re pioneering at StoryLab. They are not just musings; they are an active re-evaluation of what education can and should be in our rapidly changing world.

Reflective Dispatches: Walking the Walk

At the heart of StoryLab, we are committed to authenticity and transparency in our educational endeavors. Each learning journey we design meets rigorous pedagogical and ethical standards, which these dispatches will help articulate and refine. More than that, they are about putting our principles into practice—creating authentic products that embody our educational values.

This process of writing and reflection is as much about organizing my own thoughts as it is about sharing and clarifying them for you, whether you’re part of our team, a collaborator, or someone interested in our approach. It’s about showing, not just telling, how we live our values through the learning experiences we create.

A Place of Self-Learning and Authentic Learning

StoryLab is more than just a hub for digital storytelling; it’s a laboratory for learning itself. We leverage digital technology not just to tell stories but to engage deeply with the learning process. Our core principle is that learning should be embedded within authentic tasks, providing a context that makes the learning process explicit yet integrated within real-world applications.

This series of dispatches itself is part of that experiment. As I draft these posts, I’m not just using AI as a tool to ease the writing process; I’m actively learning how to blend human creativity with artificial intelligence to enhance our pedagogical approach. This interaction will, in turn, inform and improve how we design our learning journeys.

The Role of Technology in Crafting These Dispatches

In creating these dispatches, I am leveraging technology in a way that mirrors our approach at StoryLab. Each post begins in my “second brain”, a personal knowledge management (PKM) system that uses markdown and other tools to organize and refine my thoughts. This digital framework helps me structure the complex ideas and experiences that shape our pedagogical approach.

The final text you read here emerges from extensive dialogues with AI, specifically ChatGPT. This process is not just about generating content; it’s a profound learning experience, enhancing my understanding of how AI can be integrated into creative and educational processes. By engaging with AI, I am exploring new ways to harness technology for storytelling and education, which I hope will inspire others to do the same.

Defining StoryLab and Beyond

StoryLab and Salween Learning Journeys stand as testaments to a belief in the power of education to drive positive social change. We are principled organizations, built from the ground up to reflect a pedagogy that is as much about who we are as it is about what we do. These dispatches will force me to articulate, in detail, the foundations of our approach—comparing traditional educational models with the innovative paths we’re forging at StoryLab.

Perhaps, through StoryLab, we’re at the bleeding edge of . This series is not just about sharing knowledge but about challenging and redefining what we know about learning.