We finished the project discovery sprint. You have a direction, a "how might we...?" question, and raw material for drafting a project proposal. Now it's time to build on your own, with your thinking partner (if applicable), and through your research.

Here's what's ahead between now and when we reconvene on June 1.

What You're Working On

Five assignments carry you from your sprint work to a testable prototype. Each one builds on the last:

• Assignment 3 — microSFP: Imagine your project idea in the world. Write a short narrative (about 100 words) that drops a character into the future your project creates. What changes? What goes wrong or right?
• Assignment 4 — Project Proposal: Commit to a direction. Sharpen your HMW question, name your contemporary issue, describe what you're making and who it's for.
• Assignment 5 — Audience Discovery: Talk to 2 real people connected to your project. Hear what they actually think — not what you assume.
• Assignment 6 — Research: Ground your project in evidence. Find 3-5 sources on your issue and existing innovations. Include the ChatGPT research exercise.
• Assignment 7 — Prototype + Format: Make a rough prototype. Submit a 1-minute explainer video on Lea. On June 3, you'll present it to the class for feedback.

Don't skip steps. The microSFP helps you see your project before you commit to it. The proposal locks in your direction. Audience discovery and research challenge your assumptions. The prototype makes it tangible. Full instructions, with examples where appropriate, will all be available on Omnivox.

Your AI Thinking Partner

You have the MTTM Thinking Partner for the rest of the semester. Each assignment connects to a specific phase — the assignment handout tells you which one.

How it works:

• Open a new ChatGPT thread for each phase
• Paste your context handoff from the previous phase to keep continuity
• At the end, ask for a new context handoff before closing the thread

The thinking partner helps you think through your project — it won't write your assignments or make decisions for you. Share your thread link with each submission. There's no penalty for using it.

See the AI Thinking Partner Guide for detailed instructions on threads, phases, and tips.

SALTISE 2026 — June 1

On June 1, we'll meet at Dawson and then head to ETS for SALTISE 2026 — an education conference with the theme: "Co-creating change: collaboration, courage, and care in Education."

You're going as researchers, not just attendees. Your "how might we...?" question is your lens. You'll attend talks looking for connections to your project, challenges to your assumptions, and ideas you hadn't considered.

Assignment 8 — SALTISE Prep is due before June 1: review the program, pick 2-3 talks that connect to your project, and write a few sentences explaining why.

Due Dates

All assignments are submitted on Lea.

Final Notes:

• Finish Assignments 3-8 by their due dates
• Keep using your journal to track your project. You'll reference it in the final report

Photo by  Brett Jordan  on Unsplash

Your MTTM Thinking Partner is a Custom GPT designed for this course. It knows the phases of your project, asks questions to help you think, and keeps track of your decisions across conversations. This post describes how to use it well.

Before you start

Important notes before you start are summarized below. Read the document on Lea entitled "MTTM-AI-Use" for more information.

• Refer to the MIO message "MTTM-AI-Use" for the link to the MTTM Thinking Partner
• Refer to the MIO class message "MTTM-AI-Use" for access to your in-class sprint activity pdf document that you can use as context to continue.
• As discussed in earlier meetings: You do not need to use the MTTM Thinking Partner to follow and complete the preparatory phases for the June classes. Everything can be completed without the AI methodology designed for this course.

How Threads and Phases Work

Use one thread per phase. Do not use one giant thread for everything since the context of the conversation will lose focus if it goes too long. Each assignment tells you which phase to use.

Starting a new thread:

1. Open the MTTM Thinking Partner in ChatGPT
2. Paste your context handoff from the previous phase. This is a block of text that summarizes where you are, what you've decided, and what comes next. If this is your first time, just introduce yourself and say which phase you're starting.
3. The thinking partner will confirm your phase and pick up where you left off

Ending a thread:

1. When you're done working, tell the thinking partner: "I'm done for now. Can I get a context handoff?"
2. It will give you a code block with your key decisions, current phase, and a seed question to think about before next time
3. Copy and save this handoff — you'll paste it into your next thread
4. Save the conversation as a PDF (Ctrl+P or Cmd+P → Save as PDF). You'll need your thread trail for the final report, and the PDF is your backup if you lose the handoff

The handoff is what gives the thinking partner memory across conversations. Without it, each thread starts from scratch.

Phase-by-Phase Guide

Tips

• Push back. If the AI suggests something that doesn't feel right, say so: "That's not what I mean" or "That doesn't fit my project." It will adjust.
• Say when you're ready. If you've answered enough questions and want to move on, say "enough questions" or "I'm ready to write." The AI will switch to summarizing what you've decided.
• Share your thread. Include your ChatGPT thread link when you submit each assignment. It shows how your thinking evolved and it counts as part of your process. You have been given full permission to use the AI thinking partner.
• Use the seed question. At the end of each phase, the thinking partner gives you a question to think about before your next session. Think about it if you find it useful. The best project insights can happen between threads, not during them.

What the AI Won't Do (By Design)

• Write your assignments. It will help you think, but the writing is yours.
• Pick your topic or format. It will offer options and push for specificity, but the choice is always yours.
• Tell you your idea is great if it's vague. It will be honest about scope, clarity, and readiness.
• Replace talking to real people. For Audience Discovery (Assignment 5), you need to have actual conversations. The AI will tell you to go do that first.
• Give you sources to cite without checking. AI can suggest search directions, but it can also make up sources. Always verify.

If Something Goes Wrong

• Lost your handoff? Start a new thread and summarize where you are in your own words. The AI will pick it up.
• Wrong phase? Just tell it: "I'm actually in Phase [N]." It will adjust.
• Thread got too long or confused? Start fresh with a new thread and your latest handoff.

If you run into a problem you can't solve, let the instructor know.

Responsible Use

• You can opt out. The thinking partner is part of the course methodology, but it is not a requirement. If you prefer to work without AI, that's completely fine — your assignments and grades are not affected.
• You can use an anonymous account. If you're not comfortable having an AI account tied to your name, you can create a free ChatGPT account with any email. You don't need to use your real name.
• Guard your personal information. Use the thinking partner for educational purposes. Don't share sensitive personal details, passwords, or private information in your conversations. Treat it like any online tool — share what's useful for your project, keep the rest private.
• AI is a tool, not an authority. It can be wrong. It can make up sources. It can give confident-sounding advice that doesn't fit your situation. You're always the one making the decisions.

Final Thoughts

Your conversation threads and context handoffs are part of your final submission. They show how your thinking evolved from the first spark to the final project. That arc including the changes, the dead ends, and the breakthroughs is itself a record of your learning. Take care of it. But if you decide not to use AI you will need to reflect critically on why you made this choice.

During Meeting 4, we finished the project discovery sprint. You arrived with a problem direction and left with a project.

What We Did

We started by reconnecting what shifted overnight. Then you picked up your ChatGPT thread from last class and sharpened your problem into a "how might we...?" question that opens up possibilities for you to define a project.

From there, you explored three "what if...?" solution directions.

You began to draft a micro science fiction prototype as a short imaginative scenario where your solution exists in the world. Who uses it? What changes? What goes wrong? The microSFP is a thinking tool: by imagining your project in context, you discover things about it that planning alone can't reveal.

You also grappled with naming the contemporary issue your project connects to. Your project started from something personal. The issue is the bridge between what matters to you and what matters in the world.

Finally, you were presented with the outline of a Project Snapshot as a one-page summary of what could constitute your project for the semester.

Assignments

Two assignments build directly from this work:

Assignment 3: Micro Science Fiction Prototype (microSFP)
You started this in class. Write a short narrative (about 100 words) imagining your idea in the world, plus a brief reflection (3-5 sentences) on what writing it revealed about your project. Before you write, read the Slate article "Prototyping a Better Tomorrow" and one narrative from the Radical Ocean Futures project.

Assignment 4: Term Project Proposal
Build your idea into a formal proposal: project title, "how might we?" question, contemporary issue, project direction, audience, constraints, what you still need to figure out, and a preliminary timeline.

Both assignment are posted on Lea.

Your AI Thinking Partner

A PDF of your sprint conversation has been shared with you. You may upload it to a new thread on your own ChatGPT account to continue where you left off or start fresh with the MTTM Thinking Parnter. See the AI Use Guide for details and responsible use practices.

Looking Ahead

There are several mini-assignments to guide you in developing your project idea from now until June. In June, we'll attend SALTISE 2026 — an education conference held at ÉTS as a field experience. You'll go as researchers with your own guiding questions. More details to come.

Photo credit

Photo by  Octavian-Dan Craciun  on Unsplash

During Meeting 3, we began the project discovery sprint. Over this class and the next, you were to find and shape the early outlines of your term project. This is the thing you'll make that matters.

What We Did

We started by closing the loop on the gift-giving experience from January. You've already gone through the full design thinking cycle: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test — on someone else's problem. Now it's your turn to do it on your own.

After looking at examples of past MTTM projects to see the range of what students have made, you answered three questions on paper:

1. What frustrates you, fascinates you, or feels broken in the world?
2. What do you know more about than most people your age?
3. If you could spend a week making anything — no constraints — what would it be?

Then you met your MTTM AI thinking partner. Each of you has the opportunity to craft a set of course-specific conversation threads that will support your thinking for the rest of the semester. Taking turns at the smart boards, you shared your three answers with the AI and watched it ask questions, make connections, and surface ideas you hadn't considered.

After the AI conversations, you wrote your one-sentence problem statement and typed it into a shared Google Doc. Then we did a table rotation: some of you stayed at your home table while the rest moved to new tables, explained your sentence in 30 seconds, and returned to put +1 next to the two statements you were most curious about.

This activity set the stage for the 2nd project discovery meeting the following day.

Photo credit

Photo by Noble Mitchell on Unsplash

Meeting 2 concerns the processes integral to design thinking and in particular to human-centered design (HCD). The main class activity is to redesign the gift-giving experience for someone. This is done with the goal of providing an overview of methodologies you will use to develop solutions to your breakthrough ideas through projects in this course.

Through this activity we are exploring the stages of the HCD process.

• Empathize. Understand the needs, motivations, and perspectives of the people you are designing for through research and observation. We practiced gaining empathy by going through an interview process.

• Define. Synthesize the insights from the empathy phase to clearly define the problem you are trying to solve. You reframed the general problem of gift-giving with a statement related to your partners needs and that is personal to them.

• Ideate. Generate a wide range of ideas for potential solutions through brainstorming and other ideation techniques. Idea generation using a visual approach was the focus. The goal was to generate 5 radical ideas to obtain feedback from your partner in order to test possible solutions and gain new insights.

• Prototype. Create tangible, low-fidelity representations of your ideas to test and iterate upon. This is done in two ways: through your sketches and the follow up homework (see below).

• Test. Gather feedback to inform and validate your design decisions. Feedback can be gathered at different times. The activity concludes with a presentation of your final prototype solution to your partner. We will reflect on how it addresses the problem you defined.

These stages form a cyclical process and can be nonlinear. The goal of HCD is to create solutions that are not only functional, but also meet the needs and desires of those they are intended for.

What is human-centered design?

More resources and background information about design thinking provided on the Omnivox platform.

Homework: Create a physical prototype of your tested solution.

As a follow-up to the in class activity, you are creating an experience that your partner can react to. Your solution could be a service, a system or method, an event, or something else that addresses the gift-giving needs of your partner and is personal to them.

The goal is to make something that allows your partner to experience the innovative nature of your solution. You can also repurpose objects to signify your solution. Use any materials or medium you find relevant. Be inventive.

Instructions for submission are provided through Omnivox. Bring your prototype solution to the next class in February to share with your partner.

During Meeting 1, you are introduced to the SPACE initiative and provided an overview of what to expect in the course. Notes can be found in our Omnivox.

Your homework is to design a journal, using one or more of the following methods, by:

1. Combining materials of your choosing.
   E.g., binding and organizing large cue cards.
2. Modifying and personalizing a preexisting notebook in some way.
   E.g., changing the cover, adding a pocket.
3. Creating a personalized digital notebook.

This journal will be used as a learning log to collect notes, reflections, insights, ideas, observations, etc. relevant to what will be become your term project and will be used for assessment.

Homework: Reflect on how you constructed it. Why did you choose this format? Does it have any special features? How might you use it?
Instructions: Write your thoughts into your journals as a first entry and submit a digital document of your reflection along with an image of your journal pasted into the document.

Meeting 2 preparation: Read the Design Thinking in a Nutshell Guide.

Always bring your journals to class starting with Meeting 2.