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School of Co-Creation

One White Bit Vision | Aims | Manifesto | People

One White Bit HEAD One White Bit HAND
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One White Bit HEART One White Bit HUMOUR

One White Bit What is a University?
One White Bit A Creative Approach
One White Bit Self Evaluated Learning Framework
One White Bit Some Workshop Examples
One White Bit Our Relevant Publications
One White Bit Languaging Co-creation
One White Bit A Few Additional Keywords

Making education viable

Dominant models of learning are failing us. The Government see universities as generators of growth(★), yet they are in financial hardship. The UK has one million young NEETS (Not in Education, Employment, or Training). Students struggle to afford fees. Our increasingly dangerous world needs vision and purpose. We therefore applaud UNESCO’s depiction of the future university system as an agent of global change.

What is the Purpose of Universities?


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In reminding ourselves of the ecological purpose of learning we envision regenerative learner communities that use their collective creativity and resourcefulness to survive. We therefore aim to develop new pedagogies from within micro-local citizen-led networks. We will encourage them to be more long-sighted, inclusive, inventive, transdisciplinary, nimble, and adaptive. We hope our findings and methods would ultimately lead to a more synergistic economic paradigm, globally.

We will reimagine the fundamental purposes of learning

Our approach is therefore likely to change the types of people who wish to activate learning. If learning is perceived to have immediate value to local communities then we can develop a more regenerative business model to sustain it. For example, learners might expect to cover zero or nominal costs on a pay-it-forward, or payment-in-kind basis.

We will de-centre and de-centralise learning
  • If learners were allowed to follow their individual interests and agendas, (how) would this work?
  • How might education encourage (a resurgence of) curiosity instead of teacher-defined assignments?
  • How would institutions of learning maintain order without a common curriculum as a reference?
  • Would teachers be better employed to teach students to become highly effective auto-didacts?
  • Suppose the education system were to be organised more on behalf of learning-teams, less on individual students? *Would co-creative learning teams work better?

We will cultivate small ‘learner teams’ that bring reciprocal benefits and responsibilities to its members across learning styles, life circumstances and locations. We aim to reconcile curiosity with career aspirations, balancing what is with what could be, to improve the viability of co-creative teams in a real world context.

We will reduce the need for grading 

Our SELF framework (Self Evaluated Learning Framework) helps learners to map, then to co-create their career paths. It encourages them to imagine personal and professional scenarios that focus on key, self-reflexive relationships. Originally developed and tested in 1995, we adapt it to mitigate the cognitive debt often produced by today’s generative AI systems.

Strategy and Process

Our initial beneficiaries will be up to 15 young (16-29 years old) learners and local communities. We will keep a detailed record of progress over its initial year and convert relevant methods and findings into a template for replication and development by others (i.e. on a Creative Commons ShareAlike basis).

A learner-centred summary

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  • What is it? One White Bit - an experimental part-time foundation course
  • Who is it for? One White Bit - open-minded 16-to-29 year olds living around London
  • What's its point? One White Bit - using your creative potential for opportunity-finding
  • What would I learn? One White Bit - to understand who you are and who you want to be
  • How would I learn this? One White Bit - you will work in mutually supportive learning teams
  • Who designs the syllabus? One White Bit - study themes will not be fixed by a rigid syllabus
  • Where would it be located? One White Bit - we will work in different locations across London?
  • How much would it cost me? One White Bit - you deposit £250 (100% repayable on completion)
  • When will the course take place? One White Bit - most weeks (e.g. Saturdays) throughout 2026-7
  • What about my specialist knowledge? One White Bit - we aim to think within/across the disciplines

Further Reading

  • Chamberlin, K., Yasué, M. and Chiang, I.C.A., 2023. The impact of grades on student motivation. Active Learning in Higher Education, 24(2), pp.109-124.
  • Wood, J. article about creativity and Art Schools)
  • Hitz, Z., 2019. Lost in thought: The hidden pleasures of an intellectual life. Princeton University Press.
  • Humphrey, N., Curran, A., Morris, E., Farrell, P. and Woods, K., 2007. Emotional intelligence and education: A critical review. Educational Psychology, 27(2), pp.235-254.
  • Levin, K., Cashore, B., Bernstein, S. and Auld, G., 2012. Overcoming the tragedy of super wicked problems: constraining our future selves to ameliorate global climate change. Policy sciences, 45(2), pp.123-152.
  • Biely, Katharina, 2024, Paradigm changes in research: Kuhn meets socio-ecological transition theory,

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