Frugal Education
Creative, practical, and sustainable education
The concept takes its inspiration from the practice of Frugal Innovation: the art of reducing the complexity and cost of products and services, and their production, to meet the needs of developing countries, conscious consumerism, and sustainability. Building on this foundation, the concept incorporates aspects of design thinking, systems thinking, the circular economy, doughnut economics, and sustainable development, and applies them within an education context.
Design with an
Open Mind
Leverage Available
Resources
Build at the Speed
Of Need
On this site you’ll find a set of guiding principles, each of which has been broken down into three frugal aspects. Whatever you’re looking to create, from in-class activity to learning space; module content to course design; innovation lab to university campus; we recommend you consider each aspect, and their relationship to one another, to help guide you in the creation of great frugal education practice.
Latest Posts
Frugal Design Thinking: Students Craft STEAM Makerspace Project using the Frugal Education Cards
I'm always excited to share stories that showcase frugal education practice in action, and today, I'm delighted to bring you an inspiring tale from a group of masters students at the Asian University for Women in Chittagong, Bangladesh that used the frugal education...
The PlayLab Bus Project: A Journey in Frugal Education Innovation in Malaysia
In the heart of Malaysia, a revolutionary educational project is transforming the way students engage with STEM subjects. The PlayLab Bus project, a cornerstone of the ACES international research project, is an exemplary model of frugal education that creatively...
A Conversation on Frugal Education: Insights from my AACE Review Interview
I recently had the privilege of being interviewed by Stefanie Panke for the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) Review. This was a fantastic opportunity to delve into the ideas and motivations behind my work, particularly the “Frugal...
Defining Frugal Education: A Position Paper
I'm pleased to share my latest paper on frugal education. This research delves into how frugal innovation practices can revolutionise educational environments by leveraging available resources creatively and sustainably. In the wake of the global pandemic, the...
Sharing is Caring: Showing off your work is a good thing!
I thought I'd post this book recommendation after a series of interesting conversations at work about how our specific team shares its work online. Through blogs, websites, and social media we've built an engaged community of like-minded educators, creators, and...
Recognising the Success of ACES: A Frugal Education Triumph at the QS Reimagine Education Awards
At the recent QS Reimagine Education awards, we were elated to clinch the Bronze award for Sustainability Education! This prestigious accolade recognises the remarkable impact of the ACES project, an initiative that has successfully integrated frugal education and...
Talking Frugal Education on the Pedagodzilla Podcast!
I recently had the pleasure of meeting the Pedagodzilla podcast boys at this years's GameChangers RemixPlay 5 event and sat down for a chat along with Sylvester Arnab to talk about about frugal education and playful learning. As always, they did a stellar job of...
Remix Play 5: Reflections
This week we finally got to deliver the GameChangers: Remix Play 5 event, which was sadly cancelled last Autumn due to the passing of the Queen. It was a resounding success and included a host of inspiring talks and playful activities. The theme this time around was...
Frugal Education in Malaysia, visiting Learning Science students at UNIMAS
A few weeks ago, early on a cold Saturday morning in the UK, I was fortunate enough to present on frugal education to Masters students studying Learning Sciences at UNIMAS (Univiersiti Malaysia Sarawak). My friend and ACES research colleague Dr. Fitri Mohamad invited...
#Dispatches: Current Projects and Changes Ahead
It’s been a busy few months in the GameChangers team with new research bids in development, ongoing case studies in full swing within the ACES project, and a whole host of other initiatives underway at various stages of development. There isn’t much I can share at...
Recognition of Playful Research Excellence in the REF 2021!
We had some wonderful news recently as the GameChangers initiative was included as one of Coventry University's impact cases for the Research Excellence Framework 2021 (REF2021) gaining a 4 star rating for research excellence in the process! (that 4 out of 4 btw 🤩)....
#Dispatches: LEGO Serious Play without the LEGO!
I was speaking to a colleague today who had a question about using Minecraft as a potential alternative to LEGO in a teaching environment. He was looking for something he could deliver virtually as some of the lessons he delivers are now online as a result of the...
A ‘Living’ Model for Frugal Education
An idea that I've been noodling around with for a while now is a model to represent frugal education design. I want something simple that I can share with people to more clearly articulate the idea with fewer words. I'd rather save those words for a paper in the near...
Keynoting on Frugal Education at the Gamification Seminar 2021, Malaysia
Last week I had the honour of speaking about frugal education as a keynote at the 4th annual Creative Culture Gamification seminar in Malaysia. Virtually of course. This year's theme was 'Transdisciplinary Trends in Playful Learning' and how stakeholders can...
Print Your Own Frugal Education Action Cards!
After a busy few weeks on your various research projects, I've found the time to complete work on the Frugal Education Action Cards and create a nice landing page for the resource here on the site. You can now download both print-ready PDFs and Adobe Illustrator...
GameChangers Wins the QS Reimagine Education Award for Learning Science!
I’m really excited to write that we’ve won the QS Reimagine Education award, in the category of Learning Science, for the GameChangers initiative! We’ve been working on this project for the last six years (and a bit) would you believe? It started out as a simple...
Design Sprinting in Malaysia with the Frugal Education Action Cards
This weekend I was invited as a guest to join Fitri Mohamad's Masters in Learning Sciences class to participate in a design sprint for the creation of educational activities. The session forms part of an ACES case study being undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness...
Frugal Education Action Cards: Built at the Speed of Need!
I recently blogged about my work creating a set of Frugal Education cards, designed to support educators in the application of frugal practices, and the cards are now being adopted into in-class activities at Universiti Malaysia, Sarawak (UNIMAS). The Creative Culture...
Prototyping Frugal Education Cards
I've been hard at work noodling away on a collection of frugal education 'action cards' to help others apply frugal practices within their education designs. This idea came off the back of my recent work developing the frugal education aspects. The 'cards' expand upon...
Developing Frugal Aspect Research Instruments
Expanding on recent work developing frugal education aspects, I have also been developing and piloting research instruments for evaluating these frugal aspects within new and existing education designs. The instruments take the form of two surveys. One more...