In the Deep River design process, the what depends entirely on the why and the how.
“Why” considers relevance — why is this meaningful? Why does it matter? Looking at “how” helps us think about engagement, the active exploration that powers any learning journey. The third step is “what” — the actually shape, content, and direction of our learning experience.
WHY (relevance) + HOW (engagement) = WHAT (learning)
It looks linear, expressed that way, but it’s more accurately a recursive process, a spiral. We constantly revisit the why and the how as we encounter the what; each informs the other, dynamically and continuously. But the what without the why and the how is an empty thing.
“What” can be paradoxical — we can have no idea, or we can have too many ideas. That’s why Deep River doesn’t start with what. The what needs to be firmly embedded in the why and the how. The why and the how will point us in the right direction when it comes to what.
This is how learning sticks. How it doesn’t become just one more piece of fleeting information that never mattered to us and wasn’t engaging enough to hold our attention, soon forgotten. This is how learning — ideas, information, feelings — grow into understanding, into something useful we can use again and again.
Think about something exciting or meaningful that you’ve learned, and trace the journey from why to how to what. And keep it mind as you keep learning, or as you help others to learn. Because we’re all learners, and we’re all teachers.