8. Operating Principles and Values

The Innovation Garden is built on a set of shared principles that guide how contributors design, collaborate, and learn together. These principles shape the Garden’s culture and ensure that activities remain aligned with iLRN’s mission of cultivating an evidence-informed, inclusive, and globally connected immersive learning discipline.

8.1 Practice First, Evidence Informed

The Garden encourages hands-on experimentation, rapid prototyping, and creative exploration. Contributors are invited to try new tools, test methods, and iterate openly. At the same time, activities are grounded in the wisdom of existing research, design patterns, and community knowledge.
Practice and evidence are viewed as complementary forces: each informs and strengthens the other.

8.2 Co-Creation and Community Care

The Garden thrives through collaborative creation. Contributors share their work generously, offer constructive feedback, and support one another’s growth.
Community care is expressed through:

Welcoming newcomers
Respectful dialogue
Generosity with methods and resources
Recognition of contributors’ efforts

This creates a culture where practitioners feel safe exploring new ideas.

8.3 Cross-Platform Exploration

The Garden is intentionally platform-agnostic. Contributors experiment across a wide range of XR tools, including Frame VR, engageVR, Spatial, VRChat, CoSpaces, mobile augmented reality, and simulation environments.
This approach encourages:

Multimodal literacy
Adaptability to changing technologies
Informed platform selection based on pedagogical goals

Exploration is a feature, not a distraction.

8.4 Frugal Innovation and Reusable Templates

The Garden emphasizes design that is accessible, scalable, and achievable for educators and organizations with varying levels of resources. Contributors build and share templates, workflows, and repeatable structures that others can adapt without requiring advanced technical capacity.
This principle supports equity, sustainability, and global participation.

8.5 Hybrid Agility

The Garden supports hybrid modalities—virtual, online, XR-based, and in-person—reflecting how immersive learning operates in classrooms, workplaces, labs, and communities worldwide.
Flexibility enables the Garden to serve participants across time zones, contexts, and levels of technical access.

8.6 Cultural Grounding and Local Knowledge

Many Garden activities involve participants and partners working within specific cultural, regional, or community contexts. The Garden embraces the importance of grounding immersive learning in:

Local knowledge
Cultural protocols
Ethical storytelling
Respect for Indigenous and community-led practices

This principle helps ensure that immersive learning remains human-centered and socially responsible.

8.7 Transparency and Shared Stewardship

The Garden operates openly, with clear documentation, accessible templates, and visible processes. Contributors understand how decisions are made and how responsibilities are shared.
This clarity strengthens trust and enables distributed leadership across the global iLRN community.

8.8 Continuous Learning and Reflective Practice

Garden activities are structured to support reflection at every stage—before, during, and after design work. Contributors articulate their intentions, document lessons learned, and share insights with the broader community.
Reflection is not an end in itself: it drives improved practice, stronger research questions, and more impactful immersive learning experiences.

8.9 Alignment With iLRN’s Broader Ecosystem

All Garden activities are designed to complement and support:

The Knowledge Tree (scholarly structures and branches)
The Searchlight (futures and trends)
The conference (iLEAD practitioner track and experiential showcases)
The Repository (evidence-informed outputs and exemplars)

Alignment ensures that practice-based innovation contributes meaningfully to the development of the immersive learning discipline.

Summary

These principles shape how the Innovation Garden grows: collaboratively, ethically, creatively, and with a shared commitment to building an open, evidence-informed future for immersive learning.