Portable's work in education began with providers in 2006. In 2018 Portable started a dedicated conversation on the future of primary and secondary schooling. Now we work directly with students, teachers, and parents to design services and technology that make education more accessible, from a digital hub connecting school communities to a set of education technology pathways for schools across Papua New Guinea.

Inside of the artefact created for NSW school children

A community-centred approach to building anxiety literacy in primary school settings.

This project gave the NSW Department of Education a tested suite of anxiety literacy materials, developed and refined directly in schools with students, educators, and caregivers rather than a generic wellbeing program applied from the top down. For children learning to understand and manage anxiety, and the adults supporting them, it means shared language and tools to talk about anxiety together: as one participating student put it, the materials help you "feel like someone is supporting you."

Improving gender equity within Victoria's selective-entry schools through human-centred research.

This research gave the Department of Education and Training an evidence base grounded in the lived experience of high-ability girls, their families, and their teachers. Rather than assumptions, Portable uncovered eight key insight areas to help close a persistent gender gap in selective-entry school enrolments. For the girls involved, it meant being treated as the experts in their own experience: a high-school student sat on the design team itself, and participants told their own stories through video diaries and interviews rather than having them interpreted by someone else.

Setting a path forward for the use of educational technologies in Papua New Guinea.

This project gave the International Education Agency of Papua New Guinea, which employs more than 300 teachers and 700 support staff across its schools, a locally-grounded roadmap and teacher standards for adopting technology, timed to the completion of the Coral Sea Cable's connectivity upgrade. Because more than 150 teachers and 500 students shaped the research directly, the resulting vision reflects what would actually work in PNG classrooms rather than imported assumptions.

The Portable approach to education

Webinar: Designing with children and young people
Designing inclusive services means listening to all voices, including the youngest among us. In this webinar, experts from health, education, mental health, and social services will explore what it really takes to engage children and young people in service and product design.
Report: Design for Education (without screwing it up)
By looking at the user experience of schools, researching current practises and interviewing widely across the education system, we formulated 6 principles to guide those designing for the education system.
Article: Bringing design thinking to education and environment
Our commitment to working with education and the environment has lead us to create a team centred around projects close to these topics, allowing us to draw on their knowledge and create innovative solutions for these areas.
Article: Practical answers for co-designing with young people
A follow up from our recent webinar on ethical, inclusive design practice with children and young people. Our experts address your questions that time didn't allow during the webinar.