Creating Passionate Users: How to host a product/feature design party:

Forget focus groups. Forget endless meetings and brainstorming sessions. Throw an ultra-rapid-design party, and do it in a single day. This approach exploits the wisdom-of-crowds through a process of enforced idea diversity and voting, so no consensus, committe, or even agreement is needed. And it’s way more fun.

Although the article is talking about businesses planning, couldn’t some of these same ideas be used as a replacement for meetings and planning sessions in an educational setting?