For the most part, teachers have intended to interpret the process as a means to creating a product that generally has a technology problem as the base: develop an inexpensive way to measure air quality; build a solar robot to carry X pounds of materials, Y distance; create an animated book on a self-elected topic; design a museum display to explain hominid evolution, etc. The possibilities are only limited by the imagination.
However, it is possible to consider Design Thinking in a larger context where it can be defined as the thinking that can make 'things'(life) better. When one goes down this avenue than the 'products' open to include issues of social, ethical and esthetic consideration as well. From my first encounters with the Design Thinking, it has been the deeper changes it can impart to conventional learning as much as the excitement of the Maker World that has captured my attention. Therefore, I was delighted to recently hear a discussion of this very topic on a recent podcast that featured Kiran Bir Sethi http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/kiranbirsethi.mp3
Kiran, started her professional career as a Designer in a traditional sense having graduated from one of the leading Design Schools in India. Influenced from a young age by the work of Gandhi, she became an educational advocate and ultimate director/founder of The Riverside School in Ahmadabad, India. A decade old, Riverside is an N-12 school which focuses on using design thinking on behalf of civic engagement via student agency. Her ideas were recently shared on a TED presentation entitled: Teaching Kids to Take Charge http://blog.ted.com/2010/01/12/teachiing_kids/. A summary of her definition of the process of Design Think as presented on-line is below. The information in ( ) are my additions and drawn from a more conventional rendering of the process of Design Thinking.
FEEL THE CHANGE (Empathy)
What would you most like to create or change in your community? An idea that could touch or affect the lives of many An idea that YOU can make happen
IMAGINE THE CHANGE (Define & Ideate)
Talk together about how you can create this change Get others in your community involved Plan how and when you will make this Act of Change happen
DO THE CHANGE (Prototype & Test)
Gather the resources that you will need Go out and make it happen Record what you do, the impact you have and how it makes you feel
These last two stages, I believe, are important additions.
SHARE THE CHANGE
Celebrate your Act of Change with your community Document YOUR STORY and how you have shared it Upload your project and documentation to us at Design for Change
SUSTAIN THE CHANGE –
Reflect back on your Act of Change and what worked well Do you feel the story has only just begun? NOW what are you going to do next?!
Kiran also offers specific suggestions for those mentoring the design process with their students:
▪
ASK - DON'T
TELL!
▪
Create an environment
where children can 'create' playfully and chaotically
▪
Some people need to
sit quietly to use their imaginations, some need to be physical, noisy,
energetic and just a little bit crazy! How can everyone get what they need?
▪
Listen silently and
deeply.
▪
Enthuse about ALL
ideas however ambitious or whacky!
▪
All ideas are good
because they are part of the creative process.
▪
Unworkable ideas will
evaporate of their own accord.
▪
Imagination is quickly
silenced if people are worried about getting things "right".
The Riverside school students have approached a wide range of Civic projects working from within a design thinking format. Most notably, their advocacy was responsible for their city agreeing to close a main street one Sunday a month in order to provide play-time and space for children many of whom never have play opportunities. In her model, one can see the roots of student projects that originate from students' sense of empowerment related to improving the world.
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