This weekend, while making small inroads into the clutter in our basement, I ran across something I’d thought was lost. It is a piece of acrylic, curved on one end and straight on the other, perhaps ten inches long. What is it? I believe it may be one of the earliest acrylic ice scrapers—at least … Continue reading
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Design Thinking 3: Educators as Designers
Who needs innovative thinking more than educators? What with constantly changing curriculum mandates, new methods, complicated relationships with colleagues and scores of individual students with needs, teachers have a lot to manage. One researcher* found that, when compared to 17 other professions, teachers responded to more stimuli per hour than anyone but air traffic controllers—and … Continue reading
Design Thinking 2: Design in Curriculum
As more and more schools realize that creativity and problem solving are essential skills, we face a dilemma—how do we manage organize curriculum in ways that do both? One possibility is using design thinking to organize curriculum. And some schools are doing just that. For example, Vista Design and Innovation Academy, a magnet middle school, … Continue reading
Design Thinking 1: What is it?
Want a better mousetrap? Want hotels that feel like home? How about a new way of thinking about literature? A new way to design curriculum? You might consider Design Thinking. While there are a number of varieties and definitions, design thinking is a process, much akin to Creative Problem Solving (CPS), in which the strategies … Continue reading