Things that make
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Things that make
- 8. things make
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- Design Thinking and Active Learning. If you are discussing business, education, or software or design , It is probably difficult to have a conversation with anyone in the bay area without hearing one of these two buzz words. What surprises me however is that you do not hear them used together nearly as often as I think we should. After today however, I am hoping we all see that there is a very unique relationship between these two concepts – one that makes them each much more dynamic and ground breaking.
- Many of us have heard the term “design thinking” or have some basic understanding of the concept. When I teach design thinking – the first thing I try to do is dispel any rumors that this is some kind of designer magic – and make sure that anyone and everyone I talk to knows that they are fully capable of being a design thinker. Especially teachers! Teachers design everyday! Curiculum, assignments, lesson plans, are all design challenges. All you have to do is open yourself up to new ideas and keep a positive and collaborative attitude. This is a hands on, exploratory process, that throws out preconceived ideas and agendas, and makes the most of our innate and intuitive abilities. It is fun, active, and is less about process as it is about mindset.
- When we were kids, we were never ones to worry about sharing our ideas as wild and outlandish as they might have been. Somewhere along the way to adulthood we lost that sense of imagination, wonder and creativity. We worried too much about how others might judge our ideas, and we started limiting ourselves to only those rational behaviors. Design thinking gives us some tools to think like kids again, to defer judgement, and to open ourselves to the wildest of possibilities. Because that is where breakthrough opportunities thrive. These images are from workshops he have been hosting at One Workplace where we bring educators, architects, consultants, and many other people from many other disciplines together to generate ideas for solving really complex challenges – in a fun and exploratory way. A way that gives those breakthrough ideas just enough space to sneak out from behind our very rational and judgmental facades.
- A little bit about me and my background might be a great way to begin discussing how design thinking and active learning come together. I am a former teacher, and currently serve on an advisory board at Radford University in Western Virginia. Before I joined One Workplace, I spent 16 years leading a design firm in the Richmond Virginia, Washington DC area. My work there was focused on Corporate Interior design – working with fortune 500’s and the federal government (GSA) to develop programs for issues related to the future of work, telework, mobility, real estate reduction, privacy vs collaboration. Etc…. Over the course of that time I discovered a very interesting change. As the workplace was moving away from providing real-estate for heads-down focus work and more towards collaborative space – there was also a focus on knowledge sharing and inter office learning. In effect, corporate space was moving towards looking more and more like education space. Specifically it was starting to look more like college campuses. This should be no surprise as we formalized our move into the knowledge economy. At the same time, education space was starting to look more and more like corporate office space. Colleges, Universities, and increasingly K-12 schools were seeking to create experiences which paralleled the corporate work environment in some fundamental ways – while remaining uniquely devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, This photo is not some silicon valley tech firm , is actually San Jose State University Recently completed by Ratcliff Architects
- At one workplace we have defined a few key areas where this link – and it’s tie to active learning are most evident. The first is in the realization that students much like knowledge workers - benefit from movement. Their focus actually improves – and so we needed to provide spaced that offer a palette of places, postures, privacy, and presence. The key here is that students are empowered in this form of active environment to identify the solution that best meets their needs at a given time. Offering a palette of choices empowers students to identify environments that match the learning style they need for any give task, or mood.
- We have to remember that technology is a tool, not a solution.
- There is tremendous benefit from unplugging and engaging with the physical world
- MAKE THINGS I cant think of any better way to learn. The maker movement may be a buzz word – but it it only became one because somewhere along the line we stopped doing this. A lot of classrooms became a place to fill out multiple choice ditto sheets instead of a place to explore. Lets bring that exploration back.
- Flexibility, is not flexible if you have to stop what you are doing in order to reconfigure. Movement has to be supported naturally and quickly.
- And the tremendous value of quiet space within the learning environment. Sometimes we all need a place to refocus and escape from stimulus. Especially in an active learning environment. Many, if not all of these themes in active learning spaces will come back to use as we start exploring the link to Design Thinking.
- The more I became interested in this link, the more I think I drove my wife crazy. For the last 13 years she was a special education department chair at a middle school in Spotsylvania County Va. Working with 7 & 8th graders with special needs. This is her with the sunglasses on – working in the sped dept. office A 10x10 windowless concrete block box that served as the workspace for her and her colleagues. About six people worked in that space at any given time. So there she is, trying to get some work done at her “desk” working & sharing space with people on the phone, eating lunch, and practically sitting on top of her. I’m sure this looks familiar to a few people here today Now having a designer for a husband can be quite challenging. Especially when he follows you to work with a camera, and starts asking you never ending questions about your office, your classroom, challenges you are facing, why various problems are or are not getting solved. Asking why does every answer you give me begin with “that’s just how we do it, or Administration makes those decisions” etc….
- Being a rather persistent fellow, I convinced my wife, her principal, and the county school board to allow me to partner with Radford University to to conduct a five week study of the special education department. With the blessing of the Spotsylvania county school system we began the process of teaching them Design Thinking. With the goal of empowering them teachers in solving solutions to countless problems which they had essentially written off as the cost of doing business – simply accepted as unsolvable challenges that they lived with each and every day. Here are a few of the faculty engaged in an exercise we built for them during one of their planning periods. This process was a huge success, and resulted in some very interesting solutions. But I will get more into that later.
- So why design thinking. Why was this the tool that I thought could help. And why is this the tool that can help all of you in your classrooms right now. In part it is because the world is changing. The problems we face are becoming more and more complex. This brings me to Dan Pink. He is a pretty amazing guy who I had the opportunity to see speak a few years ago. He is the author of Whole new Mind, and Drive, two of the most influential business books of the last decade.
- In his presentation he noted that the premium has moved from “problem solving to problem finding as a skill” The world used to put tremendous value on problem solving. But now in an age of internet communication, you tube, Wikipedia etc… anyone can figure out how to solve simple problems. And once they have, they can share that information to an entire world of people who can now duplicate that success on their own. I fixed a washing machine a few weeks ago by watching a short video clip. Problem solved. But what about the really big challenges that we haven’t solved yet. What about the big problems we have not truly identified yet. How do we know if we are solving the right problem. This is where the future of opportunity lives. This is what we need to be teaching our kids. This is what design thinking does best. Ensuring that we are solving the right problem. Dan also said in that presentation that the US spends more $$ buying fancy trash bags than the entire GDP of over 90 nations combined. In other words - the entire net worth of half of the worlds nations (just under 200 countries) is less than what we spend bagging our garbage. Completely unrelated food for thought - but one big example of the complexity of challenges we are passing on to our next generation.
- So design thinking what is it – how does it happen. In the world of education DT exists at the convergence of teacher or student Needs, Empathic Solutions, and curriculum. All three of these things must be accounted for in providing truly breakthrough innovations.
- It is human centered All solutions can and must be derived from an understanding of the human experience.
- It is generated from gaining deep understanding and empathy for our users
- It is collaborative and builds on the ideas of other. Similar to improve comedy - it creates and thrives in an atmosphere of trust open thinking. We will come back to this one later as well!!!
- It turns problems into opportunities. Lemons into Lemonade – positive thinking creates new opportunities at every turn. A delayed flight led Richard Branson to realize he could reinvent the airline industry – and gave birth to Virgin Airlines
- It ensures that we are solving the right problem. This is what Dan Pink was talking about. This is why design thinking is so important not just in the business world, but especially in education. A great example is the take by Clayton Christensen “The question we typically ask is, “Why aren’t schools performing as they should?” Perhaps a key reason we’re so dissatisfied with the state of public K-12 education is that we’ve been asking the wrong question. If we asked instead, “Why aren’t students learning?”
- It is nonlinear and exploratory. I have two kids under age 11. Minecraft – need I say anymore.
- It develops divergent thinking. Design thinking requires that we generate the largest selection set possible of potential ideas. If we are going to change the world, the odds that we will do so from a small selection of ideas is pretty stupid. To make breakthroughs we need to generate the widest array of ideas possible, and to do so we have to defer our judgement, be comfortable with our own crazy ideas, and those of others around us. We have to feel safe and have fun when collaborating, building on each others ideas because sometimes the wackiest, dumbest idea is the seed for the next major breakthrough & the only reason no one ever thought of it before is because they were afraid to share it.
- Design Thinking requires that you prototype quickly , test your ideas, don’t get to married to one idea over another until you test how it works.
- I helps create T shaped people Not Mr. t shaped. But rather people with a wide breadth of knowledge in many subject areas paired with w deep knowledge in another.
- And finally you have to feel completely free to fail. And learn form the experience – failing early and often while is still inexpensive to do so. In the words of my favorite Mythbuster “Failure is always an option!”
- If you need to visualize this process in a more constructive fashion you can think of it a little bit like this. There are phases for: Gaining Empathy Defining your problem (ensuring you are solving the right problem) Creating ideas Prototyping those ideas in some tangible way and Testing them to fail early and fail often Now all the ways I have just described design thinking should hopefully look familiar to all of you but in a different way
- Most if not all educators are familiar with Blooms Taxonomy… When you look at it now however through the lens of design thinking you begin to see parallels. Developing understanding, applying what you are learning, analyzing the result, evaluating if it works, reiterating and creating totally new solutions!!!!
- We see even deeper parallels when we apply the lens of design thinking to active learning.
- We see it is student driven Focused on real world problems It is collaborative Students are learning by doing, prototyping, failing They are getting fast feedback on their work and iterating new solutions And it crosses a variety of subjects allowing students to go both wide and deep.
- When we see through this lens, design thinking is really just another take on active learning They are all rooted in the same fundamentals. Which means design thinking is not only an amazing tool for businesses, and organizations Or for teachers and their classrooms But also for teachers IN their classroom These tools can be used by administrators and teachers to innovate curriculum, policies, school and classroom layouts etc.. But also used by teachers who are looking for ways to allow students to solve problems. This is what the whole Maker movement is about right?
- So coming back to Spotsylvania County Schools. I have a short video to share from the early part of the experience with Spotsylvania County Schools – where the special education department had the opportunity to share their stories, and begin generating ideas for solving the challenges they faced on a regular basis.
- So now it’s your turn. We are going to do a quick d.thinking exercise ourselves – to see the power of this way of thinking first hand. There are numerous tools, activities, methods, and examples you an use to build your own d.thinking process – but I will start with a couple which I have found work really well in this type of presentation. [START WITH “YES AND” EXERCISE]
- We begin by identifying a challenge So we need a “how might we question” - to frame the challenge in a positive light. Then explore it from unexpected vantage points – always focused on the user. For todays exercise – lets imagine we have been asked to design a school bus stop Who are we solving for? What are they trying to achieve (an action word or verb) What are the circumstances, what is the context?
- So I am going to ask everyone here today to help me re-design the bus stop experience. Why? Well I think maybe the bus stop is a totally lost opportunity. We have these kids who are essentially a captive audience – who are bored and anxious to get moving along And who are essentially given no other outlet but to engage in disruptive behavior But this is not the right problem. We are not designing things (nouns) we are designing verbs (behaviors, experiences, etc…) So we need to phrase our question in an active, positive and constructive way!
- So lets reframe our question. How might we help (disruptive / bored / fidgety/ restless / curious) kids at the bus stop to have fun and learn, while safely waiting for the bus. Use Yes/And approach. AND brainstorm!!!!!!
- When I have led groups that might otherwise have a tendency for shutting down idea generation, I have found that this is a great activity to allow for a safe and fun way to improve and validate suggested solutions or ideas. Everyone pick one solution (post-it) from the wall. For 60 seconds – write down how you would implement that idea. Pass your paper to the person to your right. 2 min. write down everything that will go wrong - why it wont work. Pass the paper to the right. On this persons paper – read the original idea. See why it wont work. For 3 minutes – find a way to improve that idea – while maintaining the original intent
- This methodology can be applied regardless of whether you decide to use this process for yourself, your department, or within your classroom with your students. Remember that the activities exercises and subject matter can always be changed to focus on what you are trying to achieve! First, you have to identify the problem. If this is for use in your class, ask the students to tell stories of what concerns them most in the world, or at school. Is it Bullying, School resources, a fundraising challenge, homework? Maybe it is a problem based on a class lecture or topic! Then have the students understand WHO is affected by this problem. Remember that d.thinking is human centered. We are solving for people! Maybe this is online research done individually, but presented back to their peers. Even better, maybe they interview other classmates from another class or another grade level. Or someone from their community. Once you know who you are solving for ask the students to reframe the question – or challenge to be solved. Make it specific to the person or people they are solving for. Identifying the right problem to solve is one of the most important parts of the process. If we don’t get that right, it will not matter how groundbreaking our solutions might be. Then have the students generate ideas in groups. In a positive and reinforcing way - similar to what we just did as a group! Once they generate ideas, have them get feedback. Pitch ideas from one group to another, one class to another, or to the original people they interviewed. Then revise their ideas quickly. Have them learn the value of fast iteration, and not getting to bought into one “Perfect” idea – especially if it is their own. Then it’s time to get crafty, build prototypes. Create a skit Again, it is important to get feedback. Learn what works, what does not work, analyze, revise, evaluate, create!!!!!