I was lucky enough to continue working with the good folks of ECIS, even in the middle of a pandemic. Below you will find my slideshow from my talk. Soon, I hope to include a series of videos to go along with the actual slideshow. Until then, enjoy the highlight and included video resources that I use most often when consulting and facilitating around the … Continue reading #ECISLeadership 2020 Design Thinking to Maximize Outcomes
I recently had the chance to talk to a colleague in another international school in another country where they have a part-time role with the title Community Experience Architect. What a title and what a statement about that school in their desire to be a forward thinking school. Let’s break down the title for a moment. Architect is sometimes shorthand for someone who has designed … Continue reading Front End and Back End Design Thinking for School Improvement
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Ingredients for Design Thinking with Your School: One teacher “spur/cheerleader” One outside “design guru” One teacher “unstoppable force” A pile of middle school kiddos A well-stocked design studio One and only one main goal A pinch of luck This is the story about how ASB Mumbai middle school students were able to make a mobile library in only one week. This is how a principal … Continue reading A Recipe to Exceed your Design Thinking Expectations (a story from Mumbai, India)
This is Part II of the blog post “Asking Why? at you School Can be Dangerous” Daring to do something doesn’t mean knowing what to do Doubt is something real to contend with and feeling uncomfortable is part of knowing you might be onto something important. Still, many of us remain silent in the face of an issue we all know isn’t okay. Take the … Continue reading When to say “Why Not‽” To Be Daring On Your Campus with Design Thinking
This is not another article looking to take down a trend in education. No. This is a statement of how much further a great idea is still to come. Should Design Thinking, in capital letters, manage to survive the great pendulum of time and trends in education, then it needs itself to iterate. See, my call to a new universal design model as one example … Continue reading Design thinking in education has a massive hole in it: the skills designers have.
In the schools I’ve worked and have been given real agency to make decisions, only a few meetings are usually set aside for the work of choosing a course of action and always the conclusion of this set of meetings has resulted a final decision to be implemented. The stakes are high as everyone in the room knows one final answer will come out of … Continue reading Step 4 of The Design Process: Develop Solutions (Prototyping)
After a diligent and timely process to understand the problem (Step 1) and to collect information as a self-study (Step 2), you are now fully ready to springboard into brainstorming, heck, your team may be chomping at the bit to dive right in! The critical element to success in brainstorming is to rely heavily on your work in the last two steps as a frame … Continue reading Step 3 of the Design Process: Brainstorm
The second step in many design processes is to research, collect information, and to more deeply understand the internal product/system to be redeveloped. In education, that information can come in the form of achievement data, community surveys, classroom observations, anecdotal evidence and from meetings designed to try to organize information that relates to the the problem being addressed. This article will focus on collaboration and … Continue reading Step 2 of The Design Process: Collecting Information
Step One of The Design Process is to Define the Problem. Understanding and leveraging validation over verification may be a much greater tool to identifying the right problem to solve — more than even a focus on empathy.In fact, when working through the design process and design thinking on your campus, being careful and deliberate with verification and validation to ask the right question can … Continue reading Step 1 of The Design Process: Verification vs. Validation
Design Thinkers have a good thing going – Continue the journey with me won’t you? Design Thinkers in education have a good thing going for them. There is so much to gain from the deliberate process and great outcomes to be had. Most exciting may be better meetings, happier staff and a real process to improve your school. All of which may lead to better … Continue reading What Design Thinking Can Become
Skhooldesign with Jim Ellis 