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ARTLAB+ is a digital media studio that gives local teens the opportunity to become integral members of a design team. They create new visitor experiences at the Hirshhorn, taking their inspiration from its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. ARTLAB+ designers hone crucial twenty-first century skills as they make videos, animations, wikis, games, podcasts, and more. By the end of every project session, the design team has created a unique product that enriches the museum experiences of other visitors and showcases each teen's creative growth. After-school, weekend, and weeklong ARTLAB+ workshops are held year-round to accommodate a wide variety of schedules. We welcome all teens, regardless of experience. Looks like a great way to help introduce twenty-first century skills- BB

This is really cool- combining mobile, situated learning in the real world, with creative group projects, and letting kids direct their own active, learning 'flow'.. Can this scale up to schools (or after-school programs), without access to museum artifacts and mobile devices?

The Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators contains the process and methods of design, adapted specifically for the context of education. You can download the toolkit by registering on the website.

I really like this approach. I'm going to check out the toolkit. I like the intro video and it's approach to design thinking in education as part of the story that each teacher has. This reminded me of what Dede spoke about today in class about how he always starts out with asking and understanding why a teacher is teaching...

Great find, Rupangi, thanks for posting it! I like IDEO's approach to things, and they have been branching out into development, too. It's cool that they are promoting design for education; I definitely think there are lots of application opportunities!

"..enabling and empowering others to solve their own problems is the best way to ensure successful projects, whether for a new product, a marketing campaign, training program or any other kind of project. Creating this sense of ownership and empowerment is also the best way to keep people (yourself included) engaged and growing." Good advice for product design and task design...

Newest Disney attraction called - Sum of All Thrills where kids get to design their own virtual roller coaster. It uses virtual-reality technology. "Disney hopes the interactive nature of the ride would also help kids learn that math and science can be fun."

While I would not consider this incredibly expensive ride a 'distruptive innovation' or even an emerging ed technology, what Epcot has done by bringing this DIY-VR concept to the masses (if you are one of the masses that can A- afford Disney and B-have the patience to wait in line for `5-6 hours) is very important to future ed tech innovation strategies. The progression/invention of such cost prohibitive entertainment tools will fall squarely on the high-end theme parks and consumer venues. The challenge has been set by Epcot and now others must either compete directly or develop a better or more accessible solution. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few cost saving innovations that might be developed in this 'race'- Artificial G-Force Engline: variable air pressure, smart-chairs, fans

How test designers are trying to move away from standardized tests to computer programs that can measure a myriad of skills simultaneously through simulations and "stealth monitoring."  Both Chris Dede and Howard Gardner are mentioned.

What makes good instructional design in the real world? These are the 2011 winners of the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program. Anyone interested in entering the instructional design field would probably be interested in watching some of these videos.

Nice contrast - one company believes in design and the other in data.

I'm intrigued by the writer's argument that a focus on data (Google) helps make the existing technologies more effective and powerful, while the focus on design (Apple) helps create new technologies and bring about revolutions in technology usage. It seems to me that we must have both existing to reap maximum benefit, but it's not clear whether the two ideologies together will be as effective as they are apart.

Articles gets into the details of how the tech is designed. I'm more interested in the implication of touch screens that are flexible and thus potentially made more ubiquitous than we can currently imagine. Like in the Microsoft video, what if every surface we interact with is a digital portal? What implications not only for technology, but all forms of human action and interaction?

Some considerations about game design and universal design considerations about game design and universal design

For those of you interested in trying out a bit of augmented reality at home, try out this green energy augmented reality application available from the GE web site. You will need a printout of the glyph (the black square design provided on the web site) and a webcam in order to get this to work. Audio volume adjust according to the distance of the glyph away from the webcam. This little AR app was designed using ARToolKit originally created by Dr. Hirokazu Kato.

Augmented Reality Sample created for General Electric using ARToolKit. You will need a webcam and a printout of the glyph (the black box design that the AR object will need to anchor to).\n\nI can't directly anchor to the augmented reality sample, so please bring your mouse pointer down to the bottom of the browser window to where it says, "Navigate the Smart Grid," and click the augmented reality icon on the far right of the navigation bar that appears.

<>-- This is a place to share digital designs that can be made into real, physical objects. Let's create a better universe, together! Why be virtual when you can make it real...

New York classroom where curriculum is entirely in video games. The program is called "Quest to Learn". Students learn math, english and other core subjects by playing multi user video games. The games are designed by learning games designers and are focused on problem solving.

I've heard of 3D printers before. I thought it would be interesting to try out in schools. For example, if students were designing towns to learn volume and surface area. This could help with spatial learning, which is essential to understanding math. I don't know how feasible this it though...

Hi Irina, Yes! Nothing like seeing your ideas take a concrete shape. Looks like the cost of these printers is comparable to that of SmartBoards, so it may be feasible to try them out in classrooms pretty soon. That said, unless the projects are well integrated into the curriculum, they will end up as another fancy toy.

Harvey and I had a conversation about these last week - Harvey spoke of the way that these printers could open up opportunities for those who can visualize their creations in their heads, but have trouble putting those ideas in tangible form. We spoke of the potential in art and design.

This online assessment tool, designed by HGSE grad Zach Stein, may feed into last week's discussion re: assessment...

This online assessment tool, designed by HGSE grad Zach Stein, may feed into last week's discussion re: assessment... Has anyone seen or used this tool?

Head of education practice at world renowned design firm IDEO weighs in on education.

An important perspective on how leadership is needed to connect the worlds of art, technology and design.

Guidelines for embedding access into game design.

Similar to MIT's Scratch, Globaloria positions itself as helping students develop STEM knowledge, digital literacy skills, and college readiness through game design. The program markets itself as a blended learning model.

This article discusses how students at one school learn by designing their own video games. There is a separate class set up for this. The article exposes many challenges to implementing this type of curriculum.