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I know it is too weird to read a sentence like "The decade of Design Thinking is ending and I, for one, am moving on to another conceptual framework: Creative Intelligence, or CQ." before the week dedicated to investigate design thinking. Bruce Nussbaum, the author of the sentence above, introduces a new dimension.

A very good website explaining the main features of design thinking and providing samples and toolkits for "design thinking". You can sign up for free to download design thinking toolkit which helps you to design a project.

Excuse me for revealing the source of the "discussion question 1". Please forgive me if I made a mistake but I didn't know discussion questions for this week. :)

A brief explanation of design thinking.

This is a good sumary of learning by design. Moreover, first video that emphasizes role of public presentation sessions inlearning by design process.

Good explanation of steps on design processes. In Vahide's video, talking to stakeholders were mentioned as "Learn from people". Here they say about the same step as "Generate emphaty map" :).These two videos successfully consolidate each other. Thanks.

Suppose you are part of a thriving business and need to branch out and find that next big thing. Or say you want to change a behavior, like getting people...a lot of people...to use less energy in their homes. How would you go about it? Design thinking is a powerful tool to tackle the unknown. It's a means of going on an expedition, without a map, without even knowing the destination, but with the confidence that you'll end up somewhere great. Let's make it tangible with an example that captures the five key elements of design thinking. Daylight was given the challenge of getting kids in America to move more to help fight childhood obesity. The project started with an idea--provide kids with a digital music player that has a motion sensor, then give them rewards based on their activity. But the big question was, would kids really use it? What could make the experience so compelling that they would use it long enough to see the health benefits.

Very nice video on design thinking. We can clearly see how they continuously modify the end product after collecting data of its users. First they talk to target group to have an idea about how an activity meter can be. Based on their ideas, they try to find patterns which will later evolve to design principles. Based on those principles, they develop a real product-an activity meter. Then they use it iteratively with children and make modifications in order to make it better and better. It is a clear video of how to do a design study.

"The impact of design thinking in education is two-fold: First, by requiring the use of multiple lenses when looking at a problem, design thinking demonstrates that bringing together seemingly disparate perspectives can often be the key to finding effective solutions.Second, and perhaps more importantly, design thinking emphasizes that collaboration and the use of outside resources are critical to both the learning and problem solving process-a notion that will be valuable to their scholarly, professional and personal lives."

A figure on design thinking

In this video kids build their designs and exhibit them, hence their parents could see what their children do, how they learn etc.

In that video, there is a project called Kids Build. Children built cities based on given maps of Boston. They construct the city environment by different materials. Although, it seems really fun, I did not understand what teachers target to teach students? Is it for only creativity? Since children are not so grown up, concrete thinking was targeted I think. Still, what was the "content" is still blur for me. edit: Opps, duplicate :).

Here's a previously-shared example of learning by design by "Kids Build!" project. I think just getting the hands of the kids dirty is an outcome by itself. Although they do not possess abstract thinking skills at such a young age, I still think these are the ages when an interest sparks in the child, which could then turn into a passion.

An award winning documentary on design thinking.

Great documentary and really inspiring :) quote from the documentary : I hate the word of 'thinking' cause you are not 'doing'

Some ideas on design thinking for educators. I really like their toolkit. You can download it once you sign up.

A virtual crash course in design thinking.

You can take a look (a free version for teachers and parents)

This tutor provides only practice opportunities for students but I am not sure that whether it includes problem solving context

I reallu like this application. Students can learn both geometri and how they can draw their way not to crash some objects. But The sam question came my mindwith Filiz, is this develop higher order thinking skills?

It is an application for mobile phones which you can view elements as virtual from your screen. You can view all elements seperately and also, if you put together them, they can from a product that you can see from the screen. The principle is very simple, after you install the application to your phone you can download the pdf of element cubes from the websites. You can also, view the demo from the website of app; http://elements4d.daqri.com/#demo

I think this app looks fine to visualize an abstract topic which is elements. I agree with you Armağan about the necessity of appropriate curriculum. For example, an activity could be helpful that allows to students arrange the locations of elements based on their atomic radius in a periodic table. Therefore, the students can observe atomic radius of elements is increasing or decreasing when running left to right in rows and running up and down in columns of the periodic table. Like Selçuk said that those applications are used in other fields too. I've seen some works of Bilal Özçakır when I joined at a presentation. He visualizes the geometric shapes in 3D from QR codes. For example, you see a geometric shape from every perspective of it and you test yourself with how top or bottom perspectives of a geometric shape looks like by looking its one side. Thus, you have a realistic experience with virtual objects in immediacy.

I wrote at OdtüClass forum that interested people get learn from the beginning about developing at least basic applications. When I talked with Özçakır, he also said to me he learned the whole process from the online sources with his efforts. Of course, instead of open-source applications; the aim will be be to gain money but I think appearing more amateur applications cause many advantages at these areas.

Some inspirational ideas on design thinking from IDEO.

I like his ideas, they are indeed inspirational and realizable. And the OpenIdeo Platform (Global community to solve big challenges for social good - http://www.openideo.com/ ) is very promising.

Below are 45 design thinking resources you can use to lead this movement in your own classroom.

The author here suggests an alternate view and underlines that less structure will bring a lot more learning. The applicability and the feasibility of the design thinking is being questioned.

The real world problem: Burning of waste tyres pollutes the environment Solution: Encouraging people to recyle tyres tu use them for production of furniture. It is a real example of project based on design thinking for change that children drive in their communities.

It is very meaningful to see how children engage in problems and be creative to solve them. Educators should not limit students' minds into some patterns. They can create their own learning environments if they are encouraged and guided.

Thank you for sharing an application of design thinking with us Elanur Hoca.

Here, we try to answer your questions about the different integrating components of a design learning experience into familiar, pre-existing scenarios that play out in every school.

The article mentions key features of LBD from a practical perspective. But, I still have some questions about how to apply LBD effectively in traditional classroom environment while trying to keep up with the requirements of the curricula in practice. The current curricula are assumed to be designed considering the contemporary approaches and methods. But the more I learn about the current improvements in the field the more I question our " current curricula".

David Perkins has conducted long-term programs of research and development in the areas of teaching and learning for understanding, creativity, problem-solving and reasoning in the arts, sciences, and everyday life. He has also studied the role of educational technologies in teaching and learning and has designed learning structures and strategies in organizations to facilitate personal and organizational understanding and intelligence. His inquiries reflect a conception of mind that emphasizes the interlocking relationships among thinking, learning, and understanding. The three depend deeply on one another. Meaningful learning aims at understanding and depends on thinking with and about what one is learning. Effective thinking in the subject matters and in general involves understanding the resources of the mind and learning to deploy them sensitively and systematically

Turkey has been undergoing education reforms because of the same reason" ..the current system was designed and conceived for a different age..." Do you think the reformed curricula meet the requirements of 21st century? I think wee need to reform the minds of people who are designing the curricula in this country...

It is like imitating other countries and take their education systems for granted rathr than reforming. Whatever it is, the education systems not only in East but also in some parts of west are based on social efficiency theory and students are conceived as to-be-workers. Self-actualization and intellectual development are not even in the secondary place.

as it is mentioned in the video, our educattion system also kill the creativity of the students and cause them to behave like robots.I think we loose huge amont of potential to produce artistic, scientific and tecnological productions.

I've watched the video twice and in the end I've felt some concerns about the results of the studies. In the "how people learn" part, researchers were testing the storage and connection system of the brain through some high-tech tools. However, does neuropsychology provide enough evidence on the functioning of the brains? Can we generalize the results to all people from all cultures? I am not the one who is against neuropsychology, but for me one discipline may not give an appropriate answer to such a deep question. My second concern is about the integration of computer programs into the curriculum as a major learning tool. We see a program where "Betty" is speaking and giving feedback on the video. The program seems user friendly, but what about the negative aspects and limitations of the integration of technology into learning? Ok, I agree that we have to adapt to the rapid technological changes in the society. However, is technology the key to all learning processes? Plus, the program is designed on the mapping of the concepts. Does concept mapping make a curriculum compelling all the time? I am not sure about all characteristics of the program, but if it hasn't been designed in a challenging style and if all students come up with the same products, then how will they develop their knowledge and reasoning abilities? I couldn't find an answer to that. As for the part "effective teaching", I am in the same opinion with the researchers that there should be a connection between the real world and the subject taught. Moreover, I think the integration of the disciplines is difficult but a very good way of giving meaning to life. Besides, in the video we see teachers as a guide, as a facilitator and there is no doubt that providing individual support to the students helps students feel more involved.

Firstly, even if it is designed by utilizing modern technology and different understanding, which makes it a more developed and complicated one, the program used in the video reminded me the teaching machines of old times. It gives the priority to the cognitive aspect of learning. This seems to be a one-dimensional approach which underestimates the social aspect of learning. I think the value of classroom interaction for effective learning cannot be replaced by any kind of computer programs. Research on brain is really important and it provides very useful insights for learning and instructional activities. However, it should be supported by the findings of research by social psychologists as well. The very same individual may perform at varying levels when he is taught with the same methods in different environments. I personally experienced many times that even the absence of one individual in my classes affected the teaching an learning processes in a negative or positive way depending upon the classroom dinamics.