Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit

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Message Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit The Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit contains the process and methods of design adapted for the context of K–12 education. It offers new ways for educators to be intentional and collaborative as they design solutions for their schools, empowering educators to create impactful solutions for complex challenges. Teachers all over the globe are using it to create new solutions for their classrooms, schools and communities—using empathy to help develop curriculum, engaging students in helping to design their spaces and working with each other to create new tools and processes for school-based challenges. The effort is helping teachers become agents of change within their schools, driving new small- and large-scale innovations. At IDEO, we’ve been using similar processes, methods and tools for years in tackling some dauntingly complex challenges. More often than not, we’ve experienced how Design Thinking helps to get to the next step. That’s why we are excited to see how it can impact the world of education. The partnership with Riverdale Country School has enabled us to create this toolkit and make it broadly and freely available. The Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit gives teachers the tools, methods and process of Design Thinking—discovery, interpretation, ideation, experimentation and evolution—as a way to help them explore the application in the real-world scenarios they face with students. The toolkit—including the Designer’s Workbook, Workshops and ongoing, free, 5-week virtual class—hone skills and empowers teachers to create desirable solutions in three ways: • TOOLKIT: The toolkit lays out a series of steps that can help teachers develop new, innovative solutions designed with people at the center. It contains in-depth instructions and explanations as highlighted by each step in this workbook. The toolkit—in both digital and printed form—provides examples from educators of how they’ve been using design thinking in their work. • WORKBOOK: The Designer’s Workbook is filled with step-by-step instructions for completing a design challenge using the design thinking process. This workbook is a quick-start guide to the design thinking process and is best used in combination with the Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit. The workbook helps teachers structure their process and capture their thoughts. • WORKSHOPS: In partnership with many organizations, regular workshops have been conducted since 2010 with teachers to introduce them to design thinking. The workshop has been deployed with individual institutions, and in an open-enrollment format that allowed teachers throughout the world to sign up for a one-day learning event. In August 2012, a free, 5-week virtual class led more 3,500 educators through the stages of the design thinking process and helped participants explore the application in the real-world scenarios they face with their students. All the materials were posted online, so participants could work through the projects and activities at their own pace. Teachers from New York’s Riverdale Country Day School along with experts in design were available for office hours and live chats. Visit the Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators site for stories, case studies, process outlines, engagement opportunities, and more. http://www.ideo.com/work/toolkit-for-educators

The Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit contains the process and methods of design adapted for the context of K–12 education. It offers new ways for educators to be intentional and collaborative as they design solutions for their schools, empowering educators to create impactful solutions for complex challenges. Teachers all over the globe are using it to create new solutions for their classrooms, schools and communities—using empathy to help develop curriculum, engaging students in helping to design their spaces and working with each other to create new tools and processes for school-based challenges. The effort is helping teachers become agents of change within their schools, driving new small- and large-scale innovations.

At IDEO, we’ve been using similar processes, methods and tools for years in tackling some dauntingly complex challenges. More often than not, we’ve experienced how Design Thinking helps to get to the next step. That’s why we are excited to see how it can impact the world of education. The partnership with Riverdale Country School has enabled us to create this toolkit and make it broadly and freely available.

The Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit gives teachers the tools, methods and process of Design Thinking—discovery, interpretation, ideation, experimentation and evolution—as a way to help them explore the application in the real-world scenarios they face with students. The toolkit—including the Designer’s Workbook, Workshops and ongoing, free, 5-week virtual class—hone skills and empowers teachers to create desirable solutions in three ways:
• TOOLKIT: The toolkit lays out a series of steps that can help teachers develop new, innovative solutions designed with people at the center. It contains in-depth instructions and explanations as highlighted by each step in this workbook. The toolkit—in both digital and printed form—provides examples from educators of how they’ve been using design thinking in their work.
• WORKBOOK: The Designer’s Workbook is filled with step-by-step instructions for completing a design challenge using the design thinking process. This workbook is a quick-start guide to the design thinking process and is best used in combination with the Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit. The workbook helps teachers structure their process and capture their thoughts.
• WORKSHOPS: In partnership with many organizations, regular workshops have been conducted since 2010 with teachers to introduce them to design thinking. The workshop has been deployed with individual institutions, and in an open-enrollment format that allowed teachers throughout the world to sign up for a one-day learning event. In August 2012, a free, 5-week virtual class led more 3,500 educators through the stages of the design thinking process and helped participants explore the application in the real-world scenarios they face with their students. All the materials were posted online, so participants could work through the projects and activities at their own pace. Teachers from New York’s Riverdale Country Day School along with experts in design were available for office hours and live chats.

Visit the Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators site for stories, case studies, process outlines, engagement opportunities, and more.