Tuesday, June 26 – 5 Reasons Why Every Student Needs to Think Like a Designer

• Presenter: Michael Cohen (The Tech Rabbi)
• Session resources: https://thetechrabbi.com/ 

This session focuses on how to address ISTE standard 4 (Innovative Designer).

How can we design instructional experiences that tap into the different kinds of design? Graphic, interior, product, instructional, user experience, etc.

The original meaning of the word design comes from Italian and relates to PURPOSE.

Design is all about thinking about how to tweak and improvise and improve.

• Deliberate design process
• Innovative artifacts
• Solving authentic problems

Need to offer kids the opportunity to make something, mess up, and then try it again so it gets better.

Design starts with how to look at it. To influence what you do with it.

What is, what if, what could?

Collaboration si a prerequisite for innovation.

Our students don’t know what they’re good at. Or they don’t realize that what they’re good at matters. We need to help them see.

That’s a key point about creativity: If we pretend like it’s always awesome, we miss out on figuring things out. Creativity is not an overnight thing. You have go out and run a marathon and do badly to go back and get better. Elon Musk did not just wake up one day and decide to go to Mars.

Very fun exercise: 30 circle challenge. Check out my artwork!! Template made by The Tech Rabbi. What other ideas do you have? (And yes, I know I missed sports balls!)

Reach out to the Tech Rabbi for the design innovator challenge (they cut out squares, pick 2 of them, and combine the two things to design a new product.)

Use digital tools. Consider constraints. Calculated risks.

ComboPhoto (check him out on Instagram)- go on Adobe Spark and do combo photos.

Need to digitally document the design process.

Issues with design (promoting creativity) – ambiguity, perseverance, open-ended problems. Talk about these things with design challenges (like in the circle challenge).

The first time through something (especially with tech), it’s gonna be a mess. It’s gonna take forever, be a mess, and come out bad.

The best projects are the ones students struggle with. They just want to study for a test. If we approach education like there is a “next time,” <<something something something.>>

Going back to ISTE standards, you can’t have innovative designer without reflection.

Research: Gartner’s Hype Circle of Innovation

My brain fried and I couldn’t take any more notes. Will go back and review his site though!