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P r o b le m
There is something fundamentally wrong with the education system as is. We are still running our schools based on an outdated, ineffective, and rigid industrial model. We treat young students like they are being manufactured and processed, as if undergoing the compulsory 18 years of schooling will form them into a whole, productive human being. I argue, and my research supports that this model of schooling is detrimental to the development and true education of a student. Students are evaluated by a battery of standardized tests. Emphasis is placed on rote memorization and the ability to retain facts that do not appear to have any applications to real life for the student. I believe that a more holistic view of learning is necessary to better serve the student. Schools do not cater to the personal, social, and emotional needs and characteristics of an individual system. When a child does not fit into the rather rigid picture of what a succesful student is supposed to look like, we see it as a failure of the individual student, rather than a larger, systemic failure. The way we school our children in the US, has not changed in over a century. I think it is time to rethink the way we view learning and teaching, and shift from a model of broadcast to networking, from recitation to synthesis, and from pass/fail to a spectrum of learning and engagement.
s o lu t i o n
I feel that the solution to the failing school systems can be found in a holistic, flexible, and creative approach, specifically a designfocused one. I wish to supplement what a young person might learn in school with a self-driven, family or community-supported design approach to learning and self-teaching. While schools are losing funding to art and music programs, much more emphasis is being placed on achieveing in standardized tests in math and science. However, I believe the key to a solid, engaging, and meaningful education lies at the place where these seemingly disconnected subjects meet. I believe that design can be used to learn anything. I also believe that if a student is engaged in what they are learning, they will retain more information and form a lasting love of learning and discovery.
P e rs o n a l D e v elo p m en t Solutions My interests lie at this intersection of traditional school subjects, personal and social development, and visual Traditional School s u bj e c t s
design and design thinking. I believe, and my research has helped me to prove that design can be employed to not only teach
Visual Design and Design Thinking
and learn but to allow the learner to create deep meaning and connections around the learned content. I’d like to explore this concept and help to create various applications to prove this hypothesis.
line shape form value space
Design Principles Visual Design Elements
design for social change clients higher ed communication design career product design architecture interior design service design writing comprehension literature
english/language arts ecology physics astronomy geology biology physics chemistry
Design THinking Design Practice
traditional school subjects
science foreign language
social studies
Personal &
healthy relationships and friendships being part of a family privacy and personal space sex education self expression
Design Process: define observe learn revise prototype innovation ideate brainstorm research history algebra trig math geometry calculus
Social Developement
drugs and alcohol use prejuidice and tolerance health and body image wanting to be more adult issues of preadolescence developing a sense of self
perspective movement tension contrast order rythym negative space balance unity proportion local world regional national biographies geography government citizenship psychology sociology anthropology religion
keywords
Giving collaboration learning community projects relationships interactions empower CREATIVITY INNOVATION CRITICAL THINKING
Learning + Design
a n O n li n e N e t w o r k f o r le a r n i n g a b o u t a n d p r a c t i i n g d es i g n
a D es i g n a n d lea r n i n g TO o lk i t.
Just for young girls,
For all tweens,
For all tweens,
Oriented towards a
Portfolio, blog,
All of the above and
with an emphasis on
with an emphasis
with an emphasis on
course-like, progress-
profile for sharing
collaboration/project
personal
on personal
“school� subjects
oriented setting
and commenting
element
development.
development.
W h at i s t h e t o o lk i t
A design learning toolkit that supplements art and design programs in schools. The program can be mentored by a parent, a classroom teacher, after school program, community leader, advisor for extracurricular activities, or other learner. The thinking behind the toolkit integrates ideas from unschooling, montessori, free school, and otherwise alternative methods of schooling. The toolkit can be used as an individual or group, for example a school group, neightbors, or sibilings. Learners work through the toolit, learning about visual design and design thinking through study and practice, while learning to apply the skills to school subjects and personal and social development.
G oa ls
Empower young people to take control of their own lives, personal development, and education. Give learners tools to teach themselves and encourage a love of learning and discovery, outside of or even in spite of an unproductive, exclusive and unhealthy educational institution. Foster a love and appreciation of good design and design thinking skills through study and practice. Enable a learner to synthesize learned content, concepts, or skills into developed materials through art and design. Encourage the learner to explore issues of identity and personal growth, such as race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, etc. Create a support community of like minded young people who can engage in meaningful, positive, supportive discussion around personal and social issues and design. Create a platform that encourages, even requires mistakes, discovery, questioning, and confusion on the path to learning.
ts
Inst
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TO o lk i t c o n s i sts of
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e s i g ne em t e nts
A map of some potential materials for the toolkit project.
hee
l Bo x
O n li n e Network
Share
Learn
C o l l a b o r at e
Users can post their work,
Users can review design
Users engage other users
whether related to a project
lessons that progress in
through this social element
through the “service� or
intensity and difficulty over
to the service. Through this
otherwise. It can be digital art,
time. These design lessons
section, you can comment
a scanned or photographed
involve graphic design, as well
on others work and receive
physical piece, or video.
as design thinking skills.
feedback on your own.
W h at i s t h e N e t w o r k A website and social network that allows young learners to learn design, share their work, and collaborate on projects, and discuss. The focus of the network is to create a support system for a young person to feel encouraged in their creative endeavors and to help them to be better thinkers. The network cna operate as a freef orm course in which students can progressive along a pathway as dictated by the website or they can skip around the materials to suit their interests. The main goal is that students share their work and find a community of like-minded kids. Like the tookit, the network will incorporate design thinking, visual design, school subjects, and personal and social developemnt.
Precedents
Design Thinking for Educators
Project INTERACTION is a 10-week long afterschool program in NYC that uses design to transform communities. It is a progressive and immersive experience but for obviously resasons, the student cannot work individually or on their own terms
Version One | April 2011
Kiwi Crates is an arts and craft kids for very young kids. Parents subscribe to the service and a different, themed set
Design Thinking for
of projects and materials is sent to the
Educators is a free, downloadable
child.
PDF handbook by IDEO to introduce design thinking into the classroom. A helpful resource for teachers but doesn’t address students directly.
at home.
Design Dossier: Graphic Design for kids is an introduction the history and practice of graphic design for childern. However, it lacks the idea of applying school subjects and personal development to design
Brainstorming
This diagram explores some details that come from the idea of creating a curriculum for using design to teach urban ethnography, an early conception of the project.
Brainstorming
This diagram came from my initial research, from which I determined that there is something wrong with the education system today. I then used what I have learned to write about exactly why that is, drawing connections between the issues.
Brainstorming