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I am extremely honoured to announce that in conjunction with Dave and Shelley Burgess, the creators of the DBC, Inc. line of books, we have formed a subsidiary publishing company, IMpress. This is a joint venture that will focus on publishing four to six books each year, focused on innovation, empowerment, leadership and unleashing talent at all levels of an organization. Most of the books will have a connection to my book, "The Innovator's Mindset", but will not be limited to this. We want to join forces to publish timeless manifestos by incredible educators that will truly push education forward in a positive way.

That is why I am extremely proud to announce our first book, "Empower", by . This book is remarkably special and different than most books in education. When I read the first draft, I was not only amazed by the message, but its unique style makes it one of the most readable books in education. It is also LOADED with tons of practical ideas. It is an amazing read, and I am proud that this will be the first in a line of books from AJ Juliani and John Spencer IMpress.

Here is the foreword from the book which hopefully sets the stage for the rest of this amazing read. I hope you enjoy it.

Recently I was listening to a teacher talk about their more "traditional" view of education and how "compliance" wasn't a bad thing for students. He even went a step further, saying students should be "obedient."

I cringed a little.

Okay, maybe a lot.

First off, let's look at the definition of obedient:
Obedient-complying or willing to comply with orders or requests; submissive to another's will.
Is this what we really want from our students? That they are simply submissive to the will of their teachers? Do we want to develop generations of students that will challenge conventional ideas and think for themselves-or simply do what they are told?

I do not know many teachers who would want to be "obedient" to their principals. We teach the "golden rule" to our students; we must follow it ourselves.

So let's look at the word compliant.
Compliant-inclined to agree with others or obey rules, especially to an excessive degree; acquiescent.
Is compliance a bad thing to teach in education? Not really. In some ways, people have to be compliant. Think of tax season. You have to be compliant with the rules that are set out by your government.

As educators, there are times when we have to be compliant in our work as well. You have deadlines that you have to meet (i.e., report cards).

Compliance is not a bad word, but it should not be our end goal in education. My belief is that we need to move beyond compliance, past engagement, and on to empowerment.

These ideas are not separate but, in some ways, can be seen as a continuum.

Let's go back to the word compliance. Has that really ever been the end goal of schools? Maybe as a system overall, but I think the best educators have always tried to empower their students. They know that if you are truly good at your job as an educator, eventually the students will not need you.

That is why "lifelong learning" has been a goal in education forever. If our students are truly compliant when they walk out of schools, they will always need someone else's rules to follow. To develop the "leaders of tomorrow," we need to develop them as leaders today.

Focusing on empowering students is seen by some as "fluffy;" students just show up to school to do whatever they want. This is not my belief at all.

Empowering students teaches them to have their own voice and follow their own direction, but if they are going to be successful, they will need to truly have the discipline (using the definition, "train oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way") to make it happen. "Empowerment" and "hard work" are not mutually exclusive; in fact, both elements are needed to make a true difference in our world.

Think about how many of our kids in school talk about becoming "YouTubers." If you truly want to make that happen, you do not apply to some job, but you will have to focus on creating content consistently over time while building an audience. This might be your dream, but to make it happen, there is a lot of work to be done. Becoming a content creator allows you to follow your own path, yet to be successful, hard work is needed.

I love this quote: ¹

"Hard work does not guarantee success, but lack of hard work guarantees that there will be no success."-Jimmy V

Helping students find their own paths-not the ones we set out for them-has always been the focus in education, yet we need to be more explicit about this path.

A.J. Juliani and John Spencer do a great job of sharing why empowering our students is not only important in our world today but crucial. As they state, this is about shifting our mindset, which will ultimately lead to students not only believing they can change the world, but doing it because of school.

We all want our students to be respectful to educators and peers. Hopefully, we all want them to walk out of school, become intrinsically motivated, and find their own ways to success and happiness. Compliance is sometimes a part of this, but it is not the end goal. Are we trying to develop students to fit into our world, or are we hoping students feel they have the power to create a better world both now and in the future?

"The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."-Steve Jobs

Your legacy as an educator is always determined by what your students do. You change the world by empowering your students to do the same.

John Spencer, a great friend and amazing thinker, has a course on "Design Thinking for Teachers", that is happening now. I know John is very thoughtful about his work, and has helped many educators embrace "Design Thinking" in their classrooms, in a way that is easy to connect with, yet powerful for students. If you are interested in signing up for the course, please click the following link: Design Thinking for Educators (Course)
To get a discount for this course, please use the discount code " spencer ", when purchasing.
To learn more about John and his thoughts on innovation in education, empowering students, and how Design Thinking can unleash these things in your students and your classrooms, check out his post below, that was originally posted on his blog.
In a recent post, I wrote about why I want to see students become innovators:

Unfortunately, the system isn't designed for innovation. For years, schools have been stuck in a one-size-fits-all factory model, where students passively consume content. Some people will point out that this model is outdated. However, I would argue that factory education was a bad idea from the start. Because here's the thing: kids aren't widgets.

While one-size-fits-all works great for socks, it's not ideal for minds. Kids need to dream and wonder and imagine. They need to design and build and tinker. This is why I love design thinking. It's a flexible framework that guides students through specific phases in the creative process.

What happens when kids become design thinkers?

The following are some of the benefits I have noticed when kids engage in design thinking.

1. They move from engaged to empowered. Design thinking honors student agency, because they are the ones asking the questions, doing the research, generating ideas, and creating the final product. When they own the creative process, they own their learning.

2. They become problem-solvers. Real problem-solvers. The kind of problem-solvers who actually create the solutions. It's not always easy. It can take time. Sometimes they get frustrated by all the mistakes. But by the end, they view themselves as problem-solvers - and this is the kind of self-concept that continues outside of school.

3. They grow more empathetic. Design thinking begins with a place of humility. You aren't just making something. You are making something that serves an audience. This requires deep empathy. It might be a service project or a product or something you are publishing. Each approach requires a different kind of empathy. If this happens in a culturally responsive way, students can also learn cultural humility.

4. They remain curious. Design thinking begins with this sense of wonder and curiosity. It honors this natural desire to explore and to ask tons of questions. Too often, students internalize the idea that learning is all about answering questions. However, design thinking reminds us that learning begins with inquiry.

5. They learn how to work collaboratively. Traditional school work requires students to be dependent on their teacher as the source of all information. Individualized learning shifts to independence. But design thinking teaches students to work interdependently, balancing the needs of the group with the need for personal expression.

6. They view themselves as makers. By sharing their product with the world, they participate in a global community of creativity. They can also share their creative journey in what Austin Kleon describes as "showing your work." In the process, they are more likely to appreciate the creativity around them.

7. They value the diversity of creative mindsets. Here students experience a bigger definition of creativity. In design thinking, students might be hacking a system, solving a problem, engineering a solution, tinkering, tweaking a process, testing ideas, gathering data or dreaming up new ideas. In the process, they learn to value the creative mindsets of everyone around them.

8. They learn the power of creative constraint. For all the talk of "thinking outside the box," this is a chance for students to learn how to "think inside the box," working with specific limitations as they prototype. Here, they learn that limitations are often the very design features for their finished work.

9. They see the value of iterations. Too often, students are punished for getting the wrong answer. They are stuck in grading systems where they get an average on their scores. With design thinking, they have an entire phase devoted to refining their work. This doesn't mean they don't need to have any deadlines, but it does mean they have the time and the permission to keep working on a product until they are ready to send it to an authentic audience.

10. They become creative risk-takers. Design thinking encourages students to engage in creative risk-taking at every stage. In the research phase, students can engage in divergent thinking, learning that every question matters. In the ideation phase, they get over the fear that their ideas might be "dumb" as they generate and combine ideas. In the creating and revising phases, they realize that the only true failure is giving in to fear of failure.

In other words, when students embrace design thinking, they develop a maker mindset. They define themselves as problem-solvers.

My Journey with Design Thinking

When I first began teaching, I knew that students would thrive in a creative environment. I wanted them to embrace the maker mindset. However, I felt crippled by fear. I was afraid that I didn't have enough resources. I was scared that their success in a creative project wouldn't translate into higher test scores. I was concerned about classroom management issues (I had mistaken being busy with being engaged).

That's why I needed a framework. This is ultimately why I embraced design thinking. My students needed a different way to think about creative work. They needed something that would provide structure but also respect student agency and choice.

It's a bit of a debate where design thinking originated. Some claim that it started in the sixties with The Sciences of the Artificial. Others point to Design Thinking, which focused more on urban planning and architecture. Still others point to Robert McKim's work in Experiences in Visual Thinking. Like all great ideas, it has been an evolution, influenced by thousands of people. My work around Design Thinking has been influenced by people like Tom and David Kelley, Tim Brown, John Maeda, Peter Rowe (as well as organizations like Stanford d.school and IDEO).

But ultimately, I found that there were tweaks and iterations I needed to make to the existing design thinking frameworks. This is ultimately why I worked with AJ Juliani on the LAUNCH Cycle, a student-friendly design thinking framework for K-12 classrooms. We added a few key elements, including a broader starting point, an explicit stage of inquiry, a media literacy component and a final phase where they launch their work to an authentic audience.

You can learn more about it in our book Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in All Students or you could check out the video below:

Design thinking prepares students for a creative life - whether that is in business, in the social or civic spaces, in the arts, or in engineering. But it does this by allowing them create things that matter to them right now. It's not some far off "grown up" thing. It's something they can engage in right now as they create things that matter to them.

So, while it's easy to complain about standardized education, we can offer strategies like design thinking and project-based learning as alternatives that empower students to be the creative thinkers we know they can be.

Your students go through the process of coming up with a great idea...It could quite possibly be the beginning of a business, a medical breakthrough, or maybe even change the world. But an idea can't change the world unless people know about it.

Is this something we explicitly teach in schools?

Recently working with some amazingly thoughtful and forward thinking educators, we talked about simplifying a "passion project" that students were working on. Here were the four steps we came up with for their process:

1. Identify Your Question (Problem Finding)

2. Design Your Solution

3. Present Your Idea

4. Continue the Conversation

I was definitely influenced by the awesome book, "Launch", by AJ Juliani and John Spencer (must read book if you are looking at design thinking). The one component that I thought about was once people see your idea, how do they continuously connect with it? Dave Burgess often talks about this in depth when he focuses on building community, not simply "selling an idea".

We also have to realize that there is a dynamic where traditional "marketing" is changing as well. As we were talking about students creating commercials (which I did in school and loved), we talked about a little subtle element that people need to pay attention to; the first five seconds. The first five seconds are crucial, as so much advertising is moving online, and the "skip ad" button gives you a countdown to capture someone's attention. In the article, " The First 5 Seconds: Creating YouTube Ads that Breakthrough in a Skippable World ", they talk about how this is something that advertisers need to pay attention to:

Online video ad formats like YouTube TrueView ads have created a paradox for marketers. They remove traditional 30-second time constraints, giving brands more time to tell their stories. But introducing a "skip" button after five short seconds also means that advertisers have to create more engaging stories that not only grab their audience's attention, but hold it, too.

Is it time to start creating ads with the "skip" button in mind? Today, all ads are skippable-whether it's a function of the format or not. People have been honing their skipping skills for a while. Think about it: Viewers experimented with fast-forwarding on their VCRs, improved their skills with DVRs, and now are mastering ad choice on the web. Even if there's no option to fast-forward or skip, consumers can always pick up a smartphone, switch tabs, or find other ways to hit a metaphoric skip button.

Understanding theses little changes in the world like this are imperative. How do you make a resume stick out when so many resumes look the same? How important are digital portfolios for students to get jobs? If a student was googled, what would they find about them? How do they develop networks in areas of interest?

Entrepreneurial skills are important for students today that live in a global economy, trying to get ideas out in a world that is inundated with noise. Are we developing students to no only have the ideas, but to get their ideas out into the world?

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Imad HADDAD

John Spencer wrote an interesting post entitled, " Do we value experience? ", that struck a bit of a chord. He wrote his thoughts of the perception of older staff by others:

Veterans on staff are viewed as curmudgeonly. If they criticize the system, they're being cynical (as opposed to a young teacher, who is simply being "young and idealistic"). People make huge assumptions about them. They will be slow to adopt new strategies. They will be reluctant to new technology (in many cases they were the pioneers in educational technology, knowing computers on a deeper level than my generation).

First of all, I believe the title may be a bit misleading compared to the content. Many educators do value experience, but experience is something that comes from people at different points in their career; it is not only about age. I often speak to administrators, and often I am younger than most of them and I am hoping they are valuing my experiences that I am sharing, as I value theirs. We have done different things and we can learn from each other.

Why do so many people go on Twitter? Because of the very reason that they value experience. They look at what others are doing, their experiences, and tap into them. There are many educators out there that have more years of experience than I do, and if they are willing to share, I am willing to learn.

Does this really have to do with age?

Does everyone think like this? Absolutely not. But many educators are excited about connecting and learning from others and you are seeing more tap into the wisdom of others every day. John Spencer, on Twitter, brought up the notion that many teachers in their 50's have been overlooked for opportunities to become principals because they were viewed as "too old" (which is much too hard to determine unless you were doing the interview), where I have been told outright that I was too young for a specific job. Not that I didn't have enough knowledge and experience, but that I was too young. Ageism can happen on both sides of the spectrum, and as Josh Stumpenhorst said, it depends on the perspective of the person hiring. I want the best person for the job. I could care less whether you are 25 or 65. Rich Cantrell, a retired principal in his 70's, still connects and shares, and anytime he shares his wisdom with me, I listen. He stays relevant because he choose to continue learning.

I can only speak for myself, but what I value is the strengths that different people bring to the table. I value someone that is willing to grow and learn. I value someone who has a critical eye and asks tough questions. I value someone who is passionate about teaching and learning. What I know is, that once you are done learning, you will slowly become ineffective as a teacher. I have seen this trait in new and old teachers.

So to answer John's question from the title of his post..I do value experience. I appreciate what he is saying in his post, and believe that our long serving teachers bring a lot of knowledge that we have to appreciate, listen to, and think about it in our work every day with kids. I just believe that "experience" comes in many forms and being a learner myself, I am going to tap into it any way that I can.

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I am extremely honoured to announce that in conjunction with Dave and Shelley Burgess, the creators of the DBC, Inc. line of books, we have formed a subsidiary publishing company, IMpress. This is a joint venture that will focus on publishing four to six books each year, focused on innovation, empowerment, leadership and unleashing talent at all levels of an organization.

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Don Wettrick is disrupting the traditional educational system.

He expects the 60 students in his innovations class at Noblesville High School to fail. If they aren't willing to fail, they won't succeed in his class.

The year-long course, which Wettrick introduced at NHS in the fall of 2014, gives students the time and freedom to pursue practically anything they want.

It's not a study hall, nor is it a coding class. It's a class where students learn how to think.

They work independently on their projects, which have included directing theater productions, recording podcasts, launching a program to train babysitters how to handle children with disabilities, and building an engine.

Wettrick provides advice and guidance when needed, but he strongly encourages students to network with professional mentors.

His method is gaining attention. He regularly travels to give speeches on educational innovation; he published a book called "Pure Genius: Building a culture of innovation and taking 20 percent time to the next level"; and he won the 2015 Indiana Innovation Award presented by Centric.

As his students filed into the classroom one morning in April, Wettrick asked for updates.

"When are you shipping that package?"

"Are you printing today?"

"Does anyone need anything from me? Great! Go!" Wettrick said.

The students scattered to tweak website designs, shoot video, and fly a drone.

"This honestly looks like a pretty regular day."

A different way to teach

Wettrick spent about 10 years teaching middle school English-and he hated it.

"I love education," Wettrick said. "I don't like the current system."

Don Wettrick: "I love education. I don't like the current system." (IBJ photo/Eric Learned)

Then a few years ago, Noblesville Schools administrators were re-envisioning the education system, and Noblesville High School Principal Jeff Bryant reached out to Wettrick about a job opportunity.

It was the perfect fit.

Wettrick started in February 2014, and the class was offered that fall. He spends the first six to seven weeks in a traditional teaching role, then turns the students loose.

Wettrick rarely rejects ideas, but asks questions to weed out weaker proposals. Usually, the students figure out what isn't going to work.

"It'd probably be easier for him just to go, 'No, that's not a good idea. You can't do it,'" Bryant said. "It would save the kids trouble. It'd save Don headaches, but it's part of the process."

Wettrick's method isn't cast in stone. He regularly refines the teaching process, including experimenting with five or six different grading methods so far.

"My first two years were a holy mess," Wettrick said. "It was a great start, but each year gets incrementally better."

So far, his group has traveled across the country to meet other innovators at Google, Facebook and small startups in California and has video-chatted with several entrepreneurial leaders.

Wettrick is also in the process of creating an Innovations Center through a partnership with the city of Noblesville to provide an off-site location where students can work.

"I'll have kids that come in over break," Wettrick said, "because it's no longer class."

Spreading the passion

Wettrick can't hide his passion for this non-traditional teaching style, and he wants to replicate it at other schools.

"It's almost unfair if you're not doing this as a school, which is why I want this class in every high school and the beginnings of it in every elementary and middle," Wettrick said. "And I'm not going to stop until that's done."

He doesn't want to eliminate English, science or math from school curriculums, but he's frustrated by the strong emphasis on test scores and Advanced Placement classes.

"What about the kids who freaking started a company? What about the students who helped people on food stamps eat healthier?" Wettrick said. "That's not measured. ... Screw that."

He wants schools to enhance a student's education by dedicating time for innovation, even if the results can't be evaluated in a chart.

Bryant described it as finding the balance between traditional school subjects and independent thinking.

"I'm not saying we've completely found it here at Noblesville, but I think we've taken the risk to try to," Bryant said.

Wettrick hopes his class can prove standardized testing is not the only way to measure success and that even students who have low GPAs are still smart.

A recent Harvard University report that was endorsed or had contributors from other elite institutions across the country recommended placing less emphasis on standardized testing scores during the college admissions process.

"The tide is shifting, and we're ahead of the curve," Wettrick said. "All of a sudden, they're starting to talk about it. We've been doing it at Noblesville for some time now. That gives me hope."

Accepting failure

It's not an easy class.

The students flow through what Wettrick calls the "crisis curve," which starts with blindly thinking they can accomplish anything, moves to doubting they'll be successful, then continues the downward spiral to believing it's not even worth their time.

If they're successful, they'll figure out what's possible and have a plan for how to accomplish their goals.

"A lot of the projects fail to some degree, and we're OK with that," Bryant said. "It takes the kids sometimes a while to be OK with that because we've schooled them in school. We've told them failure is wrong."

Senior Bradford Wolf is finishing his second year in the class, even though he wasn't asked to return after his junior year because he spent most of it stuck in the crisis curve.

"He was among my worst," Wettrick said.

Now, Wolf has a year-old online children's book publishing company called The Storybook Factory. Wettrick describes him as being "on fire."

"I didn't do too well," Wolf said of his first year in the class. "It's a new way of doing school. You can finally do what you want to do, but how do you do it?"

Most of the students switch projects or change ideas throughout the year. It's made some realize what kind of career they'd like to pursue and helped others figure out what they're not interested in.

When they figure it out, Wettrick will do what he can to make it happen. He obtained 3-D printers for the school and set up a small recording studio in an unused room. He frequently reaches out to professionals to speak to the class or a specific student and allows students to travel off campus during class time.

"If it isn't abundantly clear, I love them," Wettrick said. "The world needs to see what they're doing."*

Read more Innovation Issue stories.

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Noblesville High instructor pushes to change the educational system

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Don Wettrick is disrupting the traditional educational system. He expects the 60 students in his innovations class at Noblesville High School to fail. If they aren't willing to fail, they won't succeed in his class. The year-long course, which Wettrick introduced at NHS in the fall of 2014, gives students the time and freedom to pursue practically anything they want.

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Adam Grant: The surprising habits of original thinkers | TED Talk | TED.com

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Adam Grant: The surprising habits of original thinkers | TED Talk | TED.com

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The surprising habits of original thinkers

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How do creative people come up with great ideas? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant studies “originals”: thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action to put them into the world. In this talk, learn three unexpected habits of originals -- including embracing failure. “The greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they’re the ones who try the most,” Grant says. “You need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones.”

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Blending Research and Innovation to Transform Student Learning: Keynote by Karen Cator - YouTube

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Blending Research and Innovation to Transform Student Learning: Keynote by Karen Cator - YouTube

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Blending Research and Innovation to Transform Student Learning: Keynote by Karen Cator

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Karen Cator (President and CEO, Digital Promise) delivers the keynote address at J-PAL North America's conference on Research and Innovation: Ed-tech, Personalized Learning & the Digital Divide.

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United States Patent and Trademark Office - An Agency of the Department of Commerce

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Have you found yourself asking, "what is design?" Sometimes the best way to understand design is to just dive in and experience it! We've pulled together this collection to help you get started on your design journey. Scroll down to see our NEW introductory online workshop, a library of FAQs about how design works, and some goto tools.

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Have you found yourself asking, "what is design?" Sometimes the best way to understand design is to just dive in and experience it! We've pulled together this collection to help you get started on your design journey. Scroll down to see our NEW introductory online workshop, a library of FAQs about how design works, and some goto tools.

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Design thinking is a mindset. It is the confidence that everyone can be part of creating a more desirable future, and a process to take action when faced with a difficult challenge. That kind of optimism is well needed in education.

Classrooms and schools across the world are facing design challenges every single day, from teacher feedback systems to daily schedules. Wherever they fall on the spectrum of scale - the challenges educators are confronted with are real, complex, and varied. And as such, they require new perspectives, new tools, and new approaches. Design thinking is one of them.

We have a new resource- The Co-Designing Schools Toolkit, which supports educators to collaboratively create equitable change in schools through a community-led, equity-centered, and design-driven process.

You can still download the classic Design Thinking for Educators toolkits + workbook here.

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Design thinking is a mindset. It is the confidence that everyone can be part of creating a more desirable future, and a process to take action when faced with a difficult challenge. That kind of optimism is well needed in education.

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Design-Make-Use Convergence: Good for Product and Planet

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Design-Make-Use Convergence: Good for Product and Planet

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Before the Industrial Revolution, people's shoes and clothes were made by hand-to their exact size-by local cobblers and tailors. Although that was something the middle class could afford, it was also exclusionary; the poorest people of the era owned only two or three outfits in their adult lifetimes (which they likely made themselves).

With the Second Industrial Revolution, along with innovations of industry and mass production, came economic growth and a higher standard of living. The average consumer-and even some close to the poverty line-had access to goods that were previously unattainable. But even though mass production created abundance and accessibility, it was soulless: Mass production was predicated on economies of scale, so everything was a carbon copy because manufacturers had to produce numerous identical units to make a profit.

In the 21st century, consumers want more. A one-size-fits-all approach and mass-production runs are no longer as appealing as they once were. Products manufactured cheaply and quickly become obsolete. In extreme cases, their value lasts only a couple of minutes in the hands of the consumer (McDonald's Happy Meal toys, for example). But by combining more flexible manufacturing with real consumer feedback, manufacturers can tailor products to a user's unique needs.

So here's the next revolution: products, machines, and even buildings making improvements to themselves. The linear manufacturing process-in which a product is imagined, made, and consumed-is on a path to something better. It's called a design-make-use convergence. When the relationship among these three things comes together, consumers get longer-lasting products, better value out of what they buy, and more delight from the experience. Meanwhile, there's less waste for the planet to absorb.

Here are three stages en route to a true convergence and why it's so important to create a continuous loop of designing, making, and using.

1. Design-Feedback Loop. Increasingly, manufactured things are getting smarter. More products are embedded with sensors and evolving from inanimate objects to something more measurable and "alive." When these connected devices work well, they generate data for designers to understand how the products are actually used, and that information can help improve future designs.

But designers and engineers need to pay attention to the right things and focus on the entire experience of a product. Oftentimes, they're still focused on creating a minimum viable product (MVP), which puts more emphasis on "minimum" than "viable." That means products are made with a singular focus on features and functionality. But if designers and engineers aren't committed to considering and testing how those features work-looking at the overall gestalt of the product (that is, the customer experience) rather than just the component parts-they may not see long-term success with their product.

That's because success is not just about money; it's about time. If it takes many hair-pulling hours of reading manuals and talking to tech-support representatives to get a product installed and working (if ever), then it's not exactly viable.

Here's an example of when MVP does work well: The Ring Video Doorbell allows users to answer the door from anywhere-even while on vacation-using a smartphone. It's not all about the bells and whistles. (Well, actually, it has the one bell.) It does its intended job after an easy 15-minute installation. So in addition to providing security and peace of mind, it's not a time suck, which means users can get on with doing more important things in life.

2. Design-Make Convergence Loop. In this next phase, the design and make phases get tighter and more efficient through quicker feedback. Take a bicycle manufacturer: Today's production lines are set up to produce, say, 50,000 bikes-with no user feedback in the process. But with more flexible production lines, a company could manufacture 1,000 bikes with sensors feeding back information on how cyclists use them. From that data, engineers could address what needs to be changed. Case in point: Through sensors on a road bike designed for both rim brakes and disk brakes, the manufacturer could learn which type its customers favor using more. Then, with a regular feedback loop from all of its bikes' sensors, the manufacturer could make changes with more regularity and shorter production runs.

3. Design-Make-Use Convergence Loop. Here's where it gets really good: a consistent feedback loop among design, make, and use processes, which enables connected devices to respond, change, and adapt over time. As a result, products have longer lifespans, consumers experience less frustration with what they buy, and landfills receive less trash.

Tesla Motors is like the Usain Bolt of the design-make-use convergence race, but it has experienced failure, too. It's a well-known tale that Tesla's 2013 car fires sparked debate about the safety of electric cars. Several Model S cars hit roadway debris that damaged their lithium-ion battery packs and ignited the fires. Tesla responded by rolling out over-the-air software updates to its fleet of vehicles on the road, enabling the cars' air-suspension systems to create "greater ground clearance at highway speeds."

A more accessible example of the design-make-use convergence is the Apple iPhone. At the factory, all iPhone 6s are the same electronically, but in two different users' hands, the apps, contacts, photos, and music are different. The shell is the same, but the phone quickly becomes customized to the owner through software.

Or in building management, facilities managers and homeowners can improve energy efficiency through building energy management systems ( BEMS), the IT-based monitoring of a building's HVAC, lighting, and energy consumption to optimize performance. For example, one senior executive at Autodesk found that his house was consuming way too much power, so he installed sensors in the house and found a faulty circuit that was causing a power leakage.

As more companies adopt a design-make-use model, their products and devices will respond and improve in a real-time feedback loop based on their use and environment. Right now, those responses are happening in real time through software. But what does it mean for the future?

Next up is a design-make-use paradigm that will allow a product to change its physical shape. Take an airplane's ailerons, the hinged flaps on the wings that aid steering: They were meant to be a pre-approximation of what a bird does, but in reality, birds flex the shape of their whole bodies to change direction. So what if planes could flex and change their entire cross sections to turn? It's not a pie-in-the-sky fantasy. Although the near future is about change through software and media, just wait: Things will soon respond and change shape of their own volition. It's coming.

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Design-Make-Use Convergence: Good for Product and Planet

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Before the Industrial Revolution, people's shoes and clothes were made by hand-to their exact size-by local cobblers and tailors. Although that was something the middle class could afford, it was also exclusionary; the poorest people of the era owned only two or three outfits in their adult lifetimes (which they likely made themselves).

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Ozawa and Haruki: The Three Traits of Creative Excellence

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Ozawa and Haruki: The Three Traits of Creative Excellence

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In January 2010, Seiji Ozawa was on the brink of death.

Diagnosed with esophageal cancer, the famed Japanese conductor was rushed to the hospital. At 75 years of age, there was no guarantee he would survive.

The only choice the doctors had was to cut into Ozawa's body and remove his esophagus. His stomach was then stretched up to his collarbone and surgically attached to his throat. To this day, he has a scar on his neck from where they sliced him.

For an ordinary person, that would be end of a career.

But not Seiji Ozawa. In less than a year, despite warnings from doctors, friends and family, Ozawa was back on stage doing what he had done for his whole life - making music.

After surgery, the man could barely stand on the best of days. Yet, on stage, he was full of life.

Another creative master, the novelist Murakami Haruki, was there to see Ozawa's performance. Haruki describes Ozawa's performance in Absolutely on Musi c:

"I was simply awestruck by the fierce intensity with which [Ozawa] threw himself into the work. I could not help worrying about his health, however, and how it would hold up under such a strain.

[...]

"I too wanted to say to him, "You really ought to hold off a little, take some time to recover, and start performing after you've got your strength back. I understand how you feel, but you know what they say - 'Slow and steady wins the race.' " Really that was the only reasonable response, but I couldn't bring myself to say it to him when I saw him wringing every ounce of strength out of his body to stand upright on the podium. I felt that those words would become a lie once I spoke them. To put it simply, this man was living in a world that transcended reasonable ways of thinking..."

Ozawa's performance triggered a feeling in Haruki that, as a novelist, he understand with a fierce intimacy:

"As I watched him in action, however, one thing dawned on me: He can't help himself; he has to do this. [...] For Seiji Ozawa, music was the indispensable fuel that kept him moving through life. Without periodic injections of live music into his veins, he could not go on living. There was only one way in this world for him to feel truly alive, and that was for him to create music with his own hands and to thrust it as a living, throbbing thing into the faces of an audience: "Here!" Who could possibly tell him to stop?"

For Ozawa, music is life. For Haruki, writing is life. These are two men from different disciplines, but at the core, they are one and the same.

In Absolutely on Musi c, Haruki is constantly making connections between himself and Ozawa:

"In the course of our many conversations, I began to suspect that Seiji Ozawa and I might have several things in common. Questions of talent or productivity or fame aside, what I mean here is that I can feel a sense of identity in the way we live our lives."

What does Haruki mean by this way of life? How do Haruki and Ozawa differ from ordinary people?

Haruki points out three similarities between Ozawa and himself.

1. Intrinsic Reward

The first similarity Haruki is their perspective on work.

"First of all, both of us seem to take the same simple joy in our work. Whatever differences there might be between making music and writing fiction, both of us are happiest when absorbed in our work. And the very fact that we are able to become so totally engrossed in it gives us the deepest satisfaction. What we end up producing as a result of that work may well be important, but aside from that, our ability to work with utter concentration and to devote ourselves to it so completely that we forget the passage of time is its own irreplaceable reward."

It is not just the book or product or musical masterpiece that drives them, it is the intrinsic reward.

But there's something else to the above passage. Let's take a look that phrase at the end again:

"...our ability to work with utter concentration and to devote ourselves to it so completely that we forget the passage of time..."

Now compare with this excerpt from Steven Kotler's The Rise of Supermanabout the psychological state called flow:

"In flow, we are so focused on the task at hand that everything else falls away. Action and awareness merge. Time flies. Self vanishes. Performance goes through the roof."

The flow state - also known as "the zone" - is the state of being completely absorbed in what you do. It feels really, really good.

Another excerpt from Kotler's book:

"During a peak experience," Maslow explained, 'the individual experiences an expansion of self, a sense of unity, and meaningfulness in life. The experience lingers in one's consciousness and gives a sense of purpose, integration, self-determination and empathy.' "

Perhaps this is what Haruki and Ozawa experience when they are deeply absorbed in their work?

For more clues, let's look at the next similarity.

2. Stay Hungry

Closely related to Ozawa and Haruki's love of their work is their constant search for a challenge:

Secondly, we both maintain the same "hungry heart" we possessed in our youth, that persistent feeling that "this is not good enough," that we must dig deeper, forge farther ahead. This is the major motif of our work and our lives.

Observing Ozawa in action, I could feel the depth and intensity of the desire he brought to his work. He was convinced of his own rightness and proud of what he was doing, but not in the least satisfied with it. I could see he knew he should be able to make the music even better, even deeper, and he was determined to make it happen even as he struggled with the constraints of time and his own physical strength.

Even when Ozawa earns the respect of everyone around him, even when he has enough money in his bank account to live for 200 years, he does stop challenging himself. He cannot stop challenging himself.

Could this mindset be related to the flow state too?

Let's look at a passage from a seminal book on the subject, Csikszentmihalyi's :

"...the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times - although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile."

Aha.

To enter the flow state, we need to be challenged. And in order to be challenged, we must never be satisfied...

Now, on to the third similarity.

3. Stubborn Independence

The third of our shared traits is stubbornness. We're patient, tough, and, finally, just plain stubborn. Once we've decided to do something in a certain way, it doesn't matter what anybody else says, that's how we're going to do it. And even if, as a result, we find ourselves in dire straits, possibly even hated, we will take responsibility for our actions without making excuses.

Hmm. Does stubbornness have anything to do with the flow state?

To enter flow, activities must be done for their own, intrinsic reward. Think about a child building her sandcastle at the beach. She's not doing it for money or fame; she's doing it for fun.

The flow state and play are close cousins. Sadly, society doesn't want its adults playing around.

Here's Kotler again in The Rise of Superman:

...we have decided that play - an activity fundamental to survival, tied to the greatest neurochemical rewards the brain can produce, and flat out necessary for achieving peak performance, creative brilliance, and overall life satisfaction - is a waste of time for adults. If we are hunting the highest version of ourselves, then we need to turn work into play and not the other way round.

When you have an idea that nobody has thought of before, family and friends are going to doubt you. They might tell you to "grow up" or "be realistic."

If you aren't stubborn, you might even listen to them.

So there you have it. Three traits that Murakami Haruki shares with Seiji Ozawa.

But maybe it's not three traits. Perhaps it's just one trait that the two of them share - a deep, irresistible love for the experience of flow.

They only look crazy to us.

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Ozawa and Haruki: The Three Traits of Creative Excellence

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In January 2010, Seiji Ozawa was on the brink of death. Diagnosed with esophageal cancer, the famed Japanese conductor was rushed to the hospital. At 75 years of age, there was no guarantee he would survive. The only choice the doctors had was to cut into Ozawa's body and remove his esophagus.

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Skylar Tibbits: The emergence of "4D printing"

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3D printing has grown in sophistication since the late 1970s; TED Fellow Skylar Tibbits is shaping the next development, which he calls 4D printing, where the fourth dimension is time. This emerging technology will allow us to print objects that then reshape themselves or self-assemble over time.

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6 design thinking projects that inspire students to dig deeper

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6 design thinking projects that inspire students to dig deeper

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"The goal of a designer is to listen, observe, understand, sympathize, empathize, synthesize and glean insights."

This quote from Hillman Curtis perfectly captures many of the skills students increasingly need to succeed - in school and beyond. Is it any wonder that design thinking is taking education by storm? If we want our students to think critically, consider the needs of others and then develop solutions to solve real problems, design thinking offers a useful framework to make that happen.

Are you looking to give it a try this year? Here are 6 design thinking projects that take students through the 5 stages - empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test - and get them digging deeper.

1. Making marshmallow and toothpick bridges

We've probably all tried this one at some point - who doesn't love building with marshmallows? But by incorporating a design thinking mindset, you can focus the activity and take learning further.

Before students start building, they should work together to come up with answers to the key questions they need to ask of the "client" (you). What needs must the bridge meet? Is it for pedestrian traffic or vehicles? Is the aim function or beauty? Seeing design through the lens of someone else builds empathy and helps create a clearer target.

Or instead place the focus on the end stages of the design thinking process. The Stanford d.school uses spaghetti, marshmallows, string and tape to teach how to prototype and test - while giving students a chance to practice several design thinking mindsets.

2. Building devices that move

This is another classic that's perfect for a design thinking approach. When I did this with my fifth-graders, the focus was mostly on prototyping and testing. We'd push the desks to the side, put all batteries, wires, motors and other materials in a central place, and then let the kids bring their ideas to life. It was amazing how the hours flew by as the students worked together - usually with not a single one-off task. At the end we had a special sharing night and invited the parents to see all the cars, boats, Ferris wheels, garage door openers and other creations.

If I were back in the classroom, I'd do this project again in a heartbeat - with a design thinking twist. Rather than just have students design any object that moved, I'd pair them up and task them with designing something that their partner needed. They'd have to hear their partner's concerns, define their needs and then draw up some proposals - and with Nureva™ Span™ Workspace, they could share their ideas and solicit feedback from others. It would add a whole new dimension to what already was a great learning experience.

3. Reimagining your classroom space

When I was teaching fifth- and sixth-grade, every once in a while my students and I would hit a bit of a slump. One of the ways I got us back into high gear was to rearrange the classroom. We'd talk about the kinds of spaces we needed and then brainstorm ideas. And then the students would get to work - moving desks, carving out new areas for small-group work, suggesting where the games and supplies should live. It was invigorating - for me, too.

I used this process to wake my students up - but with design thinking you can go deeper. One teacher started the school year with bare bulletin boards and no furniture and then took her students through the stages of design thinking to come up with a plan. Going deskless isn't for everyone - but getting students involved in shaping their space certainly could be.

4. Developing an animal habitat

As a student teacher, I went on an extended field trip to the zoo. Most memorable was the hour of each day the students spent observing "their animal" - one they had researched before the week began. Conversation often turned to the enclosures and how well they met - or didn't meet - the creature's needs.

I was impressed by how careful observation led students to empathize with their animal and define needs. Without knowing it, they were already started down the road of design thinking. The next step could have been to ideate and prototype - come up with alternative habitats that they knew would serve them better.

We likely could have never gotten to the testing phase with this particular project - though the Museum of Science in Boston actually does let kids design houses for animals and then test them out! A more feasible alternative for people might be designing an enclosure for a classroom pet and then seeing how well the resident guinea pig or hamster likes it.

5. Determining rules to live by

Design thinking doesn't have to be limited to physical structures and space. One of my favorite start-of-year activities was determining the rules we would live by for the rest of the year. We'd read Judith Viorst's "If I were in charge of the world" and discuss the difference between rights and responsibilities. Ideas initially were very concrete. "Don't hit." "Don't steal." "Raise your hand in class."

But as we talked about collective and individual needs, the discussion went deeper. Students began to grapple with different perspectives and determine what would make our classroom safe and healthy for everyone. To bring more design thinking to the process, I would set aside more time to "test" the rules we created and then revise them periodically throughout the year.

6. Designing for a younger buddy

Design thinking works best when the stakes are real - real problems, real needs, real people. So if you work with a buddy class of younger students, try involving them. It's amazing how motivating it can be to design for someone who looks up to you - even for learners whose effort on most projects is uneven.

When my primary students' older buddies made them anything, it was special. I remember one little guy who kept his "pet rock" from his buddy on his desk for months. Design thinking focuses these efforts and challenges older kids to truly understanding someone else's interests and needs.

More ideas and inspiration

As teachers are becoming converts to the power of design thinking to engage and empower their students, more project ideas are being shared. Here are just a few:

And if you're interested in how design thinking and makerspaces go together, this edWeb webinar, sponsored by Nureva, has plenty of ideas.

What other project ideas do you have for a design thinking approach to teaching and learning?

Free eBook

Are you looking for more student-led learning ideas? In this eBook, you'll find 20+ collaborative activities you can try in your classroom right away.

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6 design thinking projects that inspire students to dig deeper

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"The goal of a designer is to listen, observe, understand, sympathize, empathize, synthesize and glean insights." This quote from Hillman Curtis perfectly captures many of the skills students increasingly need to succeed - in school and beyond. Is it any wonder that design thinking is taking education by storm?

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Tina Seelig: "Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World" - YouTube

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Tina Seelig: "Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World" - YouTube

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Characteristics of Truly Creative People

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Head of Innovation & Creativity Programs

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Forbidden Archeology of Ancient Star Travellers

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Stanford University School of Engineering

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Tina Seelig: "Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World"

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In this revolutionary guide, Stanford University Professor and international bestselling author of inGenius adopts her popular course material to teach everyone how to make imaginative ideas a reality. As a leading expert on creativity, Tina Seelig has continually explored what we can each do to unleash our entrepreneurial spirit.

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Use This Awesome Web App to Make the Best Videos on YouTube

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Use This Awesome Web App to Make the Best Videos on YouTube

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Use This Awesome Web App to Make the Best Videos on YouTube

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Ever felt the urge to launch a YouTube channel, only to find that the results don't quite pass muster? A new web app called Showbox is the answer.

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5 Excellent TED Ed Lessons to Spark Students Creativity ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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5 Excellent TED Ed Lessons to Spark Students Creativity ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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June 11, 2016
The theme of this week's list of TED Ed lessons is creativity. We have meticulously selected five excellent videos from the collection that embeds over 30 videos. We tried to include videos that approach creativity from different perspectives. From learning how to write descriptively to exploring the ways scientists' creativity made our world healthier and better, students will get to engage with challenging ideas and insights that will definitely spark their creative thinking. We invite you to check them out and share with us your feedback.

2- Can you solve "Einstein's Riddle"? - Dan Van der Vieren

5- How a few scientists transformed the way we think about disease - Tien Nguyen

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5 Excellent TED Ed Lessons to Spark Students Creativity

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June 11, 2016 The theme of this week's list of TED Ed lessons is creativity. We have meticulously selected five excellent videos from the collection that embeds over 30 videos. We tried to include videos that approach creativity from different perspectives.

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10 Amazing Free Online Creativity Tools for Students

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10 Amazing Free Online Creativity Tools for Students

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It's always a treat when a student can express themselves creatively in a way they're never tried before. With a tool they may not have used before, you can add discovery learning into the mix. The online creativity tools you've got here are great little resources that will develop creativity in all sorts of ways.

Using these online creativity tools, students can add artistic personal touches to their work in many ways. They can:

build fonts

make themselves into a robot or a Picasso painting

paint graffiti (without damaging public property)

draw with fire (again, without damaging public property)

turn pictures into words and textures

These are fun online creativity tools to explore and engage your students with. Everyone can have fun with these. They're perfect for adding creative touches to projects of all sorts.

10 Online Creativity Tools for Your Students
1. Androidify
Wondering what you'd look like as an android? Find out with Androidify. This is an online app that uses the mascot from the Android operating system. You can turn it into whatever you want it to look like. Use a number of different options in the interface to customize your Bot. It's also available as an app for the Android OS from Google Play.
2. Flame Painter
Escape Emotions, the makers of the design tool Amberlight, have a free online version of another drawing tool. It's a visual stunner called Flame Painter. This free version lets a you literally paint with fire right on screen.

Using this tool, you can work with the full spectrum slider to create any color to paint with. You can also adjust the stroke's focus, intensity, speed, and more. Share completed work via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and YouTube.
3. Picassohead
Use the styles of Pablo Picasso to learn about art and promote creativity. Picassohead is a unique and fun drawing tool that lets you style portraits and abstract art just like the famous artist himself. The shapes and strokes used in this tool are extracted and duplicated from many of Picasso's famous paintings.

Choose from a number of settings to draw, shape, scale, and color your creations. You can explore the gallery of previous work for inspirations, and save and email your work. It appears in the Picassohead gallery for others to enjoy, and as a link for downloading and sharing your image.
4. Myoats
Myoats is an online community for creating designs using a cool online drawing application. It's a geometric tool that creates beautifully symmetrical designs easily and quickly. Myoats lets you download images as JPEGs or transparent PNGs. You can also make them into your computer wallpaper.

You can save your designs to the community by being a member. You can also download them straight to your computer. Let others rate your designs and find new designer friends too. It's all free.
5. Diffen
This online tool lets you compare virtually any two things, and then learn a whole lot about them. You may be pondering a simple decision to make about whether to drink dark roast or medium roast coffee. Or you may be contrasting the First and Second World War for history analysis. You may be comparing long-term investment options, or simple grammatical choices for writing a term paper. With Differ, you can compare pretty much anything under the sun (not to mention things beyond the sun).

There are literally thousands of reasons why you might want to use Diffen. You'll be amazed at what you can learn simply by asking questions. Just begin typing whatever comes into your mind in the blanks. Want even better news? If Diffen can't find the answer, it will search for where to look and find it, if it can.
6. Bomomo
Bonomo is another free online drawing tool, similar in format to Flame Painter but with a different visual effect. There are a number of different textures that can be used, and students will have fun exploring them all. Save, share, and export your work as well.
7. Fontstruct
Fontstruct is a free online tool for-you guessed it-building fonts. It's sponsored by FontShop, a leading retailer in online fonts. FontStruct creates fonts using geometrical shapes on a grid pattern. The 'FontStructor' font editor is very simple to use and generates high-quality TrueType fonts, ready to use in Mac or Windows.

Check out their font gallery and blog for all things font-related. Fontstruct requires a simple sign-up process for a free account, and then you're up and running in no time!
8. Grafitti Playdo
This is a unique tool with a fun interface for anyone who's a budding Banksy. You're presented with a cement wall and an actual shakeable spray can to do your art with. You choose your colour and brush size on the fly, and go nuts with your graffiti art.
9. DIY.org
DIY works exactly as their motto suggests-"Learn anything and be anyone." This remarkable and extensive site allows kids of all ages to explore skills and skill classes and perform the challenges associated with them. It's the epitome of the "learn-anytime-and-anywhere" spirit that students love so much. DIY is a great and supportive learning community for everyone.

Each skill class includes lots of lessons to try out. The objective is to earn badges and level up your skills, just like a video game. Feedback is shared through the network, so you get full peer support. All lessons completed are kept in online portfolios so that parent and teachers can keep up with kids' activities. DIY also offers mentors to help them with their developing skills. There is also a mobile app available for the iPhone and iPod so kids can take projects on the go!
10. Textorizer
This three-tool pack works best on Firefox, Chrome, and Opera OS. This is a step up from creating word clouds, and you can render some stunning and emotive work with it.

For such a simple free tool, Textorizer is pretty creative and a lot of fun. You upload images and text and then work with them using the left sidebar sliders. It actually uses three separate tools:

Textorizer 1 -Uses simple word-cloud formatting to enhance picture highlights.

Textorizer 2 -Places text across a whole picture and enhances colors and shapes dramatically.

Excoffizer -Produces a vector rendition of an uploaded picture and uses parallel wavy lines for texturing.

Special projects require special highlights. Those can only come from online creativity tools. Use these with your students to add unique creative flair to projects of all kids!

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10 Amazing Free Online Creativity Tools for Students

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It's always a treat when a student can express themselves creatively in a way they're never tried before. With a tool they may not have used before, you can add discovery learning into the mix. The online creativity tools you've got here are great little resources that will develop creativity in all sorts of ways.

# data[].attributes.headline
5 Excellent TED Ed Lessons to Spark Students Creativity ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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5 Excellent TED Ed Lessons to Spark Students Creativity ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
June 11, 2016
The theme of this week's list of TED Ed lessons is creativity. We have meticulously selected five excellent videos from the collection that embeds over 30 videos. We tried to include videos that approach creativity from different perspectives. From learning how to write descriptively to exploring the ways scientists' creativity made our world healthier and better, students will get to engage with challenging ideas and insights that will definitely spark their creative thinking. We invite you to check them out and share with us your feedback.

2- Can you solve "Einstein's Riddle"? - Dan Van der Vieren

5- How a few scientists transformed the way we think about disease - Tien Nguyen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 Excellent TED Ed Lessons to Spark Students Creativity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
June 11, 2016 The theme of this week's list of TED Ed lessons is creativity. We have meticulously selected five excellent videos from the collection that embeds over 30 videos. We tried to include videos that approach creativity from different perspectives.

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The 9 Rules Of Innovation | The Creativity Post

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The 9 Rules Of Innovation | The Creativity Post

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Take a slightly broader view and it becomes clear that innovation today goes far beyond research labs, Silicon Valley pitch meetings and large corporate initiatives. We all have something to offer and can add to the world's knowledge in a way that may differ in degree, but not in kind, to the giants of the past.

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iPads, MakerEd and More in Education | Scoop.it

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iPads, MakerEd and More in Education | Scoop.it

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News, reviews, resources for iPads, Maker Education, Coding and more ....

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Our job as leaders, teachers, and parents is not to prepare kids for something; our job is to help kids prepare themselves for anything.

I'm the author of the bestselling education books, Empower and Launch (along with five other books). In addition to writing, I am the Head of Learning and Growth at NextLesson, and a Facilitator for the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (PLN).

As a former Director of Learning and Innovation for Centennial School District, I've served as a teacher, instructional coach, and administrator at all K-12 grade levels. Click here to learn more about me and my work.

Over the past few years I've been lucky enough to speak at many amazing schools, organizations, companies and conferences. If you are looking for an energizing, funny, and inspiring keynote or workshop click here to learn more and submit a speaking request.

Most importantly, I'm a husband and dad to four crazy kids, who remind me on a daily basis why education means so much to all of us.

Connect with me on Twitter and Instagram.

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Our job as leaders, teachers, and parents is not to prepare kids for something; our job is to help kids prepare themselves for anything. I'm the author of the bestselling education books, Empower and Launch (along with five other books).

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Design Thinking, Deconstructed | MindShift | KQED News

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Design Thinking, Deconstructed | MindShift | KQED News

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At the Nueva School in Hillsborough, Calif., design thinking is built into students' and teachers' everyday lives. The process, which is an approach to learning that includes considering real-world problems, research, analysis, building by hand, and lots of experimentation, is documented and shared among staff.