In December I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the
Big Ideas Fest outside of San Francisco thanks to a scholarship from
ISKME (the organization responsible for the conference). The Big Ideas Fest draws together "teachers, innovators, edupreneurs, policy makers, and students with big ideas for transforming K-20 education" for three days. During that time I was able to work and talk with a diverse group of people, ranging from Lee LeFever, the founder of
Common Craft and mastermind behind those cool "Wikis/blogs/etc. in Plain English" videos, to Pete Forsyth, a consultant who helps businesses and organizations "make sense of collaborative communities," in particular Wikipedia. It was truly an interesting group that offered a variety of perspectives that we don't always get at educational conferences. I encourage you to keep your eyes open for the 2012 conference and consider attending.
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In particular, though, I was most intrigued by the "
Action Collab" process we all participated in over the course of the conference. In our Action Collabs, we tackled BIG challenges for education then brainstormed and prototyped solutions. This process is based on design thinking and the whole time I just kept thinking about how it could be an incredibly powerful tool to use with students. Then, just a few weeks ago, I discovered an article by Betty Ray, a participant at Big Ideas, on the Edutopia website. In her article, "
Design Thinking: Lessons for the Classroom" Ray summarizes the process and provides insight into how a teacher might use it in the classroom. Take a moment to read the
article, then come back here and share how you could imagine using this process in your classroom. And, of course, if you're inspired to actually try it out, let me know--I'd love to help!
