Design Matters for Learning: A MiniBook

This short text was originally written for a workshop series at the Singapore American School, as a means of bringing all workshop attendees up to speed with the diverse understandings of design, design thinking and their use in education. The objective of our workshops were as diverse as redesigning the role of the librarian, defining the difference between entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurship, and considering how the way we design learning might incorporate our discoveries over those few days of thinking, activity and discussion.

It is therefore not really designed to be used as a standalone text, since it provokes more questions than answers. The workshop, thinking together with colleagues and applying this theory to a real world challenge, is where the magic happens.

So, if you have purchased this book, undertake the exercise at the end, and use it as a launchpad for discussing what design in your school or university could be made better, and what works well. Run your own workshop and share the results. 

Design discussions like these nearly always tend to be provocative, and spur learning teams into a journey that never really ends: designing to make the world a better place, one prototype at a time.