What is Design thinking?

Design thinking is a process used by designers, advertisers, and other creative people to help them solve problems.  It is human-centered design, meaning that design thinkers focus on a particular person or group of people when they are creating.  

As you can see from this chart (provided by the d.school at Stanford University) these particular components are very important to the design thinking process.  It really is a bit confusing because design thinking really isn't about too much thinking; it is really more about taking quick action with fast repetition and iteration.  When I first saw these as a teacher, I couldn't help but think how relevant they were to teaching students!  Aren't these the very things that we want kids to be doing in a classroom?  And, aren't these the things that we keep hearing CEO's talk about new employees on the market lack?  Absolutely.  As a design thinker you are constantly questioning "How might we..." do something.  So for a group of motivated folks at the d.school, the question became, "How might we utilize this in schools to improve students and academics?"!  What a great idea.  They've been spreading the message about this amazing tool and now are getting experienced and trained teachers who are using it and getting positive results.  

The resources on this site are tried and true...tested and used regularly in an urban school in Detroit, Michigan.  It is my belief (and someday I'll test my theory...but until then we just have to guess) that these ideas are transplantable into any school, rural, urban, suburban and can be used with any students from little to big!  They are just used on a different level and with different complexity.  The other pages will provide links, resources, and information that is available about design thinking; some created by others (I'll source it) and some created by me.  Please feel free to use it, but always do the right thing and source your information.