Designing with, not just for, the public (good)

The basics are not subjects. They’re purposes.

Sir Ken Robinson, #colab13, 9/22/2013

And design — user-centered design — enables impact on our purposes. What’s more, in school, design (“design thinking”) can serve as a trunkline that integrates various arteries, connects the capillaries of disciplines and amplifies our capacities to get somewhere with action.

Especially when we view the public, not as hindrances or headaches, but as part of our design team. [Hat tip to @bigwags, Mike Wagner, for pointing me to George Aye’s TEDxDesMoines Talk.]

GET INVOLVED as a #SolutionSeeker @colabsummit #colab13

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A day-and-a-half summit, where today’s executives and tomorrow’s leaders from our business, education and civic communities connect, communicate and collaborate on issues vital to a thriving Atlanta region.

And YOU CAN GET INVOLVED! [The following is from a @colabsummit email blast.]

For this inaugural summit, we’re launching a social innovation experiment through our LABS, to capture the ideas, dreams and hopes of what we want the future of greater Atlanta to be. And we’re asking for your help.

We need your vision, your dreams, and your ideas (lots of them) on how to solve six challenges directly related to our three main themes at (co)lab: Attracting & Retaining Talent, Cultivating Innovation and Transforming Education.

To get us started, dozens of local thought leaders, content experts and storytellers have spent weeks framing these six challenges, writing compelling briefs and creating powerful videos that will make you laugh and cry.

Here’s how you can help.

At this moment, you have immediate access to IdeaString, a digital collaborative ideation platform where together we can solve six core challenges facing the Atlanta region. We encourage you to learn about these challenges, login to IdeaString, and contribute your best ideas.

The top ideas posted onto IdeaString will be presented at (co)lab during the closing keynote, following Thomas Friedman. And all ideas will be collected into a final report that will be sent to all (co)lab partners, attendees and change agents across the greater Atlanta region.

Our goal is to catalyze great thinking and bold solutions that none of us working independently could achieve. So get in there, add your brilliant ideas and help us transform our greatest challenges into exciting opportunities. Together, we can dream and build a truly greater Atlanta region.

To access IdeaString: [as a non-attendee, AND as a powerful solution seeker!]

We invite you to share IdeaString with friends, peers, co-workers and other passionate citizens. If they are not registered for (co)lab, have them fill out this quick form to be added to IdeaString: IdeaString registration

CHALLENGES

  1. How might we design our communities to attract and retain the creative class?
  2. How might we better celebrate and amplify our arts and cultural assets?
  3. How might we foster partnerships among business, universities and governments to spark innovation and entrepreneurship?
  4. How might we make our cities and our region smarter, more efficient, more connected and more collaborative through technology?
  5. How might we raise Metro Atlanta’s current High School graduation rate to 90%
  6. How might communities rally around our students to help develop the next generation of leaders?

@OpenIDEO’s Creative Confidence Challenge #MakeADifference

We can talk about making a difference. We can make a difference. Or we can do both.

– Debbie Millman’s sign-off at end of Design Matters podcast

How might we inspire young people to cultivate their creative confidence?

OpenIDEO‘s Creative Confidence Challenge.

#MustRead Shares (weekly)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Mathematical Revolutions with @JoBoaler and @ProfKeithDevlin

Mathematics is everywhere, and it’s truly beautiful. Yet, “school” tends to approach mathematics instruction from an imbalanced procedural, algorithmic and computational angle.

Thankfully a number of educators are trying to revolutionize the ways that mathematics is typically taught in school. Two of these incredible revolutionaries are at Stanford University – Dr. Jo Boaler (@JoBoaler) and Dr. Keith Devlin (@profkeithdevlin).

For the past two months, I have learned mightily from participating in a MOOC with Dr. Boaler – EDU115N “How to Learn Math.” And just this morning, I listened to a podcast of Krista Tippett interviewing Dr. Devlin. When I returned from my morning walk with Lucy, I had an email from Dr. Boaler announcing her new non-profit for revolutionizing mathematics teaching and learning – YouCubed.

Of course, I wanted to share these strands and do my part for mathematical evangelism.

Mathematical equations are like sonnets says Keith Devlin. What most of us learn in school, he says, doesn’t begin to convey what mathematics is. And technology may free more of us to discover the wonder of mathematical thinking — as a reflection of the inner world of our minds. – See more at: On Being

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