I presented a workshop at the BOOST Conference on May 3, 2018 on Design Thinking. It was a fun crowd and the content was very well received. I’ve fielded a few requests for support and more resources since then, so I thought I would share some helpful resources here. Feel free to contact me for training or coaching.

Workshop Description: How might we redesign expanded learning programs to be student-led and more innovative? Design thinking allows students to follow a structured process of Investigation, Ideation, and Iteration that allows them to build confidence, practice empathy, and flex their creative muscles. You can empower the creative confidence of youth to go beyond student input and choice to unleash student leadership and innovation. Design thinking can be leveraged to give youth opportunities to design solutions to everyday problems and lead change in their school or after school program.

Questions about design thinking? Not sure where to begin? Try exploring these resources.

1. The video explaining design thinking that I showed in the workshop: https://youtu.be/0V5BwTrQOCs
2. Here’s another good video that uses the term Human Centered Design to get at the same kind of issues: http://www.designkit.org/human-centered-design
3. The facilitation guide for Daren’s two-hour workshop at BOOST: BOOST 18 – Design Thinking for Expanded Learning Educators Facilitator Guide – Daren Howard
4. The handouts from Daren’s two-hour workshop at BOOST: BOOST 18 – Design Thinking for Expanded Learning Educators Handouts – Daren Howard
5. The San Francisco Unified School District iLab, which has tons of resources for using design thinking in a school setting – especially the Facilitator’s Toolkit: http://ilab.sfusd.edu/
6. An e-book that is helpful on the topic – It’s photo heavy so beware of printing it: Field Guide to Human-Centered Design
7. University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco Peer Resources published a website with youth friendly lessons using a similar framework called Youth-Led Participatory Action Research: http://yparhub.berkeley.edu/
8. Stanford University’s D-School online crash course to design thinking: https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/a-virtual-crash-course-in-design-thinking
9. There’s a book that has greatly informed my facilitation approach – especially in strategic planning: http://gamestorming.com/
10. IDEO (a consulting firm that uses design thinking) has published an online toolkit: Design Thinking for Educators
11. IDEO also has online courses. They’re a bit expensive, but they’re also pretty advanced. https://www.ideou.com/
    

Looking to take this concept further? If you are running a business or thinking about launching a new product, the resources from Harvard Business Review are great.

• Check out the classic HBR article, Design Thinking. In 2008 author Tim Brown wrote that through design thinking companies are asking designers to create ideas rather than to simply dress them up.
• Design Thinking [Explainer Video] – This brief video from HBR will give you a introductory tutorial on design thinking in under 3 minutes.
• Design for Action [Digital Article] – This piece is a long read, also by Tim Brown with Roger L. Martin outlines “how design thinking principles have the potential to be even more powerful when applied to managing the intangible challenges involved in getting people to engage with and adopt innovative new ideas and experiences.” In other words, they’ve taken the concept far beyond product development.

So Educators and Expanded Learning Leaders, what wicked problems are you looking to solve? Dive into these resources, remember to include your students, and let me know how it goes!