Teach Your Students to Fail Better with Design Thinking

     In Christian Long’s article, “Teach Your Students to Fail Better with Design Thinking”, the concept of design thinking is explored and brought to life. Design thinking was created to better educate students in a way that would be helpful in the real world. Students need to learn to take risks, be flexible, and sometimes fail in order to find solutions to major problems. Long explains that design thinking is intended to keep the center around the students in order to promote creative thinking and a positive working environment. A design camp was made in which the students were the center and the teachers were mentors, just watching over the students as they worked together to find solutions to educational problems. Students wanted to create a classroom that would be productive, but not just be about showing off the technology that they used in their findings. After many days at the camp they presented their solutions to a board of judges. As Long mentions, it wasn’t about the solutions they came to, but how they came to them with the collaboration of all.

      I definitely like this approach to learning. Many subjects that are taught in schools do not relate very well to real world problems. Design thinking helps to see the realities of issues and gets creative thinking going in all kinds of directions. Students know they are in an environment where they can throw out ideas without being judged, and they do not have to have the feeling of failure lurking over their shoulders. I could have really benefited from something like this. The pressure of always having to have the right answer made it so I didn’t take risks in my work when it could have turned into something great. I also think this is good because some of the biggest lessons learned are through failures. This teaches students to think outside the box and not be afraid to work for something and be creative while doing so.

      This issue ties into ISTE standard 1 of creative thinking and innovation. Students are encouraged to think outside the box and not worry about the consequences during the brainstorming period. It represents standard number 2 for students as well, where students use digital media to collaborate and communicate with others to learn. ISTE standards 3 and 4 are also used because students are doing research on problems and finding solutions which means they have to think critically and narrow their solutions down to a solution that will work over time.

Long, C. (2012). Teach your students to fail better with design thinking. Learning & Leading with Technology, 39(5). 16-20.

One Size Never Fits All

In the article “One Size Never Fits All”, Jennifer Courduff explains how Etiwanda School District in California realized that they were missing tech integration for special needs students. They had an extensive program for general education, but nothing for students with learning disabilities. They began a special program that trained special education teachers based on tiers instead of a given amount of years of training. The program realized that there are differences in every classroom, in every student, and in every teacher. Courduff explains that the program allows for students who have difficulty putting their thoughts into words to actually speak their thoughts into a computer program which records their words. Many students have experienced success from programs like these and are meeting their IEP goals at a more rapid pace.

I think this is a great idea to focus on students who really need the help. It is a way to give everyone what they need to help them be as successful as they can be. I have actually seen some of these technologies integrated into a special needs class, and the results are amazing. The students really do grasp the material better and come to school excited to learn. I think more schools need to adopt programs for special needs students that help teachers integrate technology. Many teachers do not know how to use new technology and need the training, but not all programs offer training like this one. Many are based on years of training, not on mastering the levels of training. Teachers learn how to do something and move on to the next part of training and aren’t given the necessary time to actually integrate what they’ve learned into their lessons. I find this to be especially true in the special needs classes.

This article definitely touches base on the ISTE Standard number1of creativity and innovation. It will help students to create their own original work and to create original group work as well. At the special education level, this would be the standard used the most, but it also would touch base on ISTE standard numbers 2, 3, and 4 depending on the integrated lesson with technology.

Courduff, J. (2011). One size never fits all: Tech integration for special needs. Learning & Leading with Technology, 38(8), 16-19.

A Present Issue in Education

What is a present issue in education?

I think a present issue in education is the inclusion of all types of students in one class. It has been brought up that it is most beneficial for students with learning disabilities to be included in a regular classroom and not secluded from classmates and normal learning time that many schools practice. Some believe that this might hinder the education of the other students in the classroom though. I think that we need to incorporate lessons that appeal to all types of students and build up the confidence of students who have learning disabilities.