Designing the future?

Maybe because I’m working on the new plans for the library, as well as rereading Daniel Pink’s book Whole New Mind, plus having recently visited High Tech High, I’ve been obsessing a little bit lately over the idea of the role of design and creativity in schools, and pondering about what we could do better.

design.jpg design as ‘shrimp sushi’

Not just design in the sense of a building, but in the sense of how we could teach elements of better design for student projects, and create more cross curricular opportunities for using art/music/design, etc., that would tap into the talents of so many of our students.  I’m just starting to think about all this as a way to bring information use, technology, and creativity together in classrooms and the library and using technology in a more “transformative” way(which Ian Jukes talks about).

(We do have a few projects like the Vietnam Wall photostories our English 3AP classes did earlier this year, where we talked to students about the visual design and music and how it should integrate into the feel of the project.)  But I’m wondering what other connections we can make to make students more aware of design elements across the curriculum?

I’ve also been thinking about how to apply these design and creativity ideas to a library because when you enter a space that is well designed and innovative, it seems like it creates such a positive energy in general.

Related to all this, I ran across a fascinating short talk(15 min.)about creativity and education from Sir Ken Robinson, and posted it on the Vision committee blog.   If you have a few minutes, I’d highly recommend it.

photo credit: (I went to flickr.com looking for photos to illustrate my post and ran across the clever sushi illustration by Japanese designer Kenya Hara, referenced here:  http://iridesco.com/onetwo/2007/03/04/design-of-design/  and http://www.flickr.com/photos/phluke/409555446/ )

One thought on “Designing the future?

  1. Carolyn,

    At my university, we’re wrapping up a strategic planning process that had us talking about (re)design of living/learning spaces as a way to break down the traditional “silos” and foster cross-curricular collaboration; rethink our relationship with information, the library, and research; etc. It’s enough to make a person light-headed. I’m particularly interested in how we’ll work out our relationship to our information commons. Your thoughts on design as a transformative influence on creativity are a hopeful place to start.

    Love the sushi diagram. How appropriate. . . joy/humor as the hidden-yet-potent ingredient.

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