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About Designing Education

“Designing Education” is the space I use to curate and organize materials related to the education workshop “Five Rules of Design Thinking to Reach All Students.” I believe that every student can learn to define and achieve what the highest level of success means for them. I also believe that our job in education is to provide each student with the resources and support necessary for that to happen.

That's what this workshop and this website are all about - putting resources and ideas in the hands of the educators who need them most, to effectively get about the work of helping students do amazing things.

Inspiration

My original inspiration for the “Five Rules” comes from Léonie Watson (aka “Tink”) and her W3Conf 2013 talk, “Design like you give a damn: Practical accessibility for web pros.

When I asked her permission to use her structure as a foundation for a workshop for educators, she graciously agreed, and referred me to “an old school friend,” Cameron Sinclair. Mr. Sinclair applies these rules to architectural design, particularly for humanitarian and post-calamity purposes, via Worldchanging Institute. Check out his 2006 book, “Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises.

Software and Web Design. Architectural Design. Instructional Design. They share some common challenges and expectations. They're all about creating an experience for the user that enables them to make effective use of the resource. This goes beyond simply permitting access, all the way to including the user's needs in the design, improvement, and implementation of our educational experiences.

I also owe a great debt to the work of the following in shaping this material:

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