Design Thinking or PBL, A Chicken/Egg Scenario? My journey.

http://www.science20.com/gerhard_adam/chicken_and_egg_problem_view_evolution-107927 Last night I missed a great conversation during a Twitter chat hosted by #MeritKCI and involving my friends who frequent the #dtk12chat. As I was scrolling through the tweets from the chat I noticed some discussion of PBL and how different Design Thinking (DT) is from PBL. A blog post that was referenced (and […]

Thoughts About This Coding Craze

In 1976 I set off to the University of South Carolina on a Navy ROTC scholarship to major in Math and Computer Science. In 1986 I was taking courses in computer architecture and the language ADA as I worked on my master’s degree in Engineering. In 1992 I helped teach a computer class to teachers […]

Building Empathy Through Interviews

www.floridamemory.com/items/show/32039 7th graders are all over the map when it comes to emotions. So, on one level, you might think that it isn’t hard to get them to develop empathy. But how many of your students, at any grade level, have conducted interviews to gain knowledge of their interviewee? My first semester at Meridian school […]

Early Forays Into Empathy (7th Grade)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/apelad/ Today my 7th graders created questions about “Empathy.” This was their first week of school and today was the second day of class for them (they are on an A/B Block schedule). As a Design class I want them understanding the idea of Empathy. As an International Baccalaureate (IB) school the students are expected […]

Putting Together a Design Class in a IB World School (Part 2)

Screen Capture from – https://goo.gl/VoUfRT [NOTE: Originally written a week ago] “So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it. Thank you.” Willy Wonka.  Right now I’m feeling like a cross between the Scarecrow ( giving directions in OZ) and Willy Wonka these days. One minute I’m heading one […]

Putting Together a Design Class in an IB World School (Part 1)

http://goo.gl/Tgxu4X Well, that title should get some good SEO Google Juice. But I didn’t write it for SEO reasons – it’s what I’ve been doing today, and yesterday…and the day before that…. In an earlier post I stated that I would be updating my preparations for the school year. Well, that didn’t happen. But now […]