In this first session we introduce the concept of design thinking and do a first exercise.

2. Where I am from, and what I do
The Association for the
Advancement of Computing in
Education (AACE), founded in
1981, serves the edtech
community with international
conferences, journals, digital
library and social media
channels (AACE Review).
As the largest university-based
local government training,
advisory, and research
organization in the United States,
the School of Government serves
more than 12,000 public officials
each year.

3. Plan for the day
• 5:15-6:00 Welcome and Intro
• Break
• 6:15-7:40 Design Thinking Activity (Students work in pairs)
• 7:40-8:00 Share Your Surprise!
• Break
• 8:15-9:45 (approx. 15-30 min break between guests)
• 9:45-10:15 Group Assignment

4. What’s the idea? Design Thinking
Design Thinking is problem solving
method geared to overcome wicked
problems.
o Transcend the immediate boundaries of the
problem to ensure that the right questions are
being addressed
o Analyze, synthesize, diverge, generate insights
from different domains
o Drawing, prototyping and storytelling (Brown,
2009)
o Constraints as inspiration (Brown, 2009)
o Fosters civic literacy, empathy, cultural
awareness and risk taking (Sharples at al.,
Design Thinking

5. What’s the id- ea? Design Thinking
Design Thinking and Wicked Problems
Traditional Model:
Wicked Problems:
“The information needed to understand the problem depends
upon one's idea for solving it” (Rittel & Webber, 1973, 161).
Problem
Definition
(Analyzing
)
Problem
Solution
(Synthesiz
ing)
“Tell me
what
success
looks like”.

6. Wicked Problem Checklist
https://goo.gl/AbwfWz

7. Designing to Let Go: Fail fast, fail often
Develop like a believer, test like a sceptic
• Most educators like to be right.
• Good designers know they are mostly wrong.
• Practicing design thinking teaches to let ideas go.
• Wicked problem solutions cannot be computed – they do not
follow directly from data / evidence, have many, possibly
interdependent variables, known unknowns and unknown
unknowns
• That does not mean solutions cannot be tested with rigor (i.e.

8. “Even on a cursory inspection, just
what design thinkingis supposed
to be is not well understood,
either by the public or those who
claim to practice it”.
Kimbell,2011
Design Thinking
Published 2009

9. Designerly Thinking vs. Design Thinking
(Johansson‐ Sköldberg et al., 2013)
designerly thinking
scholarly discourse, analysis,
reflection of the professional
designer’s practice (skills and
competence)
design thinking
design practice and competence
used beyond the design context
(including art and architecture),
for and with people without a
scholarly background in design
vs
.

10. Related Approaches
o Participatory Design
o Bricolage or Tinkering
o LEGO Serious Play (LPS)
o Makerspace / Maker Culture
o Tacit Experiences
o Creative Empowerment
o Process and Product
o Users as Co-Designers
o Empowerment

11. Design Thinking Use Cases
Website Redesign Workshops
o School of Government
(2013/14)
o Carolina MPA Website
Redesign (2016)
o Center for Faculty Excellence
(2017)
o Center for Public Leadership
and Governance (2018)
o Development Finance Initiative
(2019)
Designing Web Apps / Tools
Designing Courses
o Public Executive
Leadership Academy
course design workshop
series (2017)

12. Design Thinking Examples: Website
Strucure with LEGOs
Content Sections
Annotate
Groups structure the main areas of the website /
navigation / homepage

13. Design Thinking Examples: Website
Strucure with LEGOs

14. 1 hour
30 minutes
15 minutes
2 hours
Build Course Strucure with LEGOs

15. Please think about
the website as a
museum. What are
10 things you want
to point visitors to?
(Really useful
resources,
interesting events,
services,
downloads,
projects…)
Design Thinking Examples: Website as
Museum (Flyer)

16. Design Thinking Examples: Content
Types
‘Information Curators’ describe the content using visual building blocks
provided

17. Audience: Pwebsite ersonas
Personas are fictional, yet data-driven, user biographies
that allow design teams to relate to the users’ point of
view instead of focusing on personal experiences and
anecdotes.
Understanding Audiences: Personas

18. o February 2018: Design thinking
workshop at Muenster University of
Applied Sciences (Germany)
o Workshop theme: Inclusive community
development - designing
neighborhoods for engagement, social
cohesion and inclusion
o 15 participants
o Part of the research cluster ‘participation
and well-being’
o Faculty from different disciplines, city
Research Workshop: Inclusive
Community Development

19. Ice Breaker: Tell Me About Your
Neighborhood – Who / What Is Not On
the Map?
o Draw a map of your own
neighborhood.
o What are some barriers to
inclusiveness and social
activities that you
experience?
o Who do you never meet in
your neighborhood? Why
do you think that is?

20. (1) DEFINE & FOCUS: Specify which social
inclusion problem you want to solve.
(2) GENERATE & DEBATE Generate 3-5
ideas to address the problem with novel
solutions or disruptive technologies.
(3) SELECT & SKETCH Choose one of your
ideas and sketch it out in more detail
(literally).
(4) BUILD & PRESENT: Design a prototype
or three-dimensional representation of
your solution with the materials in the
room (card board, paper, tape, clay).
Design Thinking Cycle

21. Design Thinking Outcomes

22. Vocational School Teacher Education
Design Thinking Classes at FH Münster,
Germany 2018, 2019, 2020

23. o June 2019: Design thinking workshop at Kempten
University of Applied Sciences (Germany)
o 2 day workshop
o Workshop theme: Social Media
o 32 participants
Social Media for Public Health Students

24. Customer JourneyMap / SocialMediaPlate
Take 15 Minutes to
think about a typical
week day.
Map out the most
important places as
you move through
the day.
When and where do
you engage with
From waking up to
falling asleep, when
to you check social
media apps? Which
one?

25. Evaluation Results – Positive Aspects
o To receive impulses to think in other
directions.
o Open approach, integration of
different perspectives
o Creativity, possibility to think through
unconventional ideas.
o Personas allowed me to see my
students as real people for the very
first time
o I felt that my ideas mattered

26. Evaluation Results – Negative Aspects
o It is unclear how to move from first ideas to
further development of innovative, marketable
products / services.
o Realistic assessments of models and ideas: all
comments and ideas were treated equal (both
strength and weakness), missing data (ideas
arise from a ‘gut feeling’)
o challenges for shy or introverted people
o negative team dynamics
o fading effectiveness if used too often

27. Design Thinking For Education: Special
Issue
https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/edu/1/1/edu.1.issue-1.xml

28. Literature Review: Panke (2019): Corpus
of 167 document
Predominantly single
case studies
Typical data sources:
observation,
interviews, analysis
of artifacts produced
in the design thinking
process, survey
evaluation.

29. Panke, S. (2019). Design
Thinking in Education:
Perspectives, Opportunities
and Challenges. Open
Education Studies, 1(1), 281-
281-306.
https://doi.org/10.1515/ed
u-2019-0022
p.302

30. Potential
o Tacit experiences
o Increased empathy
o Reduced cognitive bias
o Playful learning
o Flow/verve
o Inter/Meta-disciplinary Collaboration
o Productive failure/resilience
o Surprising, delightful solutions
o Creative confidence

31. Limitations
o Lack of creative confidence
o Teamwork conflicts
o Anxiety and frustration
o Shallow ideas
o Idea creation over evaluation
o Lack of long-term impact
o Misalignment between learning content and design thinking
process
o Creative Overconfidence

32. https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/get-started-
with-design
90-minute,
interactive video
series on gift giving,
with individual and
partner activities, old
version:
https://vimeo.com/180433845
Over to You! Design Thinking Cycle
(Source)
In 2005, the Hasso-Plattner-
Institute of Design at Stanford
University in California began to
teach Design Thinking to
engineering students.

33. • Grab a partner: You will work in teams of
two
• Your challenge: Help your partner by
designing a surprise – for a relative, a
friend, a peer, a teacher
• Understand who will receive surprise, and
learn as much as possible about the person
• Present your partner with ideas and get
feedback
• Select one idea and first sketch it, then
build a model of it.
• Get feedback from your partner about the
design.
Over to You! Design Thinking Cycle

34. Define the Problem:
20 Minutes
(10 min each)
Gather background information about the person who receives the surprise. What are they like? Where do they live? Age, gender, profession.
What is the motive?
Why surprise this
person?
What are things the person likes?
What are the constraints of this surprise? For example distance, limited resources, limited time, other difficulties.
a
Who is the surprise for? Name the person.
What are things the person dislikes?

35. Find Ideas, Give and
Get Feedback, 30
Minutes
Who is the surprise for? Name the person.
Room for your Ideas....
Feedback:
10 Minutes, Produce 3-4 idea sketches 10 Minutes to present ideas and get feedback
(per person)

36. Iterate: Based on the Feedback, pick one idea to
develop further, 5 Minutes
Room for notes and sketches....

37. Implement and Test your Prototype (30 Minutes)
Implement a prototype (20 Minutes). Let your partner interact with / react to
your prototype. Prompt your partner to think out loud or ask questions. Note
down any ideas, reactions, feedback.
5 minutes each.
What is great about this idea? What is problematic about this idea?
How can I make this better? What are next steps? Are there open questions?