Design, Learning and Cultures of Creativity
This is a presentation I just gave in Singapore to an audience of school teachers, principals and officers of the Ministry of Education. It is part of my continuing work in Singapore since 2002 to help Singapore embed Design Thinking in K-12 curricula both as domain subject matter for a design career path and as a pedagogical strategy for teaching all other academic subjects. Click link below to download powerpoint presentation.
21/01/2010 at 11:28 am Permalink
I loved the presentation. But I have a question about the Herbert Simon “quote” on slide 141. I have the first edition of “The Sciences of the Artificial” and I can’t find anything remotely resembling the seven stages of the design thinking process discussed in the book. I noticed in the notes section of the slide that the reference, “^ a b Simon, Herbert (1969). The Sciences of the Artificial. Cambridge: MIT Press, 55″, appeared to be from the Wikipedia entry on design thinking. I’ve also left a comment there. Page 55 of TSOTA is simply the first page of section 3 entitled: “The Science of Design: Creating the Artifical.” Nowhere near this page is there a discussion of the seven stages listed on the slide and in the Wikipedia entry. I’m writing this comment to see if perhaps I missed the relevant quote (or the gist of it) somewhere in the book. I’d love for Simon to have said it, since I greatly admire him; but I don’t think he did. Thanks. — Nick
08/02/2010 at 2:32 pm Permalink
Nick, thank you for your note and many thanks for the heads up about the Simon quote. I have to look back in my notes. I have a copy of TSOTA and I thought surely I got it from that. I have been using the quote for many years.If I did indeed Wikipedia it, that would constitute serious softening of critical brain centers. I recently recorded an interview with Ed Feigenbaum, Simon’s AI protegee and an old fraternity buddy of mine at then Carnegie Tech. We talked about the quote and Ed said it sounded right to him. I might have mistakenly ascribed it to TSOTA when it actually came from somewhere else in Simon’s voluminous writings.
24/11/2010 at 7:49 am Permalink
Dear Mr Wasserman,
I’ve been following your blog quite closely, particularly agreeing with approaching problems with a beginner’s mind, adopting user/human centred method, basically designing for the greater/smaller good.
I was wondering if you would be interested to visit our school to give our interaction design diploma students a guest lecture. If you need more info, feel free to contact me.
Cheers~
27/11/2010 at 1:53 pm Permalink
Excuse my late reply. Your comment came in some time ago but it appears to be not complete. I am working on education and enterprise innovation in Singapore, Mexico and Colombia. I have a lot of presentation material on redesigning Singapore and am off to lecture on that subject in Hong Kong today. If you have some interest in innovation consulting services, kindly let me know more about the basis of your inquiry.
Thank you,
Arnold Wasserman
27/11/2010 at 2:03 pm Permalink
Hello Ester. Forgive the late reply. I am just leaving for Hong Kong for the Business of Design Week where I will be presenting at Hong Kong Polytechnic U. and at the Global Design Network conference sponsored by the Hong Kong Design Council on the subject of “Singapore 3.0: Redesigning a Nation.” If you are by any chance going to HK, look me up.
It looks like you are in Singapore. I am based in San Francisco and will not be stopping by Singapore this trip. Kindly let me know more about what you have in mind.
My colleagues at The Idea Factory in Singapore also are available to speak on human-centered innovation. You might contact Nicholas Lee who heads our office there at nicholas@ideafactoryt.com
Best regards, Arnold Wasserman