Please join us for a weekly conversation about design thinking in K12 education. We will have a variety of moderators with a wide range and depth of design thinking experiences. Each week, we will connect the dots to the design thinking methodology and how it can and will play a bigger role in today’s K12 educational arena.
Welcome to #dtk12chat! @knowKMD and I are collaborating on a series of chats over the next little while focusing on the mindsets of design thinking. Tonight’s chat is the first of this series, focusing on the mindset of embracing ambiguity.
Dan Ryder, Success & Innovation Center Education Director, Mt Blue Campus, Farmington, ME; brought here by the pull of the #dtk12chat tribe #designthinking
Welcome to #dtk12chat! @knowKMD and I are collaborating on a series of chats over the next little while focusing on the mindsets of design thinking. Tonight’s chat is the first of this series, focusing on the mindset of embracing ambiguity.
First, a note about mindsets. Mindsets are the philosophy behind the process. Mindsets are needed to design innovative, impactful solutions. But good news! Practicing design thinking builds the mindsets, too. #dtk12chat
A1 fluid & soft edges I think of it like Oobleck do nothing w/ it drips through your fingers, apply pressure & work with it becomes more tangible #dtk12chat
By the way, I'm Erin from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I've been led here tonight by a conversation with @knowKMD about the mindsets behind design thinking that are JUST as important as the process! #dtk12chat
I think of ambiguity is the state of being trapped between at least two equally plausible definitions. #dtk12chat And now the word "aporia" rises out of my grad school memories to haunt this tweet... https://t.co/zRaUq7uxvy
Hey Chris… you know sometimes I wish I could say what I think when I see photos in tweets… I will leave that as an ambiguous statement in light of 2nights chat :) #dtk12chat
Can we just deliver a quick #BOOMSHAKALAKA to the veterans & newcomers & inbetweeners tonight on #dtk12chat? Holllee jeez! This is a great gathering @luckybydesign & @knowKMD have rallied up tonight
no not that one… but now that you mention it I have some thoughts about that but their not nice… You are foot in and foot out on the dark side… I don’t blame ya If you don’t drink the Kool-aid you will drown :) #dtk12chat
This is the perfect place to plug a classic of curriculum studies, Ted Aoki. He wrote of teaching as indwelling between the planned and lived curricular worlds. https://t.co/3SgeA3PbWR#dtk12chat
A2: When I embrace ambiguity, unexpected ideas emerge from the mix. When we anticipate absolutes, we tend to anticipate the ideas that live there, too. #dtk12chat
A2: by embracing ambiguity you're more open to trying knew things and seeing where the creativity and the lack of an certain end product takes you #dtk12chat#ElonEd
#dtk12chat A1-2...Embracing ambiguity lets you feel a little thrill in knowing that no one knows the answer, and things can/will change...so you get to discover your way.
A2 #dtk12chat Ambiguity is similar to the way Einstein spoke of "Mystery." That stance is a stance of wonder. The birthplace of HMW... and launchpad of iterations
Raising children is an open-ended, ambiguous journey if I've ever experienced one! (why I was late to the chat—but the best reason possible :) #dtk12chat
Make me think of Nabokov: "Does there not exist a high ridge where the mountainside of ‘scientific’ knowledge joins the opposite slope of ‘artistic’ imagination?” #dtk12chat
A3 #dtk12chat Said this last week... DT, like the 60's practice of freewriting helps us to linger at the point of wonder. We establish a stance of, "Hmmmm" allowing ideas rise and fall in the mesmerizing lava lamp of thought
A3: it allows us to see that sometimes not having a strictly defined "path", we can be more creative and more able to practice trial and error #dtk12chat
#dtk12chat A3. DT asks us to explore, question, and expand how we see what's happening and what could happen—our observations, principles, ideas. And, to try things embracing that they are experiments—we don't know what will happen.
A3 authentic #designthinking challenge are full of ambiguity bc Users lead us to the solutions: Users refine solutions, Users help us realize Solutions. Be in comfort with not knowing the destination #dtk12chat
A3 #dtk12chat Said this last week... DT, like the 60's practice of freewriting helps us to linger at the point of wonder. We establish a stance of, "Hmmmm" allowing ideas rise and fall in the mesmerizing lava lamp of thought
A1: #DesignThinking has helped my Ss take ownership of their learning and to be empathetic in their approach to situations in life beyond the classroom. @ocschat#dtk12chat
Comfort in discomfort needn't be boundless exuberance; I reckon a lot of folks need to know it's okay if that comfort takes the form of feeling minimal stress & anxiety when processes turn ambiguous; key is mindful shedding of those stressors #dtk12chat
A3 authentic #designthinking challenge are full of ambiguity bc Users lead us to the solutions: Users refine solutions, Users help us realize Solutions. Be in comfort with not knowing the destination #dtk12chat
...and the next step is being able to really feel that being surprised is "growing" not "being wrong". So freeing once you get there, but it can be a journey. #dtk12chat
A3:DT forces us to not create a solution until the user has been interviewed or POV considered & feedback sought/given = ambiguity at it's best #dtk12chat
yes and its amazing what constraints we find ourselves under that can increase stress during ambiguity moments #dtk12chat and other times the constraints make Ambiguity so much fun
A3 Design thinking lights the teacher's edition on fire. It hands you piece of paper and calls it a map. It throws up it's hands and says "You're on your own, folks. Figure it out" and goes out to drink a cup of coffee. #dtk12chat
yes and for me, it helps me to process out loud. Ever grateful to my teammate & colleagues who listen to me spill my thoughts all over the room #dtk12chat
A3 #Designthinking asks us to adopt a mindset where solutions emerge from possibilities, those possibilities steeped in responsiveness to user needs: we cannot predict what those might be, how they might change . . #dtk12chat
In this stance, we are not the sage on stage or guide on the side. Both of those offer too much. To embrace ambiguity and the power of lingering there, we must be the "meddler in the middle" @GingerLewman#dtk12chat
In reply to
@AngelaStockman, @luckybydesign, @GHSTEAMchic, @GingerLewman
A2 ambiguity is the state in which we live. A problem w/education today is we are still preparing kids for a set path as opposed to a more ambiguous one. Ambiguity helps designers focus on people not products.
A3 close looking at the world around us as designers, helps us learn to be comfortable with ambiguity. We begin to notice how our thinking and actions create new problems, new questions new paths to follow.
The embracing is that warm hug you are giving those possibilities; it turns that worry into assurance that all will be well -- eventually :) #dtk12chat
A3 #Designthinking asks us to adopt a mindset where solutions emerge from possibilities, those possibilities steeped in responsiveness to user needs: we cannot predict what those might be, how they might change . . #dtk12chat
One of my faaaavourite videos is the Adaptable Mind. https://t.co/l00p8yT4oE It talks about five skills needed for the future, two of which are empathy and initiative. Both are needed to embrace ambiguity. #dtk12chat
A4 the playful process in the middle, the part where it is extremely divergent & ambiguous can be scary for some. Stepping back and observing more and taking less can be as well. #dtk12chat
A4: Fleeing or facing the ambiguity inherent in confronting our own vulnerabilities as learners or those responsible for serving them. Both daunting. #dtk12chat
Feeling the need to answer "What do I want to be when I grow up?" in a definite way—when they, and the world, will keep chaning so much. Or even "Who am I now?"—can that be a little ambiguous? #dtk12chat
The embracing is that warm hug you are giving those possibilities; it turns that worry into assurance that all will be well -- eventually :) #dtk12chat
In this stance, we are not the sage on stage or guide on the side. Both of those offer too much. To embrace ambiguity and the power of lingering there, we must be the "meddler in the middle" @GingerLewman#dtk12chat
In reply to
@AngelaStockman, @luckybydesign, @GHSTEAMchic, @GingerLewman
A4 1 #dtk12chat#tg2chat Seriously...in most school systems...they flee from learning. Grades are an excuse for students and a screen for Ts. The admission that we don't really know with the certainty of a 87.5% how our Ting has caused Lng...that's ambiguity
I’m flipping Q5 and Q6. Thinking of that fleeing or facing… Q6. Embracing ambiguity can be scary. How can we support students, teachers, parents, & administrators (pick one) in taking this risk? #dtk12chat
I gotta hop out early tonight. Thank you to @luckybydesign 4 such thoughtful Qs & 4 ur generosity (and speediness) w/sharing resources! Remember 2 follow new folks u meet & thx all! Have a great week! #dtk12chat
A3: #DesignThinking helps us to see through someone else's eyes in order to create a vision. We walk in their shoes to understand their journey. We embrace because it's not all about us. #dtk12chat
I think part of being human is having a bias. It's acknowledging that it's there that will help us check it in order to design meaningfully for someone else. https://t.co/k4brn0ieHc#dtk12chat
In reply to
@lndeutsch, @CREATOMbuilder, @designschoolx
A6 You can support ambiguity in others by make a little bit of a public show of how ambiguity has fallen on your own human head. #dtk12chat Be bold in dramatizing it Make it OK for others to do so. Drain out the shame.
I can understand why... It's exploded recently, leading to so many different meanings. What I mean when I say
"design thinking" probably isn't what you mean when you say it. #dtk12chat
I’m flipping Q5 and Q6. Thinking of that fleeing or facing… Q6. Embracing ambiguity can be scary. How can we support students, teachers, parents, & administrators (pick one) in taking this risk? #dtk12chat
A4 2 #dtk12chat#tg2chat If they are facing it, they are, at least in one sense, doing what @quickmuse says, "figuring it out" reconnoitering of a sorts. They are conversing with the mystery, coaxing out a confession, an understanding but not an answer
#dtk12chat A6. Lower the risk with *small* experiments. E.g. with 1 person, 1 minute, $1...Like T's finding a setting working with just 1 student where they can try giving them more freedom for 1 minute.
A6 You can support ambiguity in others by make a little bit of a public show of how ambiguity has fallen on your own human head. #dtk12chat Be bold in dramatizing it Make it OK for others to do so. Drain out the shame.
Realize that good teaching IS constant and ongoing assessment. That's what you should be spending most of your time doing. And I don't mean tests. I mean supporting students in knowing their next step in learning. #dtk12chat
I’m flipping Q5 and Q6. Thinking of that fleeing or facing… Q6. Embracing ambiguity can be scary. How can we support students, teachers, parents, & administrators (pick one) in taking this risk? #dtk12chat
A6: I support ss by building their stamina for ambiguity w/open -ended challenges; class norms; time to share & celebrating range of thinking #dtk12chat
A4: In our humanity, we all have to face the reality of bias. We have to embrace communication and acceptance of those who do not look or live like us. Life is too short to flee from ambiguity. #dtk12chat
Okay, last wildcard question of the night: Q7. If you could nominate someone for the “Embracing Ambiguity Hall of Fame,” who would it be and why? #dtk12chat
A6 by simply being there with/for them. Sharing vulnerability with someone and taking a collective risk, makes ambiguity more accessible. Sometimes we need to know from someone who has been there, that it will be ok.
Yes...and finding little ways we can offer more ambiguous challenges. I love assessing s's design work because you're looking evidence of divergent thought and bold exploration rather than a right answer. #dtk12chat
On behalf of @knowKMD and I, thanks for joining in the fun tonight! Remember to follow new friends you met tonight! See you next week, #dtk12chat.
A big thanks to @unsplash for the beautiful photos in tonight’s chat. Beautiful, free photos at https://t.co/BgrCJLNNkT
