As an educator that has taught students from 7th grade to graduate school for the past ten years, I’ve had a front seat to the changing interests and contexts that influence the classroom. As a designer, the curriculum I create attempts to prepare students to engage with the world using a highly iterative, creative process. It’s been fascinating to watch how fluidly students adopt to new technologies. It was not that long ago that 3d printers, laser cutters and other cnc machines were first introduced to students. It didn’t take long for students and teachers to add these tools into their vocabulary. Prototypes and objects produced using these new technologies could tend to look the same until the designers pushed the boundaries of what was possible.
What has taken the longest for me, has been the articulation of what design as a discipline or way of thinking, can actually bring to some of the intractable problems of the world. We are not scientists, policy experts or subject matter experts. Our contributions are made most visible when we are able to work with teams of multidisciplinary collaborators. I am optimistic that platforms like HighlyNriched will begin to build meaningful bridges between educators, designers and experts. If we are handing off the problems of our generation to the next, we’d better provide some tools to inspire them.