When I learned about the Global Design Day event on April 26th, 2016, proposed by AJ Juliani and John Spenser, I was so excited!  The event is about engaging in building, creating, & tinkering which reinforces so many 21st century competencies.  Any time we can come together as a community to try something which is about trying something different from the norm (with or without technology) is also a wonderful way to build community! It didn’t take much convincing before Daniel LaGamba got on board and we had the support of senior administration and our awesome 21C Board team to go ahead and promote this event.

Daniel and I set out to host a Google Hangout on Air (via Tozzle which was totally new learning for us) in order to tell the Teacher-Librarians in our 108 schools what this was all about.  We were completely excited until we realized that April 26th was a day when we had various teachers coming to the Board for professional learning in our 21C initiative.  We would not be able to go to the schools to support this event!  So what to do?  Provide a Global Day of Design Professional learning opportunity of course.  We only had two hours and wanted to make the most of it.

What this looked like:

We began with this awesome video about the Launch Cycle created by John Spenser which clearly identifies what design thinking and the Launch cycle look like:

We then had participants choose one of four design challenges based on interest.  We chose not to go with the design challenges already on the GlobalDayofDesign website.  Below you will find a brief description of what each of these challenges looked like.

The workshop was then divided up as follows:

• Time to Design, Create, and/or Build
• Time to Capture and Record the Process (digitally or with chart paper & markers)
• Time to Share designs as well as the process (challenges, successes)
• Debrief

Choice 1: Breakout EDU

In this design challenge, participants had to solve a simple Break Out EDU challenge (Candy Caper).  They then sat in small subject/grade specific groups to create an extension to the game  for their students.  This was an idea suggested by Jeffrey Humphries when I chatted with him about my thinking for Global Design Day.  In our debrief, I talked with teachers about how valuable it would be for students to create the challenges for other students. Here is a link to one of the group’s reflection using Flipagram and here is a link to a reflection using Adobe Voice.

Choice 2: Virtual Reality and Make Do

Stephanie Wilson, a psychologist with our District came up with this idea which was incredibly powerful.  Participants experience the story of Sidra, a young girl in a refugee camp via Google Cardboard and the Vrse app.  They then design a prototype for something that would make her life better and use cardboard and Make-dos to create the prototype.  This is an incredible design opportunity that also builds empathy and cultural awareness and can be replicated with any virtual reality app.

Choice 3: Greeen Screen Movie Making

In this digital design challenge, participants created a storyboard for a green screen film project using the DoInk iPad app.  This app is new to participants, so many of them first spent time playing and discovering and reported one of their successes being learning that they could re-size and re-position the main image.  In a short time, particpants were able to create short green-screen videos and proudly showcased them.

Choice 4: 3D Design

We don’t have a 3D printer…but know who does?? The local library!  We connected with them for our Mental Health Symposium Makerspace and they were more than happy to come back for Global Day of Design.  They brought robots to be coded and vinyl designs too! And best of all, teacher participants now know that building a relationship with their community library is not only possible, but a good idea!

I can’t wait for the schools who participated to contribute to our District’s collaborative blog with their reflections and experiences with their students for Global Day of Design!

You can see some of our #ycdsb21c teachers and students who were involved in this storify by AJ Juliani.

I know it was just a day, but lots of teachers and students have had the opportunity to experience design thinking as a way of practicing 21st century competencies. And best of all, it was FUN!

Why not try this for your next professional learning day?  I’d be happy to help!