This week of class gave me greater insight into what we are doing with the middle school children. I was concerned that a tech project over a period of just a few weeks could potentially be too much for the children – both because it was too much work and because a lot of time would be spent calming the children down. But seeing the simple technology makes me feel more comfortable with the final project. Also, knowing that it doesn’t have to be a technology and can simply be a game of “trash soccer” also puts less stress on me.

I haven’t worked with middle school kids in two years and I’m curious as to what I can teach them and what they can teach me.

This semester, I signed up for two courses that revolve around technology: Ed Tech & Design Thinking and Design & Education. I expected there would be some redundancy with the two but Design & Education would put more emphasis on readings. I did not expect Ed Tech & Design Thinking to ultimately culminate in an environmental project. I think the environmental  problems are a culmination of many societal issues and helping children alleviate some of these issues would be helpful for our future.

I think the “Thinking in Systems” reading helped shape my understanding of Design Thinking. Design has to be approached as a system and designers must figure how each individual component works together to produce the final product. I also think that Design Thinking could be a way to figure out how to disrupt the way the system works, but not be careful not to have disastrous results. Meaning, as design is about the user – the disruption of the standard should still result in the final product being usable and accessible to people.