Blog 2 - Design Thinking

Emerging technologies have altered the things that people can achieve. It has opened new and exciting opportunities, particularly in the field of education (Moller, Huett & Harvey, 2009). For education, it has enabled teachers to enhance their pedagogies and student’s experiences.

Design thinking is a skill that teachers can integrate into the classroom through technology to enhance students' creativity and problem-solving skills. According to (Hennessey, & Mueller, 2020) the design thinking process consists of five stages which are empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing.

Figure 1. Design thinking process. Image from Department of Education NSW Curriculum.

Canva is an excellent resource for facilitating design thinking among students in the classroom. It is a graphic design tool that offers a blank canvas as well as a variety of templates that can be used for brainstorming, planning, organising, and creating mood boards (Gehred, 2020). Canva is relatively simple and does not need instructions. It allows students to represent thoughts, ideas, and processes in many ways, which is especially beneficial as students have different learning styles.

Figure 1. Screenshot of my technology moodboard created on Canva (Canva, 2023)

Research has indicated that incorporating both text and graphics in teaching can facilitate deeper learning than using text alone (Alshaykha, 2020). Canva facilitates this approach by allowing for the creation of visually appealing graphics and text combinations of student’s ideas.

Teachers can adapt Canva to key learning areas such as Visual Arts, Design and Technology, English and Science. For example, teachers can use Canva to facilitate a lesson where students must create a business plan and product. Students can use Canva to brainstorm and organise their ideas, and then produce a visual representation of their business plan and product, which can be presented to the class.

Figure 2. Screenshot of a business planning template on Canva (Canva, 2023)

Although Canva is a great tool to foster design thinking by allowing students to express and organise their ideas in many ways, it does have limitations. Canva only allows for the initial planning of an idea and does not allow you to produce an end result. However, after using Canva to create their business plan and product, teachers could integrate Tinkercad and/or 3D printing into this lesson, enabling students to bring their products to life.

In conclusion, Canva is a great emerging technology that teachers can adapt into the classroom to enhance design thinking and learning for students.

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REFERENCES

Alshaykha. (2022). E-learning Visual Design Elements of User Experience Perspective. Tikrit Journal of Engineering Sciences, 29(1), 111–118. https://doi.org/10.25130/tjes.29.1.9

Canva. (2023). https://www.canva.com

Department of Education NSW. (2023). Phases of Design Thinking. https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/stem/early-stage-1-to-stage-3/project-based-learning-and-design-thinking/phases-of-design-thinking

Gehred. (2020). Canva. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 108(2), 338–340. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2020.940

Hennessey, & Mueller, J. (2020). Teaching and Learning Design Thinking (DT): How Do Educators See DT Fitting into the Classroom? Canadian Journal of Education, 43(2), 498–521.

Moller, Huett, J. B., & Harvey, D. M. (2009). Learning and instructional technologies for the 21st century visions of the future. Springer.

Tinkercad. (2023). https://www.tinkercad.com

ChatGPT has been used for the final edit of this post.

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EDIT HISTORY

10/04/2023 5pm - Adjustments made according to Davis Luo feedback.