Mark your calendar for May 2, 2017, this year’s Global Day of Design. This project, spearheaded by educators A.J. Juliani and John Spencer, encourages classrooms all around the globe to participate in innovative thinking and creating during one 24-hour period. According to Juliani, over 40,000 students participated in last year’s Global Day of Design, an impressive number that we could surely double this year.
Ideally, every day should be one that includes innovation for our students. However, the reality is far from this. Hopefully, just as Hour of Code has promoted awareness of the need for more computer science education, the Global Day of Design will encourage more educators to integrate Design Thinking into the curriculum.
Juliani’s post gives a link to register for the Global Day of Design, as well as many resources. The official website for the project also has a registration link and the bonus of at least 12 free design challenges with the promise of more to come.
In a related post, my colleague Sony Terborg recently wrote about the concept of “The Producer Mindset,” and also linked to the Global Day of Design. Like Terborg, many forward-thinking educators agree that it is imperative that we move away from the factory-based system of education to instead provide students with opportunities to create and think for themselves. Design Thinking is a great framework for educators to refer to when embarking on introducing innovation in the classroom, and I would recommend the Global Day of Design as just the beginning that will hopefully eventually lead to a new generation that is comfortable designing 365 days a year.
