While going through this design challenge and completing the readings for the activity; I found the idea proposed by Crichton, S. & Carter, D. (2017) all too familiar. I am not the most creative person in the world and so I found it very challenging to “make something” while trying to figure out a problem. This process was very much outside of my comfort zone and so I felt that the term “hard fun” struck a cord with me. Approaching a problem from a few different angles got both my partner and I thinking more about the users and how they were feeling in certain situations.

In keeping with Crichton, S. & Carter, D. (2017), the term “wicked problem” also gave me pause to think about what types of problems would be considered “wicked problems”. How can we get our students more engaged and foster intellectual risk taking? Are these problems impossible to solve? Maybe a solution to the problem is not exactly what we need? How can we begin to encourage learners to not fear what other people think? How can we get them to think outside the box? Is this even something we can solve?

I found this quotation to be very helpful while completing the design challenge with my partner “solutions to wicked problems can be only good or bad, not true or false. There is no idealized end state to arrive at, and so approaches to wicked problems should be tractable ways to improve a situation rather than solve it” (Crichton, S. & Carter, D, 2017, p.25).

In my current role, I am always looking for ways to solve a problem or solve someone else’s issue. While digging deeper into the readings and our design challenge it became apparent that design thinking is really a great way to brainstorm different ways to approach a problem or situation. With no right or wrong answers through this process, the sky is the limit. It was certainly difficult to “make” anything out of this process as I mentioned previously I am not very creative when it comes to drawing or physically making something. This activity was uncomfortable for me which is why it was challenging but still was very interesting as it got us thinking about the problem from a variety of different angles. The term “hard fun” will stick with me throughout this course.

References

Crichton, S. & Carter, D. (2017). Taking Making into Classrooms Toolkit. Open School/ITA.