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Extending Design Thinking with Emerging Digital Technologies

Exten. (D.T.)2 uses Emerging Technologies (ET) to enhance the pedagogical value, sustainable digitization and potential for wide�deployment of Design Thinking (DT).
DT is a promising transformative pedagogical innovation based on engaged interdisciplinary learning and the growth of 21st-century (21C) skills for everyone, through entrepreneurial co-creation. Like other such innovations however, it has yet to pull its potential weight in terms of impact in educational transformation.
Exten. (D.T.)2 will use design-based research to support/provide evidence for pedagogical transformation via DT enhanced by ET. It will employ already institutionalized, home-grown and open-access digital expressive media of advanced technical readiness for students to engage in DT projects. It will also uniquely integrate with these expressive media ET i.e. ΑΙ-enhanced Authorable Learning Analytics, Augmented Reality, 3D printing/scanning and virtual robotics, to leverage digital implementation, monitoring and assessment of DT projects by teachers in schools.
Implemented/developed in different social contexts across 6 European countries, Exten.(D.T.)2 will explore the risks and potential of the pedagogical use of ET and how they support 21C skills, in turn increasing the scope, transformative potential and applicability of DT with ET in mainstream schooling.
Exten. (D.T.)2 will invite and inspire teachers and other stakeholders to design and implement such projects, by running original strategic teacher professional development, providing courses and guidelines for them to design, implement and evaluate DT projects in their classrooms.
The Exten.(D.T.)2 consortium includes 8 research sites with complementary interdisciplinary academic expertise, to support project development and at the same time with maintained active and sustainable connections with educational institutions and policy-making centers across 6 European countries.

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Design thinking

Mainly used in industry
A problem-based and creative approach
Any discipline
Real-life, complex, “wicked” problems
“Thinking outside the box” – innovative solutions
5 stages

What do people need? (research)
What are their needs and problems? (state)
What new solutions can you come up with? (think outside the box)
What different prototypes (solutions) can you create?
What do people say about proposed solution?

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“Biodegradable jewellery” �

Example case study
Students understand the problem: Why do we need environmentally biodegradable jewellery?	How? Students play a tetris-like game of sorting different material (iron, gold, plastic etc) to categories – time for becoming degraded by the environment (most of the jewels are made with slowly degradable material, causing long-term environmental pollution)
Students create different prototypes of jewellery	How? Students use the online MaLT2 3D modeller to rapidly prototype 3D models of different kinds of jewellery, e.g., earrings, necklaces.
Students seek feedback for their prototypes	How? Students upload their digital models on the nQuire platform and ask other students, teachers or parents for their feedback.
Teachers monitor student interactions through an AI-customized dashboard that tracks students’ engagement with technologies – They provide support when needed to those who need it the most.

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