Design Thinking as a Learning Process:
Building Innovation Capacity and Creative Competence within a Global Context


Reinhold Steinbeck


In the keynote address, “Design Thinking as a Learning Process: Building Innovation Capacity and Creative Competence within a Global Context,” Reinhold Steinbeck will use an interactive approach to explain “design thinking” -- a user-centered and team-based approach for developing innovative solutions within a global context.

Design thinking is a creative process based around sharing ideas: It is a protocol that combines empathy, creativity and rationality for solving problems and discovering new opportunities in a practical and creative way. Because judgment is absent early in the process, the fear of failure is diminished. This method promotes maximum input and participation in later phases of the process.

Building on the work of globally distributed and place-based learning teams at Stanford University, his examples will demonstrate how design thinking was used as a method to help students employ a common design process. Through their involvement, students come to appreciate cultural contexts, learn in interdisciplinary teams, develop deep empathy, prototype, iterate ideas rapidly and at times, will reframe a problem entirely.

Steinbeck will also lead a workshop in which 30 faculty participants will gain hands-on experience with the design process tools and techniques that teaching teams and students can use to build creative capacity and competence. Participants will generate specific ideas to implement in their own courses and programs.

 

University of Delaware

Video by Information Technologies, University of Delaware