January 2016 Bookshelf
Books 13 January 2016
The Third Teacher: 79 Ways You Can Use Design to Transform Teaching & Learning
O’Donnell Wicklund Pigozzi and Peterson, Bruce Mau, and David W. Orr
Written to inspire educators, parents, and others with children in their lives, The Third Teacher considers the impact of environment on learning. With recommendations ranging from installing adjustable, mobile seating to using architecture and to highlight unique geological features, this book lays out 79 ideas for enhancing learning by improving the learning environment. interviews, facts, statistics, and stories, the authors encourage us to recognize place and space as elements of learning.
Make Space: How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration
Scott Doorley and Scott Witthoft
How can we change the physical space around us to ignite creativity and encourage communication? In Make Space, Scott Doorley, Scott Witthoft, and the d.school at Stanford provide simple tools for making spaces more collaborative and creative. Included in this guide are clever tips, scenarios, case studies, and templates that can be used by educators and parents to design comfortable and enjoyable learning environments that foster creativity. Does a messy room create potential to build on past ideas or does the clutter get in the way of new work? Make Space addresses this and many other considerations of building and experimenting with physical spaces.
The Maker’s Manual: A Practical Guide to the New Industrial Revolution
Andrea Maietta and Paolo Aliverti
Andrea Maietta and Paolo Aliverti understand that transforming ideas into reality can be intimidating. Their guide, The Maker’s Manual, aims to make taking the first step easier by introducing a variety of cutting edge technologies that can bring to life innovative ideas. Educators can use the colorful illustrations and thorough explanations of topics, such as 3D printing, Raspberry Pi, and laser cutting, to incorporate relevant and practical tools into their library of problem-solving and teaching resources.
Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change
Victor Papanek
Victor Papanek opens his call-to-action design guide by declaring that “there are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a few.” Leveraging his own experience as a product designer, he advocates a broader and more inclusive focus to design. He encourages us to see the potential for responsible, sensible, and sustainable design to highlight and adjust for individuality. Imagine the possibilities if we equipped our learners with an understanding of design—talk about developing a force for positive change.
The Split Screen Strategy: Improvement + Innovation
Ted Kolderie
Education | Evolving co-founder Ted Kolderie believes that, without significantly changing our schools, we may never reach the mark of a truly thriving public education system. In this challenging but hopeful book, Kolderie invites us to rethink the notion that change is “something the boss does to us.” He advocates for a “split screen strategy” in which we merge innovation and reform to create a self-improving system. Under this system, older, standards-based changes provide an anchor while newer, innovation-based ones allow educators and learning environments the freedom to step outside our current, Industrial-era paradigm.
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
According to economist Richard H. Thaler and law professor Cass R. Sunstein, human beings are not always the best decision makers; often, we could use a little “nudge” to help us make good choices. In the thought-provoking and aptly titled Nudge, they describe how choice architecture can be used to influence the way people—and learners—make decisions and to encourage healthier and more sensible choices. From dinner menus to retirement plans, Thaler and Sunstein show us that the presentation of a choice can have a significant impact on what we actually do.
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