The goal for this final week of the d. thinking course is for you to reflect on your experience with the design challenge and how you might apply the skills and mindsets of design thinking to your own work and interests. Taking It Home: Applying Design Thinking

My takeaways and learning are numbered, below:

(1) I already learned that a systematic approach to problem solving involves all the steps shown in the figure, below. I may have different names for them, or additional, descriptive, “sub” names for each step along the way, but it has proved to be a useful guide. I may have it tattooed on my fesse.

Where will I go next with my new learning? (2) I cannot help but use what I've learned to approach invention, problem-solving, etc., and to perfect and refine my toolbox. I will also integrate some of the steps into ordinary and minor problems that surface day to day.

My context - in the past years of my retirement, has been that of a volunteer for the local community garden, the local art and history museum, the local chapter of the Science Cafe and the computer club. I've taught classes for the computer club in a variety of subjects, including: procedures, security, hardware, research, software and business applications.

The Design Thinking Process can be applied to any and all of these engagements. I have an idea I will do a class on Design Thinking for the computer club this fall. We meet at the local high school, and have an open invitation to any student or teacher that would like to attend. Thus, any learning and knowledge is passed on, documented, photographed, and published on line or on the club website. I should distinguish between learning and knowledge. I believe that Learning is the teaching of skills, while knowledge changes behavior.

The next MOOC that I will be taking is the Creativity, Innovation and Change class offered by Penn State, starting in early September. I already have a BLOG that deals with creativity < http://creativejuijitsu.blogspot.com/ > and what I learn and the resources I collect are included there for my readers. My book, Creative Juijitsu < http://goo.gl/E7sgeU >, is available through Amazon, and grew out of a class I did on line for a private university several years ago. (3) I

Illustration 1: d. thinking steps; rubric

continue to enjoy the topic, get satisfaction from sharing what I learned, and teaching classes related to my new “learnings”.

I wrote the following letter to myself the first week:

Since high school, I’ve considered myself creative, but lacked the discipline and processes in order to focus and refine my abilities.

As an adult, I have offered my opinions, ideas and talents to others, but I did not sense that my contributions were appreciated. I hope that it is so because I am not communicating clearly..thus my ideas and explanation are misunderstood. I may be fooling myself to some extent, I am seeking confirmation and acknowledgment of my latent talents and ability. Your old friend, Tom

(3) I feel that I have a working knowledge of pertinent processes and procedures, and have the ability to focus throughout the process – all the way to completion and resolution. My present task is to find a way to solve the problem I've had in proving to myself that my contributions are appreciated and understood. I think that I will have to work on more projects, see them promulgated, and get feedback from my viewers and readers. This will be my method for testing my personal prototypes.

Illustration 2: Process for Observing and Reflecting