Design Thinking for Digital Fabrication in Education

TY - JOUR

T1 - Design Thinking for Digital Fabrication in Education

AU - Smith, Rachel Charlotte

AU - Iversen, Ole Sejer

AU - Hjorth, Mikkel

PY - 2015/11/7

Y1 - 2015/11/7

N2 - In this paper, we argue that digital fabrication in education may benefit from design thinking, to foster a more profound understanding of digital fabrication processes among students. Two related studies of digital fabrication in education are presented in the paper. In an observational study we found that students (eleven to fifteen) lacked an understanding of the complexity of the digital fabrication process impeding on the potentials of digital fabrication in education. In a second explorative research through design study, we investigated how a focus on design thinking affected the students’ performance in digital fabrication processes. Our findings indicate that design thinking can provide students with a general understanding of the creative and complex process through which artifacts and futures emerge in processes of digital fabrication.

AB - In this paper, we argue that digital fabrication in education may benefit from design thinking, to foster a more profound understanding of digital fabrication processes among students. Two related studies of digital fabrication in education are presented in the paper. In an observational study we found that students (eleven to fifteen) lacked an understanding of the complexity of the digital fabrication process impeding on the potentials of digital fabrication in education. In a second explorative research through design study, we investigated how a focus on design thinking affected the students’ performance in digital fabrication processes. Our findings indicate that design thinking can provide students with a general understanding of the creative and complex process through which artifacts and futures emerge in processes of digital fabrication.

UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212868915000203

U2 - 10.1016/j.ijcci.2015.10.002

DO - 10.1016/j.ijcci.2015.10.002

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2212-8689

VL - 5

SP - 20

EP - 28

JO - International Journal of Child - Computer Interaction

JF - International Journal of Child - Computer Interaction

IS - September

ER -