Design, Invent, Imagine: [Thinking About Technology | Looking at the World and Seeing Design | Guess My Technology]
Looking at the World and Seeing Design
What's the Point?
- To help participants begin to see the world as full of
"design" -- that, in fact, every single thing made by humans (even
indirectly through machines) is the product of design.
- To help participants see how a designer's work must take into
account both function (what a thing is designed to do) and form (how
the thing is it designed to perform its specific function). While the intended function of a
designed object remains constant, the form it may take is a variable. Form may vary based
on:
- materials used (e.g., paper vs, plastic vs metal)
- mechanisms for movement such as gears and motors
- size (small, medium, large)
- shape (square, round, diamond shaped)
- weight, color, etc..
- To help participants understand how any designed "thing" is the product of a
designer's knowledge, skill, and personal "vision" applied to a perceived need.
- To get participants thinking about machines and technology.
What You'll Need:
- chart paper
- pencils
- felt tip pens
- PC computers with KAHooTZ loaded and ready for participant use
What to Do:
- Distribute the folders or notebooks to participants. (Revisit the notion of a Design
Notebook as a place to keep one's personal collection of ideas, sketches, designs,
questions, and solutions while working with Imagination Place!.) Encourage participants to use
their notebooks to make sketches and notes about the discussion that follows.
- Write the words design, invent, and imagine where participants
can see them. Ask participants to react to the words.
- Prompts to help participants think about design / invent
- What do you think of when you hear the word design?
- What is design?
- What do you think of when you hear the word invent?
- What does it mean to invent?
- How would you describe a designer? an inventor?
- What jobs do designers and inventors have?
- Where do you think they work?
- What skills do you think they use?
- What tools do you think they use?
- Prompts to help participants think about imagine / imagination
- What do you think of when you hear the word imagine?
- What does it mean to imagine?
- Do designers and inventors use their imaginations? How?
(Suggest that participants write down some of the
responses to these questions in their Design Notebooks. As
participants brainstorm their ideas, record them on chart paper for
reference.)
- Point to any object in the room (a poster, a
pencil sharpener, a wastebasket) and ask a participant to name it
and describe its function. Ask:
- Who do you think decided how (this thing) looks?
- What do you think that person's job was?
Do the same for a variety of several objects in the room.
- Ask participants to describe in precise detail how each object looks.
- Then ask participants to speculate about how the design of each item
was influenced by its intended purpose.
- About machines and technology -- ask:
- How are machines designed?
- Who designs them?
- What do you think a designer or inventor of a new machine does first?
- What do you think leads to the invention of a new machine or technology?
- How do you feel about machines and technology?
- What are some examples of some machines or technology you use?
List responses to this question on chart paper. Invite participants to add to it as they think of other
examples.
 Working with Imagination Place! in KAHooTZ
Have participants visit:
Tips & Tricks-- to learn about how to name the things that they create in Imagination Place! in KAHooTZ.
Wacky World of Whatchamacallits'
Quests & Queries and create an Xpression based on an exploration of technology. Have them name their Xpression and if there's time -- publish it to KAHooTZ.
Word Wave's:
- Design Journal and develop Journal Idea 1 which asks that they think of a machine that they need and then visualize their idea in an Xpression.
- Buzz and create an Xpression based on one of its Story Starters.
 KAHooTZ Help / KAHooTZ Tech Tips
During this workshop session, participants will have an opportunity to create an Imagination Place! Xpression of their own. It is important that they begin to understand the language of the on-line environment. The KAHooTZ on-line help has extensive information about the environment. Where you can find specific information is given below.
- About Xpressions -- Information about the basic building blocks of KAHooTZ.
- About Create -- Find out more about creating backgrounds, draw, stamps, sound and text -- elements that are used to create Xpressions.
- Xpressions: How do I -- Create -- Information on starting, testing and changing Xpressions.
- Saving my Xpression (in "How do I Create) Learn how to save Xpressions you have created.
- Publish an Icon Information about making an icon available to the KAHooTZ world.
- About Mail Find out basic information about mail in KAHooTZ.
- How Do I Mail? Learn what you need to know to use mail in KAHooTZ.
Note: Be sure that each participant has an icon that has been published to KAHooTZ.
 Design Notebook
Personal Technology Experience
Ask participants to recall and write about a personal experience
involving technology that was meaningful or significant in some
way. As examples, suggest as topics:
- the first technology a participant learned to use
- a personal history with technology
- a frightening or liberating experience with technology.
 Just Between Us
Sketching & Drawing
Be alert to the possibility that some participants might resist
the idea of "drawing" and/or "sketching." They may protest that
they can't draw, and therefore can't do the assignment. It is
important to acknowledge their fears but at the same time stress
how all designers need to sketch out and think about their ideas
on paper or on the computer (however scrawled). Reassure
participants that tools within Imagination Place!, allow them to construct their inventions from parts that already exist, using them as
they are or modifying them as need, requiring little or no
drawing at all.
 Resources
- The Way Things Work
- Eyewitness Books: Invention
- Mistakes That Worked
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