IDEO

Location: Palo Alto, California

Founded in 1991, IDEO is an award-winning global design firm that takes a human-centered, design-based approach to helping organizations in the public and private sectors innovate and grow. We identify new ways to serve and support people by uncovering latent needs, behaviors, and desires. We envision new companies and brands and design the products, services, spaces, and interactive experiences that bring them to life. We help organizations build creative culture and the internal systems required to sustain innovation and launch new ventures.

Highlights:

Education is the means by which we thrive, individually and collectively. In recent times, the growing complexity and interconnectedness of our now global society has challenged the effectiveness of traditional education systems, which were designed for the needs of the industrial era. The old model was built upon the idea that a worker’s job was to apply the basic skills they’d learned in school to specific tasks. To thrive in the 21st century, however, we need to go beyond that—and teach people how to learn, engage, and create. As Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” The new model is about the constant creation of knowledge and empowering individuals to participate, communicate, and innovate.

This is the spirit that drives IDEO’s designs for learning. Whether it’s about developing tools, environments, or curricula that enable more engaging learning experiences; transforming schools, programs, and organizations; or addressing systemic challenges that affect education-at-large, our human-centered methodologies and multi-disciplinary teams bring innovation solutions to education.

Links:

• IDEO (website) - http://www.ideo.com
• IDEO - Education - http://www.ideo.com/expertise/education/

Submitted by Dana Bennis on: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 - 9:37 am

Tags for this entry:
problem solving, innovation, design, media based