Cultivating Human-Centered Communities: What Can We Build Together in K–12 Schools?
Session Description
How might we design for cultivating resilient communities and diverse social-cultural ecosystems that balance needs and resources with care while allowing for emergence? In the context of K–12 schools, practicing, modeling, and teaching Human-Centered Design (HCD) can help us do that. This interactive session will begin by sharing how the emerging Human-Centered Schools Network (HCSN) at the University of Illinois’ Siebel Center for Design is creating opportunities for K–12 educators to practice, model, and teach HCD in their own roles, classrooms, and communities. From there, participants will be invited to share similar initiatives, experiences, and approaches before we collectively explore a larger question: How might we cultivate a more human-centered K–12 ecosystem? Together, we will consider what else we might design, implement, and nurture to support human-centered teaching, learning, and change across K–12 education.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ Saad Shehab
Saad Shehab is the Senior Associate Director of Research and Strategic Initiatives at the Siebel Center for Design at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He leads research on teaching and learning human-centered design in formal and informal settings. His work focuses on students’ collaborative problem-solving and how teachers support these processes in STEM classrooms.