The S.O.L.D Process

The School of Little Designers or S.O.L.D as we call it fondly, was a result of a desperate need to bring design thinking into the classroom with strong purpose.

It essentially started with the question – ” Are my students applying what they learn in class? “. The answer many times was a strong “no”. Students needed to link learning to living and it seemed only fitting to use design thinking as an exciting way to have students apply what they had learned in class to solve problems outside the class. The structure of this program has been inspired many design thinking programs present today. We chose to be greedy and blame that on this new born, urgent need to create a “classroom of the future”.

That, coupled with a strong collaboration with one of the country’s best design schools – Symbiosis Institute of Design, whose students will not only share their designing skills but also prove to be ” design mentors” in the classroom, promises to provide us with an opportunity to start something truly powerful.
The S.O.L.D program is founded on the premise of a simple design thinking process:

Feel. Imagine. Play. Create. Share
( adapted from Design for Change’s concept of Feel, Imagine, Do, Share )

   

This process has been used in the designing of this program as well and will ultimately be used by students to build their design thinking skills, learn the importance of collaboration and feel a sense of accomplishment by bringing about meaningful changes in the real world. They will be involved in “design challenges” anchored in real world problems.

We strongly believe that design thinking is a significant component of the “classroom of the future”.
Things have to change. And fast.