Design thinking is about using design to improve the human experience. It combines collaboration, systems thinking, and a balance of creative and analytical habits. It also fuels what the students want for themselves: making an impact on the real world in real time and having adults take their passions seriously. The process essentially comes down…

Presents a model based on a bicycle metaphor for teaching problem solving and computer-mediated solutions, discusses its implications for education, and lists ten strategies applied using the model. Provides a unit plan on using spreadsheets to explore Australian convict history, outlining establishment, development, interpretation, and…

Helping students become information seekers, synthesizers, analyzers, evaluators, innovative thinkers, problem solvers, decision makers, producers of knowledge, communicators, and collaborators is one way to create an environment that minimizes cheating, plagiarism, and copyright violations. In such an environment, you may also be able to take…

Describes a teacher networking project using My Make-Believe Castle, an adventure program developing problem solving skills, that involved 100 elementary teachers around the country and demonstrated the utility of listservs. Discusses teacher observations of problem solving, peer teaching, one-computer classrooms, and deeper learning. (PEN)

Discusses teaching grade 1-8 students programming and complex problem-solving skills using MicroWorlds, a variation of LOGO. Discusses game programming and provides a MicroWorlds "Cat and Mouse" game-planning sheet. Argues that programming instruction fosters creativity, innovation, and patience. (PEN)

Presents seven activity structures for Internet-based problem solving projects to aid teachers in designing effective educational telecomputing experiences that can be curriculum-based and adapted to learning needs and preferences of students. These projects include information searches; electronic process writing; sequential creations; parallel…

Discusses telecollaboration (working with others at a distance) or teleresearch (finding and using information from distantly located data sources - most commonly online). Suggests guides to help teachers design activities incorporating online research for K-12: to practice information-seeking skills, answer questions, review multiple perspectives…