Design thinking experts from Silicon Valley met with top educators from Kazakhstan

San Mateo, CA – Silicon Valley Innovation Center (SVIC), known for organizing educational events and executive trainings for local and international clients, has completed a one week comprehensive training on Design Thinking in K-12 that took place in Silicon Valley from November, 28 to December, 7 and aimed to bring innovation and advancement to a network of top innovative schools from Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS).

The program was organized for CEO, principles and executives of the school network, named for and supported by the current president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The course was tailored as a combination of lectures and company visits and started with an introduction to the concept of design thinking, its development and application in K-12, by Scott Underwood, former storyteller at IDEO and co-founder of Innovationship LLC.

The introduction was followed by visits to two “cradles” of design thinking - Stanford’s D.School and IDEO.org - a spin off from IDEO that works with human-centered design as it applies to school education worldwide.

Other company visits included meetings with Dr. Wayne Grant, Director of User Experience at Intel for Education, Marc Ramos, Global Lead and David Chen, International Program Manager at Google for Education, and Aimee Gardner, author of award-winning innovation programs for school students “Get Invested” at Computer History Museum.

Seminars provided by Dr. Milton Chen of Edutopia, Dr. Mark Silver and Bill Selak of Hillbrook School, Dr. Jeanne Elliott of Bayside STEM Academy and Anne Stevens of STEM to STEAM Design Studios at Northwestern University focused on how to transform the classroom using design-thinking, and the roles of students, teachers and leaders in promoting design thinking and implementing creativity in education.

Several thought-provoking conversations on design-thinking and extra curricular activities were led by Glen Tripp, founder of Galileo Learning, Kim Mesa, founder of Art & Design Thinking Camp and Libby Falck, founder of IDEAco and its design thinking programs for talented youth.

Along with the comprehensive theory, the participants had a chance to challenge their own ability to innovate by participating in several interactive workshops offered by Dr. Maureen Carroll, Director of Stanford’s RedLab and founder of Lime Design, Prof. Jonathan Littman, co-author of IDEO’s “Ten Faces of Innovation” and Guido Kovalskys, lecturer at D.School and founder of NearPod.

A broader picture of personalization in teaching and learning as part of school education transformation in the US was outlined by Brian Greenberg, CEO and Caitrin Wright, partner of Silicon Schools Fund, Tony Wan and Mary Jo Madda of EdSurge and Elena Sanina of Aspire Public Schools.

“SVIC once again proved to be a bridge between innovation centers of the United States and other countries. Executive trainings and business trips that we organize for our overseas partners are a great way to foster innovation all over the world.” - said Andrey Kunov, PhD., the president of Silicon Valley Innovation Center.

About NIS

Autonomous Educational Organization "Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools” (NIS) is a network of innovative public schools in Kazakhstan for gifted students of age 12 to 18. The NIS network aims to educate the future intellectual leaders of the country, introduce modern forms of governance in the field of education and development of the academic freedom and autonomy necessary to implement innovative educational programs and research projects. http://nis.edu.kz/en/

About SVIC

Silicon Valley Innovation Center is advancing and fostering innovation through executive programs, seminars, workshops and business representation in Silicon Valley. These programs facilitate open exchange of ideas that encourage business growth through innovation. http://www.svicenter.com/

Contact

To learn more about this program, please contact us at:
Contact person: Anastasia Vestfal
info@svicenter.com
Tel: 1 (650) 274-0214
1875 S Grant St, Suite #520, San Mateo, 94402, CA, USA