MOOCs and Tapping into Design Thinking

I have to admit - I love studying things that inspire me.

So discovering MOOCs (massive open online courses) is almost like a revelation. There are several places to start finding interesting courses for free and so far I've signed up for iversity.org and futurelearn.com.

First I jumped right into this one about "Design Thinking"

which brought me to the TED Talk (2009) by Tim Brown who asks Designers to "think big" again. What I found especially inspiring about his talk: In very simple terms, design is not just selling stuff - or making stuff look good enough to be more desireable to be bought. He describes a different notion of design I haven't heard before (or I am not so familiar with) but which really resonates with my idea of how I want to be a designer in the future.

Instead of seeing its primary objective as consumption, design thinking is beginning to explore the potential of participation -- the shift from a passive relationship between consumer and producer to the active engagement of everyone in experiences that are meaningful, productive and profitable. [08:41 Transcript, Tim Brown]

[ted id=646]