The road to sustainable learning
Creativity is intelligence having fun — Albert Einstein
At the beginning of the semester, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this Design Thinking for Social innovation course. I must admit that I chose this course because the title was very promising and intriguing. I wanted to have something less academic and more open minded than a traditional theoretical course. And I must say that the choice was right. Indeed, this course was very practical, we learned a lot of new concepts through role-playing, staging, project, … and I sincerely think that this way of teaching is the most efficient. In my opinion, when a student learns something by “having fun” he will retain more of what he has learned because it has left its mark on his mind.
What I would take away from this course is that in order to be successful, one should not be afraid to be overflowing with ideas. Indeed, throughout the semester we were put to the test to dig our imagination and it is by doing this that we ended up with some very nice projects within the class. We should not be afraid to be different and to test several hypotheses. This whole process allows us to test, reshape and refine our idea. Mistakes are not a failure but a way to do better in the future.
There is a module done in the course that made more of an impression on me than the others: selling a good product and a bad one. Without knowing it, all the groups had complementary but reversed objects. This allowed us to see that the way we tell things through storytelling, or the way we try to sell something will embellish the object and make us change our perspective. For me, this game has been a strong awareness-raising experience. It shows that you shouldn’t rely on the first opinion you receive but that you should gather various complementary or contrary opinions in order to be well informed and make the best decision possible.
In addition, this course also taught me how to work in a team. There is a quote that I love to repeat: ‘Alone we go faster, but together we go further’. This quote makes sense in the course. Indeed, our projects were substantial and to carry them out successfully it was better to have a coordinated and structured group. Moreover, communication was an important element within the group. All these learnings and discoveries are elements that I would retain and apply in my professional life in the near future.
Finally, I would like to finish by saying that I loved our project and I believe in it. I am part of Team 2 “Nova Green Community” and I am convinced that we need to integrate more sustainable activities and initiatives into the students’ curriculum. As part of the Design Thinking course, my group and I have created the instagram page “Nova Green Community” on which we have already shared several activities undertaken in recent months (including tree planting and biodiversity protection in Sintras Park). More initiatives of this kind will continue. We hope that our project will continue beyond the course.
