Enhanced information technology and advanced understanding of human learning make it strange that schools retain many methodologies geared for “filling heads.” Additionally, society faces challenges demanding “grabbed hearts.”

At yesterday’s MVPS Design Thinking Summit (#dtsummit12), we immersed ourselves in “Design = Utility + Significance.” At design’s core beats EMPATHY. Through design, doing-learners engage human experience to improve that experience. Insight into others’ needs grabs hearts. Grabbed hearts inspire active hands and feet…and wise minds. Isn’t that what we want need?

First 1/2 Highlights: [View the story “#DTSummit 2012 10:15 Storify” on Storify]

Second 1/2 Highlights: [View the story “#dtsummit12 Design Challenge (pm) Highlights” on Storify]

CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60 Project Explained

It is really rather simple, all I have to do is gaze upon one, and the vivid emotion filled imagery comes flooding into my mind’s eye. One does not even need to physically hold one of these objet, although I sometimes do.

Some of these rare treasures I have found, some have found me and some have been passed down though my family as heirlooms.

They are precious time travel devices, to not only my past, but links to my elders and their life stories.

There are people who call these treasures, and those of use who curate them, by disrespectful names. (Tchotchke, bauble, Knick-knack, trinket, dust collector, and worst of all clutter or junk)

These stoics simply do not understand the power these beautiful time capsules possess for those of us who know how to connect with them.

With each one of these accouterments, I am taken back…

If you are limited on space for your office then this is a classy retro option from Restoration Hardware.

Inspired by the gleaming nose cones and fuselages of mid-20th-century aircraft, the Blackhawk Secretary Trunk ($4295) is clad in a patchwork of polished aluminum panels accented with exposed steel screws. Rounded corners and inset drawer pulls give it sleek, aerodynamic lines. Aluminum has a matte finish that’s slightly distressed for a vintage look; intentional nicks, dings, small scratches and other imperfections are to be expected and add to the character and uniqueness of each item.

The trunk features tons of storage space, a desk area and 3 roomy shelves. It even looks cool closed like a cryogenic chamber from a 50’s sci-fi film.

by Joseph F. Cotto

Many things can be, and are, said about America. However, one thing is undeniably true; we are a nation of many different types of people. Different not only personality, social standing, or religion, but in ethnic background as well. In few other countries can one find an eclectic array of individuals having ancestors from opposite ends of the earth. Academia and the media often squabble over whether to call this country a salad bowl or a melting pot; I wouldn’t want to paint with a broad brush in either direction. However, I am certain that the United States offers a view of the world from a perspective unlike any other; sort of akin to standing on a mountaintop watching the cities and towns bustling below.

To appreciate fully the liberties afforded to us all as citizens or legal residents, it’s probably best to take a good…

Hazrat Bahauddin Zakaria is perhaps the most famous saint in all of Multan. He is the grandfather of the famous Shah Rukn-e-Alam and they are both buried just a couple of hundred meters from each other. The shrine is designed as a perfect square, and holds around 50+ graves of the Hazrat’s descendants. Even though his shrine is not as spectacularly designed as his grandson’s, it is a sight to behold. The exquisite blue tile-work is mesmerizing and I couldn’t help myself from staring at it for a long time.

As with Shah Rukn-e-Alam’s shrine, people paying homage to the great Hazrat believe that he is capable of hearing and answering their prayers, even after death. Be it the tying of empty plastic bags on the shrine’s grills or the burning of diyas (small oil lanterns made of clay) and rubbing their oil on one’s face or feeding…

      oil on canvas, 36″ x 48″, http://www.nagygallery.com

Nature never fails to inspire and encourage me. While out on a run/walk/stop and pet cats the other day, I noticed tiny little flowers growing through the cracks on the sidewalk.

The wisdom and perfection of nature astounds me. Even when faced with a seemingly huge obstacle (like a slab of concrete) these flowers still found a way to grow and blossom into what they were always meant to become.

I think we can take a lesson from that.

Found

It,

In

Your

Eyes

__________

By Laz.F.6/9/2010

Sharmishtha Basu
1.1.12

Rules of Haibun: A combination of prose and haikus, great importance is given to sensory side, an attempt to create a picture full of colours and fragrance through prose and haikus. (Syllable count of haiku, three line poetry is 5-7-5) I WILL SUGGEST YOU TO CHECK OUT THE RULES YOURSELF.

Your core is stillness
within the silence is the
realm of all possibilities.
Go within and I will show
you the magic of the Universe.

Bon Voyage,  Source

Joy is exactly what’s happening minus our opinion of it.

Charlotte Joko Beck.

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Robert Frost, A Prayer in Spring

All teachings are mere references. 

The true experience is living your own life. 

Then, even the holiest of words are only words.

Deng Ming-Dao