David Lee EdTech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH6-GxIVEpI Seeing the wave of "I’m an ADE!" posts is bringing back a rush of nostalgia. I vividly remember the excitement of getting accepted to the Apple Distinguished Educator program for the 2019 Gold Coast Institute. To the Class of 2025 : Huge congratulations! You are joining a family that will challenge and lift you up. To those who didn’t get in this year: I see you.  Please know a badge doesn’t define your worth. Your impact is real. Keep building. At that Institute, I gave a talk that defines my career: Every Educator is a Designer. But like all industries, there is good design and bad design. As a student, I once had to sculpt a clay bust of Herbert Hoover. I became an expert on his nose shape but learned nothing about history. I constantly asked, "Why am I doing this?" That question led me to eduPermaculture —an approach where we mimic real-world ecosystems. instead of "school-ified" tasks, students take on prof...

Is Your School Strategy Starting to Look Like an Ugly Holiday Sweater? It’s the last week before winter break. The hallways are buzzing, the coffee consumption is at an all-time high, and the "Ugly Holiday Sweaters" are out in full force. You know the ones: tacky, garish, and covered in random festive elements that seem to have been thrown together with a glue gun and a prayer. I never quite understood the appeal until my favorite sports teams started making them—then I was all in. But I realized that many schools are starting to look exactly like these sweaters. Just like a sweater bombarded with too many decorations, schools are often bombarded with new initiatives, new curriculum programs, and "must-do" recommendations from consultants every single year. The result isn't festive; it’s chaotic. The Cost of "Initiative Overload" According to Dr. Lynell Powell, when a school suffers from initiative overload, three things happen: Frustration  builds amo...

The Design Thinking Standards (DTS) provide educators a foundation of what students are expected to learn and do when using the design thinking method. These learning goals are guidelines that educators can use, adjust and modify to meet the needs of their students. The following standards were developed based on the  work and teachings  of the  d.school  (Institute of Design at Stanford University), a leader in design thinking education, and its  K12 Lab Network , a program that brings design thinking into schools.  The DTS are composed of design practices (skills that students will be able to do), core design ideas (knowledge that students will understand), and design mindsets (set of attitudes essential for effective application of design thinking). ​ There are two sets of DTS's. The first set of standards incorporates the K12 Lab's design thinking principles (or mindsets) and is recommended for educators who teach design thinking to grade K-5 students. ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC1cvq00tO0 Discover how design thinking can revolutionize education in this engaging episode!  We review a groundbreaking book on implementing design thinking in the classroom, exploring how this approach fosters critical 21st-century skills like problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity.  Check out the book here: https://www.lpbeta.org/book Here is playlist that breaks down this video into three parts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYyk4fLjIwR-NuGhBk9tBzfTCvqAkvNK8 Key themes include: 1. The importance of empathy, iteration, and prototyping in learning. 2. Developing mindsets like human-centered design, growth, and creative confidence. 3. Practical strategies and tools to help educators integrate design thinking into their teaching practices. 4. Learn how to transform students into active, innovative problem-solvers ready for a rapidly changing world.

 Teaching isn’t just about content — it’s about equipping young people with the confidence and habits to shape the future. In this short webinar I share what I’ve learned about teaching creative problem-solving (CPS) and design thinking is the best toolkit for CPS. I also discuss how I design learning experiences that let students practice the real work of design thinkers: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqMbL8u2P58 Why creative problem-solving matters CPS set of cognitive skills that help students move from passively accepting problems to actively reshaping their world. When learners generate ideas, plan, and construct solutions, they operate at the highest levels of thinking: applying knowledge, analyzing context, and inventing new things that carry meaning beyond the classroom. What Design Thinking looks like in practice CPS has roots in the work of Osborn and Sidney Parnes and shows up most powerfully when within desi...

 I am 40 years old. I found out this year that I am dyslexic. For decades, I interpreted my struggles with rote memorization or fine details as simple "weaknesses." I thought I was just incapable. But that diagnosis changed everything. It didn't just explain my struggles; it highlighted my strengths. I realized my brain had made a trade-off: I might miss the minutiae, but I excel at seeing systems, patterns, and big-picture connections. I wasn't incapable. I just think differently and I am iterative. That realization really connects to my philosophy that drives my work and life today: I am Learning in Perpetual Beta (LPB). What is "Perpetual Beta"? We often treat learning as a destination—a mountain top we reach where we can finally say, "I’m an expert. I’m done." LPB rejects that. It borrows a mindset from the software world. A "Beta" version of an app isn't finished. It’s buggy. It’s rough. But it’s ...

We used to live in a world where "high-quality" creation was gated behind expensive barriers and "expertise". If a student wanted to make a movie, they needed a budget. If they wanted to publish a book, they needed a publisher. Those gates are gone. I tested this shift in my own backyard. My kids are huge fans of the Instagram account @ jurassicbrazil , which features hyper-realistic photos of dinosaur toys. A decade ago, recreating these shots would have required Photoshop expertise and a DSLR camera. Today? We grabbed an iPad and some dinosaur toys. We crouched low in the dirt, experimented with angles, played with light, and used a simple photo-editing app to bring the images to life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-1xRtJYCTE Empowerment through Technology As you can see, accessible apps allowed us to edit the photos to look epic and professional. The technology didn't do the creative work for us—it removed the friction so our creativity could flow. This is...

 We often treat "creativity" and "compassion" as separate silos in education. At the Future of Learning Conference in HK, I had the privilege to present the concept of Creative Compassion. At its heart, it’s the moment where creativity meets empathy , and where our urge to make things collides with our desire to help others. What is Creative Compassion? Creative Compassion is the process where our inherent urge to innovate ( Creativity ) combines with our innate capacity for empathy ( Compassion ). This combination drives us to develop novel, useful things specifically aimed at fulfilling the needs of others ( Creation ). It is not just about "being nice." It is empathy in motion—a desire to do something that actively nurtures growth, for both the creator and the audience. The Three Pillars of the Practice To truly practice this, we need to balance three elements: Creativity: Using our basic ability to solve problems and t...