Timeless Toys & Tales: A Design Process in Education

International audience"The best thing a child can do is to break a toy; the next best thing is to make it; even better is to create it." As part of my work, I explore design processes in school education in India. The intent is to integrate in curricula, design processes through series of design in education workshops. Why deploy toy design as a medium to achieve such a goal? Everyone can easily connect to toys and games. We usually start the workshop with a study of a heritage toy. As part of "toys and tales" workshop series, usually one specific toy design or concept is selected and explored through various 'Tale' concepts. This process helps create many ideas for toy-product design. The participants are generally teachers of education, therapy, child development and psychology. They are able to develop new ideas in these workshops. The aim is to empower educators and enhance their creative abilities in their respective work by introducing design process, relating toy and game design. I teach product design at a university in India. We felt the need to introduce space and facilities whereby both digital and tangible toys and games may co-exist. The design students are encouraged to incorporate elements of play in their product and interior design projects. Students value this approach as it brings a special design process. In my studio, I design and produce toys in small quantities. One of the toy design projects, "Khel Manthan (Churning-Learning)-handcrafted storyteller and storymaker", is designed and developed with a community. The experiment is used as one of the case studies during design in education workshops, to highlight the significance of the design process. I will be presenting some of the experiences from these workshops and courses with various groups of school teachers, university faculty, students, and development communities involved in training. My presentation will highlight the process of design development work through group participation