Around the world, there are accomplished people dedicated to raising the quality of design of educational processes and materials.

ISSDE was formed to help this group work effectively as a coherent professional design and development community.

The goals of the Society are:

  • improving the design and development process
  • building a design community
  • increasing our impact on educational practice

The Fellows are designers and project leaders with outstanding records, together with some representatives from government agencies and foundations that fund such work.

Next ISDDE Conference: September 16th-19th 2019, Pittsburgh PA USA

The conference theme, Design for the Future, will highlight the new emerging challenges in STEM educational design, connecting to Pittsburgh’s long-standing focus on technology and education.

Continuing traditions set by previous conferences, the meeting will be intimate (capped at 90 participants) and highly participatory by design. Attendees, top educational STEM designers from throughout the world, will enjoy inspirational plenary talks, presentations/poster showcases focusing on new educational designs or special challenges to educational design, small group work sessions on pressing problems of practice, and many meals and informal conversations over food and drink; this is not your usual conference in format or focus. The conference will take place at the University of Pittsburgh in the emerging phoenix of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

 
Visit the Conference Website

2018 ISDDE Prize Winner – Jackiw

The 2018 ISDDE Prize for Excellence in Educational Design – Nick Jackiw

This year’s prize for a single product that has had great impact in terms of educational design was awarded to Nick Jackiw who developed the innovative software The Geometer’s Sketchpad. This, in many ways, ground breaking software has changed the way students, teachers and explorers see and come to understand the world of geometry. The software has had impact across the world and notably in the United States where many teachers have been genuinely been surprised and delighted at the way it supports their teaching and student learning.
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Educational Designer

Educational Designer – May 2018

This special issue of Educational Designer, ISDDE’s free online journal, focusses on Lesson Study, also named as Japanese Lesson Study by those who point to its roots. The contributions connect Lesson Study and its design processes in a broad international context. In his introduction, Max Stephens explains some key features of Lesson Study in Mathematics and why it has been chosen for this special issue. His second contribution examines its potential to improve instructional design and the quality of teaching and learning. Three papers report on adapting Lesson Study to schools outside of Japan: Marlon Ebaeguin examines the cultural foundations and pedagogical assumptions relevant to adapting Lesson Study for Philippine schools; Tad Watanabe writes from first-hand experience of Lesson Study in Japan and in the United States, and da Ponte, Quaresma, Mata-Pereira, and Baptista discuss the successes and challenges of Lesson Study with first-time teachers in Portugal. Interestingly, from Japan, Nishimura, Kobayashi and Ohta describe how Lesson Study, which has been a strong feature of elementary and middle schools in Japan, can be enacted in the senior high school.

Read Educational Designer

Galway

ISDDE Conference 2018: Culture and Educational Design

28th – 31st May 2018 at the National University of Ireland, Galway

The 14th Annual Conference of the International Society for Design and Development in Education took place on May 28th-31st, 2018, at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

The conference theme, Culture and Educational Design, highlights the importance of context in principled and participatory, educational design, and the significant influence of culture, the historic, natural and social environs on learning, teaching and assessment.

Continuing the tradition set by previous conferences, the meeting was intimate and highly participatory. Attendees enjoyed plenary talks by leading educational designers, paper and poster presentations, small group work sessions on pressing problems of practice, and many meals and informal conversations over food and drink. The conference took place on the beautiful campus of the National University of Ireland,

Visit the conference site for more details

2017 ISDDE Prize Winners – Kaye Stacey and Zalman Usiskin

Unusually this year the International Society for Design and Development in Education (ISDDE) has awarded the prestigious 2017 Life Time achievement award for Excellence in Educational Design to each of Professor Emeritus Kaye Stacey of the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Professor Emeritus Zalman Usiskin of the University of Chicago, USA, each of whom receive $5,000.

“This award recognizes the major contribution these two brilliant designers have made to the field of mathematics education over many years,” said Lynne McClure, Chair of ISDDE and Director of Cambridge Mathematics. “Each has worked over many years providing research-led products including assessment and classroom materials that have had major impact on the teaching of mathematics in their own countries and across the world,” she added.

Full citation to follow.

Berkeley

ISDDE Conference 2017

6th – 9th November 2017 – Berkeley, California

The 13th annual conference of the International Society for Design and Development in Education, hosted by The Lawrence Hall of Science, was held from November 6-9, 2017, at the University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. The conference theme,Broader Participation in Design, was chosen to highlight the twin goals of creating educational designs that allow for broad participation, and also broadening participation within the community of educational designers. The conference took place on the beautiful University of California, Berkeley campus, at both the Faculty Club and The Lawrence Hall of Science.

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2016 ISDDE Prize – Uri Wilensky

Netlogo

At the 2016 ISDDE Conference in Utrecht, the 2016 ISDDE Prize for “excellence in design for education in science or mathematics” was awarded to Uri Wilensky of Northwestern University for his work on NetLogo – a computer-based modeling environment that enables learners to both explore and build computer models of natural and social phenomena.

“Through a sustained and deliberate design process, Uri Wilensky has created a substantial product that is used by others to develop and share innovative prototypes – this recognition and impacts is the overarching criterion for the ISDDE Award,” said Professor Susan McKenney, Chair of ISDDE.

Professor Wilensky will deliver a keynote address on his work at the 2017 ISDDE Conference where he will formally receive the award.

Read the full prize citation

Lynne McClure becomes ISDDE Chair

As of 1 st January 2017, Lynne McClure, of Cambridge Maths, takes over from Susan McKenney as Chair of ISDDE. Lynne has been involved with ISDDE for some time now, including chairing the 2014 conference, so she is no stranger.

Welcome to Lynne, and many thanks to Susan for her years of chairing.

Educational Designer Issue 9

New issue available

The September 2016 issue of the ISDDE’s free online journal Educational Designer is now available. This issue’s articles are:

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2015 ISDDE Prize – Sol Garfunkel of COMAP

Lifetime Achievement in Educational Design

The International Society for Design and Development in Education (ISDDE) has awarded the prestigious 2015 ISDDE Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Educational Design worth $10,000 to Solomon Garfunkel, Director of theConsortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP) in Bedford, Massachusetts.

The unifying theme in Garfunkel’s work has been the teaching of mathematics through mathematical modeling of real world situations – the message has always been that math is important, useful and interesting and the COMAP designed resources reflect that philosophy.

Read the full prize citation