JIG SAW PARADIGM

 David Merrills 'Sitfables' is a great device. he is right to say we need to re engage with eye, hand, brain coordinations....non verbal , self organising and self evident

Remember how we learnt about the world as children...with blocks and puzzles

All that powerful learning has been deschooled ( see Ivan Illich  Deschooling society)

Visual and kinaesthetic learning forced out by the dullest kind of list making and verbalising. Education as recipes but no cooking!!

Arid.Lifeless.Non engaging. Routine. Passive. 

Tertiary eduation is so much worse than nursery education in those respects.

Here is a lecture I gave in 2007 about Jig saw puzzles, touching on a little of that.

I like the fact that is about ordinary non glamourous design, and in this instance about cultural stereotypes.

More important in this pdf  is the underlying world of problem- solving

I think it is right to call this 'problem solving' Here it is a closed problem...not a wicked problem ( see Horst Rittel's original text and an excellent new book by Marty Neumeier..The Designful Company 2009 which starts with a survey of Wicked Problems) As you may know....most design problems are wicked.

Think about the different strategies for solving puzzles. Think about the way strategies are embedded in personalities and derive from educational experiences

Think about the irritation of even one error

Think about the feeling of closure with success and completion

Think about how much of your life is like solving puzzles: and do you have the comfort of knowing when you have solved them...just now and again?