Dimitry wrote: > Is that a realistic premise? I doubt it. It ignores > the reality of a fast evolving field in which the best > work is done by teams of T-shaped specialists
You can also look at T-shaped people as generalists. I think the curriculum we're talking about would result in T-shaped people. Students would specialize in interface design but be familiar with other design disciplines and be able to relate to people from majors like anthropology or psychology or computer science or engineering or technical writing... But to do that you need time. The fundamental problem with educating a generalist is that there's too much general information in the world that's tangentally important to cover in eight semesters. So what are some options? 1). More specialization. Cover fewer general subjects. 2). Extend the number of years to obtain a degree. 3). Subdivide the term duration to fit more classes into the year. 4). Start earlier. High school outreach and summer programs. Christine's architecture example (and to some extent, Dimitry's last paragraph) illustrates how important high school outreach could be. It's not uncommon for design programs to have prerequisite classes the very first semester, and if you don't know to take them upon enrolling as a freshman you can't apply for admission into the School of Design as a sophomore. At my alma mater anyone who came to design even one semester late couldn't finish the degree in four years even though it was only a four year degree. There were lots of design seniors in their mid-twenties. Evangelizing to high-school students early on could help build the awareness necessary to hit the ground running once they get to college. // jeff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=30515 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
