woah - great thread. wish i'd read it sooner. here's my 2cents on ideas about IxD.edu:
We can make a tick list of all the functions we'd like an IxD'er to have.. but in the end there's something that's learnt by 'doing', knowledge built out of and around practice... Just about everyone here has touched on that, but I want to offer something from our experience here.. (Design programs in Communications and Architecture&Design schools in .au) In our University I've seen a few approaches to incorporating design practice: by far I'm more in favour with the model that Architecture uses than other ones I've seen.. I'll describe the model I like: Studio based teaching.. mixing multiple year levels, using people in practice to lead design studios with questions that bring their research and practice together. This is great, not only for the students: practitioners get to keep the faith & play in "what-if" space that commercial realities might not afford.. (they also get to work directly with the next gen of grads before they hit the streets). Students love it because it tastes a little like reality, with the all important possibility for 'failure' (thanks Dave) [aside: failure (bad word, really) is totally important as an opportunity to learn] Studio isn't a panacea though... I'm reminded of a great part in Kees Dorst's book (Understanding Design) that describes why good designers often don't make good design teachers (check it out.. but it's something to do with the way designers like to solve problems, and teachers like to teach students to solve problems) This is actually the key issue with edu today, numbers are higher and the quantity of content is so great that many disciplines are shouting that they don't have enough time to fit it all in.. some work has been done around this (Biggs' work on Teaching for Quality Learning, Ramsden's work on surface vs. deep learning approaches) Anyway - academicese aside - A major part of any course I'd want to recommend would have a strong interface people practicing IxD, and would use a studio model to teach many of the concepts listed throughout the thread above in the context of practice. Hopefully at the same time (eg practitioners taking studios that were aligned to their interests and subject areas) hope this makes sense... small form fields can make it difficult to see your argument .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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
