Andy, I'd love to hear more about how you do design education online and remotely.SCAD where I currently teach has a host of online offerings that seem to be used more for supplementing scheduling conflicts among in-person enrolled students than for replacing entire degree programs.
Angel, I don't understand what your criticism is precisely. Are you saying that studio education is bullshit b/c you met people who came out of it who don't know who Tufte is? I would actually challenge that as part of the "academic" side of the UX community who believe that knowledge of information is more important than ones ability to actually do craft. In my short time here at SCAD I have noticed a few things. One is that the design program teaches through doing, not through reading. Reading is required for sure, don't get me wrong, but it is always used as a means for supporting doing. Kinetic learning is the primary form, and what that means is that students often internalize the learnings of readings without afterward being able to reference them. (THIS is is at the undergraduate level). It is only at the graduate level well depth of knowledge and mastery of that information is pressed. But still always against the mold of doing. Let's get back to studio and to "design" education. There are a host of HCI and UCD and UX and IA and even IA/IxD programs out there. I would not consider any of these good "interaction design" programs if they do not incorporate the foundations of design as a requirement or use the studio method of education. They are learning environments and what they teach can be quality and valuable, but without the core principals of both foundation and studio and I'll throw in there art history & criticism these are not design degrees. I think this is at the crux of what Dan and Marc are speaking about. That to continue not just as a UX discipline but as a DESIGN discipline our educational system needs to be rooted in the same foundations as all other design disciplines from architecture, communication, and industrial. Why is this so important? Because today's "other designers" are much better equipped to move into IxD than most of us are able to move into their domain, and the realities of the work ahead of us as a society has less to do with websites and more to do with designing entire situations and eco-systems which traverse all these environments. So if we not only want to DO, but hopefully be considered to lead (I mean why go for a grad degree if you don't want to change your station; and notice I didn't say manage) you need to be able to communicate & practice DESIGN across all these disciplines. Going back again to studio. Most people don't understand what studio is and how it works. In my sketching workship I try to teach this concept, but it is sorta difficult without living it. I think a former colleague of mine in a discussion put it best. Jennifer Arden (RISD grad) said studio gave her creativity endurance and stamina. It taught her creative mind to keep working longer and harder. What I would go further to say is that what I have experienced as an outsider to studio world coming into it is that studio is a chamber for behavior modification. Through this crucible we are re-taught that which our parents and other adults beat out of us--that is our creative spirits. The studio resuscitates our creativity and having worked most of my life outside the studio world and recently thrown into its frying pan in practice, I must say that when applied properly it makes a HUGE difference not just to education but to the ongoing design environment in which we currently practice. But we are in a place in IxD where so many of us have not gone through this fire and are hungry for learning and betterment and advancement in our careers. I think it unreasonable to expect everyone to have grad degrees to advance. What are we accountants looking for MBAs? Please! Few if any Advertising creative directors have grad degrees. They wouldn't have had the time. The only reason we put special attention on it at all is b/c of our academic roots in CHI where we feel that academic advancement is the true vehicle for improvement. RUBBISH! Practice is our greatest vehicle for improvement as designers and hiring managers need to know this. But we still are hungry and we need outlets for learning and exposure to focused, dense, and deep learning opportunities. Online learning as a mode of continuing education is totally cool for those that like that type of structure. For others conferences with workshops, for some just reading is good enough, and others they will want a degreed education. My call here is that we should not dilute interaction design education with academic education principles and leave behind our strong and I would argue needed connections to DESIGN education. Again, I am really interested in how Andy P. is creating a space for remote design education that maintains a deep connection to the strong tradition of design education, that creates designers, and not just design knowledge bearers. -- dave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37349 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
