I
like the Cisco TV ad showing how a class of primary school students connected through a giant 80 inches real-time video conference TV with
another class of students across the ocean in China. I am always
fascinated about how technology and HCI can be applied in the
connected-classroom learning environment. What I like to do is to send
a team of Idea Couture’s ethnographers, utilizing different elements of
technology-rich ethnography to create a rich description of social technologies enabled virtual environment in classrooms. The most
interesting idea is to explore the transition that takes place in
classroom culture from a well-defined problem-solving
deliver-and-receive approach to one more indicative of social learning
in globally connected environment. Imagine students learning together
across the country or the world. Yes there is a time difference issue.
I
don’t think we’ve done ethnography in the classrooms. That would be
a great project, say better than hospital ethnography. I was joking saying
that ethnographers needed to pretend to be patients and we attach
cameras to their eyeglasses so we can record video images from the
emergency room to the operation theater. Here's a picture of our Chief
Residential Anthropologist Dr. Gerard at work at his office when he is not in the
field or studying serious topics such as inda Williams' work on "White Slavery" Versus the Ethnography of "Sexworkers".
Talking
about education, deign education is also at a crossroad. I've many discussions with design education leaders both in the UK and US. They all agreed that the recent shifts
in design education theory and practice are forcing design educators to
rethink design education in a response to significantly new contexts
for design. These changes are the result proliferation of digital
connectivity and interfaces, uncertainty of industries, environmental
realities and social changes etc. Here's a new member of our design
research/ strategic foresight team Sady (left). Welcome to Idea Couture!
Stanford’s
D-school has a very interesting interface design course. Unlike most
computer interface-design classes, which are constrained by the
keyboard, mouse, and screen, the course explored 'beyond-desktop'
interface design. The course, called "TUI" (tangible user interfaces)
for short, combines theory with a design studio; students not only
study design theories, but also build prototypes of their designs. The
idea is to not just talk about ideas, but also really design something
new. Only by turning an idea into concrete form can students see the
possibilities of their ideas.
It helps student to think about the physical affordances of interfaces
and translate them to the digital world.
Royal
College of Art in London also provides a unique joint two-year double
Masters with Imperial College London. (Here's another new member of our
design team, a recent graduate of RCA Double MA/MSc program, Maryam
working on an interesting HCI ideas.) All graduates of this program
receive an MA from the RCA and an MSc plus a Diploma from Imperial
College London. It is a fascinating program where students in the first
year develop basic skills, and in the second year, students complete
two long self-initiated projects; a group project and a solo project. I
really like project-based approach to learning. During the first year
students elect into one of three learning strands:
-
Design for Manufacture: DFM is core IDE territory and is about delivering innovative products to the market that work.
- Experimental Design: EXP is for design innovation at a
fundamental level, which may incorporate the exploration of new
technologies, new product categories or new contexts.
- Design Enterprise: DE is about the commercial elements around a
product – the effective design and launch proposal of a new business
venture, system or service.
There
is never a better time to be a designer or embark in a design career.
Although many old school designers have a hard time coping with the new
realities. The role and work of designers is now more universally
pervasive their jobs are at the forefront of modern consumerism and
techno-driven social change. Designers are reaching an important stage
and in 10 years their role will be re-assessed by the society. So do
you want to be a designer?
