The Design with Intent Toolkit V.0.9
This is related to some of my thinking recently on the nature of what some people are calling '21st century literacy' (I don't really like the name and would like to come up with an alternative, if only to escape the endless political battles over education south of the border). Dan Lockton has put together an informative and revealing set of design patterns characterizing the relationship between information and architecture. These patterns show how physical design can be used to influence point of view, to change behaviour, to persuade. It is a tour-de-force. And it is exactly the sort of new literacy I have in mind when I talk about moving beyond text, beyond words and propositions, beyond 'facts' and 'principles'.Lockton is not alone; in fact, I encountered a string of related items over the weekend. Henry Jenkins, who is normally way too self-promotional and fawning-pop-media for my tastes, hits the mark with a set of critical patterns in contemporary media. Then Beth Kanter weighed in with social strategies and tools for communities of practice, another critical piece of this new literacy. Tom Woodward, for his part, addresses presentation skills using new media. Presentation Zen on good visual experiences.
I supposed that if I had really looked I could have found a lot more. The point is, there is a discipline of 'new literacy' (or whatever we'll call it) forming, and it is composed of elements such as the examples that are being shown here. Education in this new literacy can - and must - replace the naive memory-based retention-based fact-based text-and-test model of education that has dominated for the last century or so. As I stated at my talk in Melbourne, one of the problems we had over the last century was that it was too easy to get students to learn things, to remember things - too easy to persuade them, too easy to convince them, too easy to march them into prejudice and war.
With the numerous and complex problems facing society today, we no longer have that luxury. We have to start doing better.
Dan Lockton, Design With Intent, April 13, 2009. [Link] [Tags: Visualization, New Media, Experience] [Previous][Next]
Comments
Re: The Design with Intent Toolkit V.0.9
The problem with 'new' literacy is that it won't always be new. It will be replaced by a newer literacy, rendering the term a misnomer. As I typed those words, I remembered that, when I was a very small child, we acquired two ginger cats which I dubbed 'Big cat' and 'Little cat' (give me a break- I was only 3!). The thing was that Little Cat was a kitten and outgrew Big Cat, causing much confusion to guests. It also wasn't helped when Little Cat got poisoned and (in the manner of South African men of the time) my Dad toook him out and shot him. When you have only one cat, who is not very large, it makes little sense that his name is Big Cat!
I suspect 'new literacy' might be destined for the same fate! [Comment]
[Permalink]
[Previous][Next]
Re: The Design with Intent Toolkit V.0.9
To me this is just "media literacy". We could call it "digital literacy" to reflect the newer media, but it really is just an expansion of an existing field, which includes film, TV, advertising, publications, design etc. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]
Re: The Design with Intent Toolkit V.0.9
Ah... that was me. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]
Re: The Design with Intent Toolkit V.0.9
Fair enough Sean, but all of this stuff - TV, advertising, publications, design, etc., is relatively new. Almost none of it was around when our current educational system and curricula were designed.
Also, it's not just this stuff. That's why I linked to the design patterns. These use architecture to persuade. That's not merely media (nor is it merely digital, nor is it merely 21st century).
[Comment]
[Permalink]
[Previous][Next]
Re: The Design with Intent Toolkit V.0.9
It depends how you define "media". Traditionally we associate it with "the media" - TV, film, radio and print - but as someone who studied "media arts" I see anything as "a medium", i.e. anything in the built or human-manipulated environment can be called "media", including industrial design, architecture, urban design etc.
Granted though, the likelihood of getting other people to see it this way is slim.
But you are right - as I look through the toolkit I feel a bit sick to the stomach when I realised how legion and pervasive the forces marshaled to unconsciously manipulate us are... all those "design" professions!
Learning to critique these has to be a priority in education. No room for shovelling content!
Here's a thought - what about "critical literacies"? [Comment]
[Permalink]
[Previous][Next]
Re: The Design with Intent Toolkit V.0.9
And how about an automatic paragraph break after the last text in a comment? :-) [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]
Re: The Design with Intent Toolkit V.0.9
'critical literacies' isn't bad -- though one criticism people had of the term 'critical thinking' was the negative connotation from the term 'critical' - so instead of committing another generation to that pointless argumnt, it would be better to come up with a different word.
But I really do like the direction you've taken...
(I'll consider an auto-para at the end). [Comment]
[Permalink]
[Previous][Next]
Your comments remain your property, but in posting them here you agree to license under the same terms as this site (Creative Commons). If your comment is offensive it will be deleted.
Automated Spam-checking is in effect. If you are a registered user you may submit links and other HTML. Anonymous users cannot post links and will have their content screened - certain words are prohibited and your comment will be analyzed to make sure it makes sense.
Copyright 2008 Stephen Downes
Contact: stephen@downes.ca
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.