BibSonomy ::  user :: allert ::

In his recent article on TechCrunch, “Engineering vs. Liberal Arts: Who’s Right—Bill or Steve?,” Vivek Wadhwa sparked a national debate about education that raises important questions for us all. If you haven’t read the article yet, Wadhwa, a professor at Berkeley and Duke University, surveyed 652 chief executive officers and heads of product engineering at 502 U.S. technology companies and found that only 37% held engineering or computer technology degrees, and just 2% held mathematics degrees.  The rest had a wide range of degrees, from business to the humanities. Yet in industry and education circles, STEM – teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – has gained cult-like status as the primary solution to our national innovation challenges. But while investment in STEM is critical, it alone neglects the development of the types of skills that actually lead to discovery, creativity, and innovation.

We need designers who understand that learning comes from experience, practice, conversations and reflection, and are prepared to move away from massaging content into what they see as good instructional design. Designers need to get off the content bus and start thinking about, using, designing and exploiting learning environments full of experiences and interactivity.

The annual CHI conference is the leading international forum for the exchange of ideas and information about computer-human interaction (CHI), also known as human-computer interaction (HCI).

AIGA, the professional association for design, is the place design professionals turn to first to exchange ideas and information, participate in critical analysis and research and advance education and ethical practice.