Recipient of the 2nd Annual Research Grant Announced

The AIGA Design Educators Community Steering Committee is very pleased to announce the award of our second annual design research grant, determined through a competitive, peer-review process. This grant of $5000 includes scholarship that generates new knowledge, integrates design knowledge into other disciplines as an influential force, or explores new pedagogies through the teaching of design and evaluation of learning outcomes. This year's grant has been awarded to Deborah Littlejohn and Meredith Davis, North Carolina State University, for the project which they describe below: (in Events) Post a comment (Nov 15)

Promotion and tenure standards for design educators

While the promotion and tenure (P&T) process plays a significant role in the professional life of many design educators, the topic is often ignored in our typical discourse, possibly due to its sensitive nature. We may occasionally hear from colleagues concerning their particular experiences with P&T processes, but little formal discussion has occurred concerning the need for more consistent P&T standards across US institutions of higher learning. (in Discussion) Comments (0) (Sep 10)

What's the effect of the economy on you as a design educator?

The recent merger of the graphic and industrial design areas at North Carolina State University exemplifies how design departments in Universities and Colleges are responding to the economic downturn. Other institutions have cancelled entire degree programs, reduced the number of courses, or furloughed faculty and staff. The DEC Steering Committee wants to hear from directly from you--how is the economic downturn affecting your design institution and you? (in Discussion) Comments (4) (Aug 21)

Design Educator Conferences past and upcoming

Every three years the Design Educators Community Steering Committee selects 4 design educator conferences to each receive $10,000 support grants thanks to the generosity of Adobe.

The current cycle (2008-2010) kicked off in Baltimore, fall 2008 with Social Studies: Educating Designers in a Connected World organized by Ellen Lupton, Jennifer Cole Phillips,and Brockett Horne. In spring, 2009, Linda Bracamontes-Roeger, Joerg Becker, Sharon Oiga, Philip Burton, Marcia Lausen, and Matthew Gaynor presented Future History 3: 21st Century Curriculum. Many of the presentations for these events are archived on their sites.

Next spring, 2010, Response_Ability will take place in Bowling Green, Ohio. Organized by Matt Davis, Amy Fidler, and Jenn Stucker, Response_Ability "aims to foster an ongoing dialogue and debate about design ethics, sustainability and design education. How can we (should we?) create students who feel a responsibility to their world? How do we, as educators, instill the capacity for our students to become thinking, ethical designers? How do we teach them to look beyond specifying recycled paper at a project's end, but to instead, think creatively in the conception of their project to be wholly sustainable from the start?"

In fall, 2010, Object User Context will be presented in Raleigh, North Carolina. ... (in Events) Post a comment (Aug 12)

Add to our collection of images!

We're gathering examples of student work to showcase on our website and share with the community. To add images, look for the "AIGAdec" group on Flickr. Note the style guidelines for crediting images. (in News) Post a comment (Jun 12)

Design Policy Proposals in the works

Following up on Ric Grefe's lead, Dori Tunstall (organizer of US National Design Policy Initiative and member of DEC Steering Committee) sought AIGA design educators' participation in a US National Design Policy Initiative viral video campaign between March 15 and April 15.
(in News) Comments (0) (Jun 11)

Teaching Design/Designing Teaching

The goal of Teaching Design/Designing Teaching initiative is to link members of the Design Educators Community with faculty members outside the design field in investigations of new teaching and learning practices that emerge in a networked culture. The initiative is twofold, beginning with a plan to bring the unique perspectives and knowledge of design educators to a broader educators' community seeking ways to explore new forms of academic expression. The second stage of the initiative moves in the opposite direction, asking how new teaching and learning practices might impact design educators. In short, this initiative asks what DEC can do to help develop a broader "design literacy" to be adopted as we all explore media-rich forms of expression. And what can design educators learn from that broader field of new pedagogies for teaching design? Please contact Holly Willis for further information: hwillis@cinema.usc.edu (in Initiatives) Post a comment (Jun 10)

Community College Initiative

The DEC Steering Committee is interested in learning more about the needs of community college design educators and their students. We're especially interested in how community college participants can best be served by AIGA. Some particular objectives include: (in Initiatives) Comments (0) (Jun 10)

DEC conference: "Objects Users Context: Privileging Context in Design and Design Education"

Fall 2010
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC (in Events) Post a comment (May 25)

DEC conference: "response_ability"

Spring 2010
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH (in Events) Post a comment (May 25)

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