2012 Summer Research Symposia: 'DESIGN IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY: Design thinking, design process, and the design studio'
The Galt House, Louisville, Kentucky
July 18-20, 2012
 

The symposia is being held in Louisville, Kentucky, July 18-20 in conjunction with the AECT Leadership Meetings. The symposium will bring together scholars, theorists, researchers, and other creative thinkers for an intimate conversation about design. The work of the symposium will be published in a book by Springer, publisher of ETR&D and TechTrends.

Design, from the Latin designare, to “mark out, point out, describe, design, contrive”, is a focus for many of the ideas and theories of contemporary educational technology.

Three components of the broader concept of design will form the framework of the symposium: design thinking, design process, and the design studio.

• The conscious adoption of aspects of design thinking is evident in a range of divergent professions including business, government, and medicine. Design thinking is future oriented; concerned with “the conception and realization of new things”. At its core is a focus on “planning, inventing, making, and doing.” (Cross, 1982), all of which are of value to the field of educational technology.
• For an instructional designer, an understanding of the design process is critical, often ‘drawing’ from other traditional design fields. Much of the curriculum in educational technology deals with application of models of instructional design. An examination of the design process as practiced, of new models for design, and of ways to connect theory to the development of educational products are potential topics for the symposium.
• Finally, number of leading schools of instructional design have adopted the studio form of education for their professional programs. Studio based education is intrinsic to design education in many fields, and is increasingly important within education. Research and praxis based observations will be critical to effective use, and will be examined as part of the symposium.

A balance of contributions will be solicited from the three areas; presentations will provide a rich and engaging opportunity for participants. Examples and experiences from outside the traditional boundaries of instructional design and educational technology will also enrich the discussion.

The scholarship presented will be critiqued, discussed, refined, and will ultimately culminate in an edited volume that will be published to advancing the design as it applies to education and instructional technology.

• Presentations will be in a discussion based format, with each topic beginning with a summary presentation followed by a discussion exploring the ideas presented; each symposium participant is expected to read the papers prior to the event.
• Two or three plenary speakers will address the core topics of design; design thinking, design process, and studio based education. Concurrent presentations will be integrated in to the schedule, encouraging dialog and collaboration.
• Social and recreation events will be developed to engage the participants more fully with the topic of design; non-electronic work periods will be used to examine design from a different view point; for example, a workshop on bookmaking could highlight physical aspects of studio based education. As seen at both the AECT conference and PIDT, these events are critical for building collegiality and connections within the field.

It is the intent of the symposium to not limit the presentations or presenters to a narrow definition of instructional technology, and to include a broader range of presenters to encourage an extended scope of discussion. Participants may also include architects, web designers, practitioners in social media and commerce, or those in related fields who are seeing to understand and examine design process and thinking.

In addition, this symposium is a unique learning opportunity for new and developing scholars. Non-participants are encouraged to bring a “plus one”; a graduate student or junior colleague where appropriate.