Connecting: Exploration of the Future of Interaction Design and User Experience - Good for promoting CSEd!

I've been looking for a relatively short video about human-computer interaction and related fields to include in a presentation I'm planning for high school students. The presentation is my small part to promote Computer Science in Education Week (CSEd). 

One of the goals of CSEd Week is to spread the word that computer science education is much more than learning how to program one. Technical and computational thinking skills are important to develop, but young people also need to know what sort of things they can do with these skills as they become adults in our technological society. As stated on the CSEd website, "Computing professionals work on creative teams to develop cutting-edge products and solutions that save lives, solve health problems, improve the environment, and keep us connected."  

Coincidentally, I was pleasantly surprised by a tweet I received today that linked to Connecting, a well-produced 18-minute video about interaction and user experience design. This video would be great to share with high school students.


Connecting (Full Film) from Bassett & Partners on Vimeo.

The video features a number of well-spoken, creative professionals who are passionate about their work, people, and the future.  Although the video is a bit techno-centric, it depicts people who live and breathe technology in a favorable light.  It also inspires some degree of thought and reflection on the part of the viewer.

Although much of what is discussed in Connecting is futuristic, the seeds were planted years ago.  If you are new to the HCI/UX/ID/UCD world, it might help to read
Mark Weiser's 1991 article, The Computer for the 21st Century, published in Scientific American in 1991, before viewing the video.  

After viewing the video, I encourage you to take the time to read some of the comments on the Vimeo website.  Also read  Marc Rettig's comments, posted on the IxDA website:  "A film about interaction design: what it says about us".  

Near the end of the video, there is a discussion about where we might be headed, as interconnected, technically enhanced, augmented humans.  Hopefully we will not create, and then be assimilated into a Borg-like collective, or live out our days in a Matrix-like disembodied state.

In the wrong hands, what might happen?

Is resistance futile?!

FYI: Connecting was produced by Microsoft, Windows Phone Design Studio: Mike Kruzeniski (now at Twitter), Kat Holmes, and Albert Shum, and featured interviews with the following people:

Matt Jones, BERG London
Raphael Grignani, Method
Liz Danzico, School of Visual Arts, New York
Blaise Aguera y Arcas, Architect of Bing Mobile and Bing Maps
Helen Walters,  Writer, Editor, Researcher at Doblin/Monitor
Younghee Jung, Research Leader, Nokia
Massimo Banzi, Co-Founder, Arduino
Jennifer Bove, Co-Founder, Managing Director, Kicker Studio
Robert Murdock, Principal, Method (Artefact)
Jonas Lowgren, Professor of IxD, Malmo University, Sweden
Eric Rodenbeck, CEO, Founder, Creative Director, Stamen Design
Robert Fabricant, VP of Creative, Frog Design
Andrei Herasimchuck, Twitter 

The video was first screened in Seattle, Washington, last April, with a panel discussion that included Rob Girling and Gavin Kelly, of Artefact, Bill Buxton, of Microsoft, and Scott Nazarian, of Frog Design.

Description of the "Connecting" video, from Bassett & Partners' Vimeo site:

"The 18 minute "Connecting" documentary is an exploration of the future of Interaction Design and User Experience from some of the industry's thought leaders. As the role of software is catapulting forward, Interaction Design is seen to be not only increasing in importance dramatically, but also expected to play a leading role in shaping the coming "Internet of things." Ultimately, when the digital and physical worlds become one, humans along with technology are potentially on the path to becoming a "super organism" capable of influencing and enabling a broad spectrum of new behaviors in the world." -Bassett & Partners

Selected Quotes:

Liz Danzico:
"It's understanding that ecosystem, where the human in the center, and understanding that network of things, and how they all work together, rather than of your device or thing being in the center."

Younghee Jung:
"... you can not necessarily foresee the consequences when people adopt what you designed..to see something completely different from what you created. .it is like throwing a stone in the water, and you don't know what it will cause."

Blaise Aguera y Arcas:
"....these are all augmentations of abilities as humans. And when the augmentation really works, then that extension of yourself feels natural, and beautiful and does what you want, and doesn't get in the way....The use of voice, and the use of natural gestures... you are removing the extraneous, you are removing the artificial."

Massimo Banzi:
"...Something that can do it's own thing, disappearing in the background, is correct"  (nod to Weiser)

Jennifer Bove:
"...it is really important to look at what the consequences are of putting these products into the world when we think about things like the phone...the way it has changed our behavior, it can be enabling, and also disrupting...for these things to change our lives for the better, or enable for them to let us do things we couldn't do before.. they have to feel natural, and feels like a conversation." 

Robert Murdock:
"How you actually design and enact a living system in UX is something that is quite challenging...you have to think about patterns of desired outcomes and behaviors you want to achieve, instead of moving a user through one flow in an experience."

Jonas Lowgren: 
"...back in the day.. it was one user, one task, one computer,  its all gone now, its is much more like you are setting the stage, really,  for other people to perform, but you can never tell them what to do."

Eric Rodenbeck:
"....the map is like a living thing, that is being made up of everything we got. The idea that it is different in the morning than what it was in the evening, is a really good idea to stay connected to the idea that the world is changing."

Helen Walters:
"What we need is for designers to be embedded in the topics that are really, really important right now, so there can be a better synergy between design, and business design, and social change design, and entrepreneurship."

Andrei Herasimchuck
"That is where the future lies with us. There will be software in everything..You can take all of those (digital) pieces, and you can design all kind of things around it. People are now actually entering their lives and what is going around them, into a digital format, and so we will start do things with that in the future, and I think it will be exciting."

Robert Fabricant:
"The network is sampling the world, and knowing what is cropping up where, being able to match and find patterns...and anticipate outbreaks of diseases. ..  We are trying  now to collect from the periphery a much richer set of what is going on the world so we can learn as a society and optimize and evolve the right systems and services".

SOMEWHAT RELATED
IxDA
Experientia: Putting People First 
What's the Difference- IXD, IA, UXD, HCI, UCD, UX (Jon Karpoff)

Cross Post: Children of the Code

I came across the Children of the Code website today and thought I'd share it- if you are familiar with Children of the Code project, please leave a comment, since I haven't yet explored the entire site.

Childrenof thecode.org is an on-line multi-media resource that is part of a public/social education project to that aims to spread information and education about "The Code and the Challenge of Learning to Read it"

The project has four main components:

1. A three hour Public Television, DVD and Web documentary series;
2. A ten-hour college, university, and professional development DVD series;
3. A series of teacher and parent presentations and seminars;
4. A cross-indexed website/database containing audio, video and transcripts with the world's leading experts in fields related to reading.

The website includes over 100 interviews of people from a wide range of disciplines who are committed to promotion of health, education, and well-being of children, youth, and in turn, communities and society.

Here is the project's abstract:

"Abstract: Our children's cognitive and emotional development, self-esteem, academic, and later social and economic success, all depend on how well they learn - on the health of their learning. Whether we are involved in parenting, teaching, cognitive science, psychology, pedagogy, curriculum design, instructional design, direct instruction, constructivism, assessment, multiple intelligences, learning styles, learning differences, learning disabilities, learning theory, learning communities, organizational learning, preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school, home school, unschooling, college, university... we all share the responsibility of stewarding the health of our children's learning."


I'd recommend starting with the on-line video tour of the project:
http://www.childrenofthecode.org/Tour/index.htm

The following is a quote from an interview with David Boulton, the director of the Children of the Code project:

"The mission of the Children of the Code project is to catalyze and resource a transformation in how our society thinks about the "code" of our written language and the "challenges involved in learning to read it.". I think we're living in the "Stone Age of Literacy." Our lack of understanding of what is involved and what is at stake in acquiring literacy is wreaking havoc on the lives of our population, including children"

"..the first think I hope i that it (the project) changes the mental lens through which parents and teachers see struggling learners. I want them to see someone who is struggling as somebody who is struggling with an artificially confusing technology (written language) and somebody who is in significant emotional and cognitive danger.

"What I hope is that people realize that if children and adults struggle too long with the process of acquiring literacy, it can seriously affect how they develop and grow and learn. Struggling to read causes many, many people to grow up feeling ashamed of their mind.."

Links to the list of some of the interviews of "name" researchers and educators are posted on the TechPsych blog, or you can visit the site's interview list.

Visual and Multimedia Literacy Revisited - Quotes

It has been about a year since I shared quotes about the importance of visual and multimedia literacy. Since many of my readers are responsible for putting together presentations about education, technology, and topics related to visual or multimedia literacy, I thought I'd link to my orignal post.

I'm putting together a short video for TeacherTube on the topic of multimedia literacy. My premise is that multimedia technology supports engaged learning and also provides educators with a means of accurately monitoring progress. While I am not 100% certain that the effective, appropriate use of multimedia technology in our high schools will help to combat our nation's 30% drop-out rate, I am pretty sure it will help, especially if students have access to on-line multimedia learning activities outside of school.

If you have any quotes that you'd like to share about the multimedia and visual literacy, let me know - even those of your own.

My hope is that this video will be useful for people who are interested in learning more about visual and multimedia literacy. Since it will be on TeacherTube, it will be available for anyone to use.

The Importance of Media Literacy - Link to Quotes

This is a link to quotes from a variety of people about media literacy.

The quotes were posted on the Media Literacy Clearinghouse Website. If that link does not work, try this one. The Media Literacy Clearninghouse has a variety of resources for K-12 educators.

Visual Literacy and Multimedia Literacy Quotes - Odds and Ends PART ONE

While gathering resources and reviewing literature over the past few years, I've come across a wide range of people who have an interest in visual and multimedia literacy. I thought I'd share some odds and ends that I found helpful to me as I went along my journey.

One book that has reinforced my thinking is "In the Mind's Eye: Visual Thinkers, Gifted People with Dyslexia and Other Learning Difficulties, Computer Images, and the Ironies of Creativity", by Thomas G. West. The following quote is from a book review:

"Dr. West argues that major advances in computer information visualization technologies promise to transform education and the workplace— and to increase greatly the value in that transformed world of “visual thinkers with verbal and memory problems who have had to develop methods to sift, sample, and select” in order to understand patterns in complex systems in business, the sciences and other fields." - James Cullin

The following quote is from an article written by Gary Bertoline, the director of Purdue's Envision Center for Data Perceptualization:

“Communicating visually is becoming the norm rather than the exception in technological societies… This renaissance in graphics is coupled with the emerging re-thinking of the role of visualization in basic human intelligence. Converging technologies, a renaissance in graphics, and better understanding of the role of visualization in human cognition are the catalyst for an emerging discipline called visual science.” -Gary R. Bertoline, 1998. Visual Science: An Emerging Discipline Journal for Geometry and Graphics, V 2. 181-187 Purdue University

David Staley, the author of Computers, Visualization, and History: How New Technology Will Transform Our Understanding of the Past, also argues about the importance of visual communication, particularly in his field of history, which has traditionally been taught through reading and discussion:

“…the best visualizations are images that allow one to see, think about and understand multidimensional levels of information that would not have been apparent had it not been so spatially organized.” –Stayley, D. (2002) "Visualization-ism: An art history" Interface: The journal for education, community and values.

Robert E. Mayer is a psychologist who has spent over the past decade studying multimedia learning. This is a quote from his book, “Multimedia Learning”, written in 2001:

“For hundreds of years, verbal messages – such as lectures and printed lessons – have been the primarily means of explaining ideas to learners….Recent advances in graphics technology have prompted new efforts to understand the potential of multimedia as a means of promoting human understanding – a potential that I call the promise of multimedia learning. “ -Mayer, R.E. 2001. Multimedia Learning New York: Cambridge University Press

As educators, how do we encourage all kinds of learners, especially those who have minds that aren’t considered to be within the mainstream in our mostly word dominant, traditional schools?

Temple Grandin, with much support and personal effort, overcame many barriers related to her symptoms of autism to earn a Ph.D. in animal science. She is known for her books and presentations related to her field of study as well as to autism. In her book, "Thinking in Picture and Other Reports from my Life with Autism", written in 1995, Grandin wrote,

“I think in pictures. Words are like a second language to me. I translate both spoken and written words into full-color movies, complete with sound, which run like a VCR tape in my head” She discussed how difficult it was for other people to understand her way of thinking"

Grandin, T. 1995. Thinking in pictures and other reports from my life with autism. New York, Doubleday p. 19

NOTE:

In the decade or so since Grandin wrote this book, there has been a significant increase in the number of students diagnosed as autism spectrum disorders. These young people often require a variety of specialized instructional strategies and support for skill development in areas such as communication and social skills.

We know that the majority of people with autism spectrum disorders are visual learners. We also know that many people who struggle in school are likely to be visual learners/thinkers. Because they learn differently, they are often viewed as having a potential learning disability or attention disorder. The emphasis on "reading to learn" in many classrooms often means that many students are not provided the opportunity to learn subject matter content through other means while they are at school.

Mel Levine, a physician who works with young people with learning and attention difficulties, addresses this issue in his book, written 2002, , "A Mind at a Time" , with a companion website:

“Too many kids struggle and fail needlessly simply because the way in which they learn is incompatible with the way they’re being taught. Schools are filled with kids who give up on themselves, are convinced they’re "losers," and conclude they’re just dumb. It’s painful—for the student, teacher, and parent who may be unaware that the "wiring" of that child’s brain simply is not in synch with the demands and expectations of the situations at hand.” -Mel Levine

“What takes place when a teacher’s ways of teaching clash with a learner’s way of learning? Chaos, discord, accusation, and anger often ensue…In facing these conflicts, should we be trying to rewire the child or instead should we modify the environment and alter our expectations? Or should we do both?” -Levine, M. 2002. A mind at a time. Simon & Schuster, pp.260

If you are a parent of a student who is considered "difficult to teach", you probably have a good understanding of what this post is about.

Some of the content of this post is from a transcript of a podcast that I started for one of my class assignments. A few of the following quotes and comments are from my notes for a paper I wrote in 2004 - "Thinking, Learning, and Communicating through Multimedia: Views from a School Psychologist", which can be found in A sense of place: The global and the local in mobile communication Nyiri, K. (ed.) (2005). Vienna: Passagen Verlag. If you look at the book's table of contents, you'll note that the various authors come from fields ranging from physics to philosophy. Technology has impacted many fields of study in significant ways!

-Lynn