Since 1984, in one form or another, I’ve been teaching a graduate course variously titled: Human-Computer Interaction Design, and now called Interaction Design Practice. This semester, fall 2011, I will track my reflections throughout the course. Hopefully, the students will participate as well through their comments (and their reflections in their blog entries). My goal is to better understand the process of teaching and learning design, particularly the acquisition of tacit design knowledge. This is one professor’s and his students’ perspectives.

About the Professor

Martin A. Siegel, Professor of Informatics and Computing, Education, and Cognitive Science at Indiana University. In 1999, he founded IU’s first start-up company, WisdomTools. The company focused on the development of next generation e-learning tools , “Scenarios,” designed to develop deep, insightful learning, a kind of practical intelligence or tacit knowledge; the company was sold in December 2008. Marty is among a group of pioneers in computer-based learning, beginning with his work in the 1970′s on the PLATO system. At the University of Illinois, Marty was the Assistant Director of the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (CERL) and head of CERL’s Curriculum and Applications Group. Between 1990 and 1991, he served as Director of Professional Services at Authorware (now Macromedia / Adobe). In 1988, he was Microsoft’s first Faculty Fellow. At the School of Informatics and Computing, Marty’s research focuses on the design of Digital Learning Environments, including the development of deep conversation spaces; his most recent interest is design pedagogy and slow change interaction design. He was the school’s first Chair of the Informatics Department and served as the school’s Associate Dean for Graduate Studies as well as the Executive Associate Dean. He now serves as the Director of Graduate Programs in Informatics. In 2010 he founded Glerb, LLC; its mission is not yet public.