Abstract
This paper provides an argument against understanding risk-taking in design education as something ideally in need of only being calculable and formalisable. Using the German sociologist Ulrich Beck’s theory on risktaking combined with the current discourse on design thinking, together with an analysis of a three week-long interdisciplinary design workshop, we analyse and discuss how risk-taking - as a general concept - in design education is an inherent element of the education itself. We argue, however, non-calculable risks, like human-centred design concerns, like desirability of use, ethics of technology, are an equally important part of a modern-day educational skillset as calculable risks. The aim is arguing for the prospect of interdisciplinary design-based education models as one way of embracing the non-calculable elements of a problem space.
Highlights
In 2017 Christina Redecker and Yves Punie published an EU report on computational thinking: European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators, in short DigCompEdu (Redecker 2017)
The argument was increasing the development of computational thinking skills in learners because these skills were seen as the key twenty-first century skill set
If design can be seen as an addition to a wide range of practices, is design always to be considered adding the same value? in a cross-disciplinary perspective, how can the knowledge contributions of one academic programme be substantiated, extended, or critically evaluated, through either the scope of design or with design as an addition to a different discipline? Unlike pedagogical challenges within 'traditional' design schools, these intertwined problems emerge and pose a risk-taking for students in academia. This is because design is often seen here as an ‘addition’ to be adjoined and merged into the traditional academic treatment of their field - much in the same way as the DigCompEdu framework proposes it for computational thinking
Summary
In 2017 Christina Redecker and Yves Punie published an EU report on computational thinking: European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators, in short DigCompEdu (Redecker 2017). The need to take risks, the ability to work together in groups, the ability to pitch a project, and present deep reflections, and in the end discard it all as part of a ‘designerly’ process are skills all needed in the complex society that is developing around us While these might be included alongside computational skills, we argue these skills need to be acknowledged as possessing their own academic merits to a great extent due to dealing with how they handle risk-taking. We will clarify the problem hinted at in the introduction, focusing on, first, a general challenge connected with the educational ideas behind The European DigCompEdu: that it doesn’t embrace a sense of non-calculable risk taking, it is not able to incorporate creative skills like design thinking on its own terms. We have presented the structure and overall purpose of the three latest workshops, comparing this against the DigCompEdu framework
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