Design-artifacts in learning: The mediation of emotions and ideas for innovation

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to articulate a dimension of technologies for learning which we regard as having immense potentials. learning technologies can have the potential for being embedded in everyday design artifacts and serve to mediate between learners in seamless integration. Design is a field traditionally dominant in the arts and aesthetics, not thought to be related to technology and the sciences. In the emerging field of design-artifacts, we visualize products evolving through a merger of the arts and the sciences (Kemp, 2000). In this article, we articulate principles underpinning how design-artifacts can be adapted as technologies for learning. We highlight three major tenets: (1) design-artifacts mediate between persons for the expression of thought and emotions; (2) innovation as manifested through design-artifacts, which in the past has usually been an individualistic activity, can now be distributed meaningfully in teams or groups whereby appropriate depths of understanding and design skills are coordinated; and (3) that educators can possibly facilitate learners-in-teams towards such innovation.