Reconnecting through Digital Making

Abstract

'Making stuff' in an educational setting has been an integral part of learning for Product Design since programs were first developed. Sketch modelling and prototype making have been fundamental to the working practice of professional product designers (Terstiege 2009) and degree programs have traditionally emulated this practice. The value of learning by making and project-based learning has long been identified for applied design disciplines, from Fashion to Architecture (Wallis 2005). Even so, there have been growing financial and health and safety pressures to move programs away from hands-on workshop practice and learning by making to purely lecture and studio based programs with virtual rather than physical modelling. There is, however, a generation of unlikely saviours of workshop practice emerging. The latest cohort of high school leavers was born after the growth of the Internet in the mid nineties. These 'digital natives' have grown up with their teenage years predominantly spent in a digital environment. A further move from workshop practice to computer based visual modelling could be expected with this generation of students. However, new forms of design practice and digital making have developed alongside the burgeoning digital environment of Web 2.0 (interactive online facilities such as Wikipedia) that are challenging that assumption. This article considers the background to these changes and provides an example of practice supporting the argument that a re-invigoration of learning by making can occur in Product Design education through digital making.