Teenagers Unfriend Facebook

Driven to Distraction, Some Teenagers Unfriend Facebook - NYTimes.com:

We decided we spent way too much time obsessing over Facebook and it would be better if we took a break from it,” Halley said.

By mutual agreement, the two friends now allow themselves to log on to Facebook on the first Saturday of every month — and only on that day.

The two are among the many teenagers, especially girls, who are recognizing the huge distraction Facebook presents — the hours it consumes every day, to say nothing of the toll it takes during finals and college applications, according to parents, teachers and the students themselves.

Luring the Young Into Digital Jobs

New Programs Aim to Lure Young Into Digital Jobs - NYTimes.com

Hybrid careers like Dr. Halamka’s that combine computing with other fields will increasingly be the new American jobs of the future, labor experts say. In other words, the nation’s economy is going to need more cool nerds. But not enough young people are embracing computing — often because they are leery of being branded nerds.

Educators and technologists say two things need to change: the image of computing work, and computer science education in high schools. Teacher groups, professional organizations like the Association for Computing Machinery and the National Science Foundation are pushing for these changes, but so are major technology companies including Google, Microsoft and Intel. One step in their campaign came the week of Dec. 7, National Computer Science Education Week, which was celebrated with events in schools and online.

Today, introductory courses in computer science are too often focused merely on teaching students to use software like word processing and spreadsheet programs, said Janice C. Cuny, a program director at the National Science Foundation. The Advanced Placement curriculum, she added, concentrates narrowly on programming. “We’re not showing and teaching kids the magic of computing,” Ms. Cuny said.

Teaching craft in a designed world

Teaching craft in a designed world - Nick de la Mare - On Design - Creativity Online

I think at this point it's important to remember that craft, by definition, is fundamentally a dedicated mastery of a chosen subject matter, not necessarily just the deep understanding of a specific material or tool. Richard Sennett, in The Craftsman, cites a commonly understood 10,000 hour figure as the time needed to master any particular skill, from violin, to carpentry, to painting, to surgery:
'As skill progresses, it becomes more problem-attuned, such as the lab technician worrying about procedure—whereas people with primitive levels of skill struggle just to get things to work. At its higher reaches, technique is no longer a mechanical activity; people can feel fully and think deeply about what they are doing, once they do it well.'

Four Things I’ve Learned About Designers — AIGA | the professional association for design

Four Things I’ve Learned About Designers — AIGA | the professional association for design

For the last two years, I’ve been doing to designers what they usually do unto others. Which is to say, I’ve been observing and studying them, asking a lot of questions and trying to discern patterns. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way.

Augmented Reality Advertising

Consumed - The Hype Around Augmented Reality - NYTimes.com

Very broadly, augmented reality can be thought of as an inversion of the venerable “virtual reality” buzz concept. Instead of plunging us into a completely digital environment, augmented reality means placing digital things into the regular old world. Those things might be bits of information or renderings of imaginary objects. And they, of course, aren’t really in the real world at all — they just appear to be there if you filter your gaze through the proper screen.

D.I.Y. Games

Can D.I.Y. Supplant the First-Person Shooter? - NYTimes.com

These game designers, a self-described indie scene, form a tightly knit group with a do-it-yourself culture and a rebellious spirit — something like a ’zine movement for video games. New and cheap technologies have enabled the movement’s rise. New tools for production and distribution — through smartphones, over the Web and via downloadable services on PlayStation, Wii and Xbox consoles — now make it possible for individuals to conceive, develop and publish their own games.

Rohrer himself is a kind of Thoreauvian game designer, a 31-year-old back-to-the-land programmer-philosopher who lives in Las Cruces, N.M., where he codes his eccentrically engrossing games, which can feel like digitally mediated poetic moods, on an ancient computer and makes them available free online. “Now anyone can do it,” he says, “which is not how the mainstream video-game industry works.”

Email 101

Great advice for students learning how to communicate effectively with your Professors OR anyone using email:
Design Educator: Email 101

I will not begin this post with the word “netiquette” (you can get the book for more details), because the term dates to the 1980s and this is something I hope someone, especially my students, will read. I’m writing this because someone has to tell this generation of students about the meaning of the poor choices they repeatedly make , most especially in regards to email. OK, ok, twist my arm, I will. Listen up!

Living Climate Change Through Design Thinking

Living Climate Change: Actionable Ideas About Our Future

Help us expand the conversation.
Living Climate Change is a place where the most defining challenge of our time is explored through design thinking. It's also a place to show, discuss, and share compelling and provocative thoughts and ideas about the future.

Student Bloggers on College Life

M.I.T. Lets Student Bloggers Post Without Censoring - NYTimes.com

Dozens of colleges — including Amherst, Bates, Carleton, Colby, Vassar, Wellesley and Yale — are embracing student blogs on their Web sites, seeing them as a powerful marketing tool for high school students, who these days are less interested in official messages and statistics than in first-hand narratives and direct interaction with current students.