Educated by Design - Learning by Doing - Outline of a Hci-didactics

What is the right mix of workshop-learning and lectures, e-learning and face-to-face dialogue in teaching Human Computer Interaction at university level, where academic reflection is supposed to go hand in hand with learning basic skills in interface design and usability testing? A didactic pattern for teaching HumanComputer Interaction is outlined based on experience from a course in Human Computer Interaction taught by the author for three consecutive years at Information Studies at Aarhus University. The pattern is based on the paradigm of experiential learning, and inspired by the tradition of Moholy Nagy’s design curriculum for New Bauhaus in Chicago. The pattern is intended as a tool for the teacher when to determine what type of knowledge to convey in what mode of interaction, in what kind of setting in order to help the learner to develop as much of a competence as reflective practitioner as possible.