Transcript What we teach and what we do

What we teach and what we do
The on going “discussion”
Lidia Oshlyansky
No clear professional definition of
roles or career progression
Suggested solution:
• SFIA needs publicising. (Skills framework for the
information age www.sfia.org.uk)
• We need to develop, within SFIA, other roles and
overlapping roles with related disciplines.
• Participate in process; set up a group to be ready for
the next SFIA call.
• Evaluate what’s already prepared.
• Build bridges with CHI activities, UPA, RDCEO.
• “Positions wanted” lists could be used as source
materials to ensure relevance.
HCI is not seen as valuable
Suggested solution:
• Need to do cost justification – we’ve been
doing this and need to keep doing it.
• Need case studies to demonstrate value.
• Need to be able to point to HCI and its
purpose.
• Need to define what HCI is.
Lack of framework for field
Suggested solution:
• No formalisation in our field – a language we
agree on
• Acknowledgment of the pluralistic basis of HCI.
• Defining the good, the bad and the ugly of
methods.
• Do we need a professional reading list?
• Continuing profession development (CPD)
products should be offered by academia to
industry.
Not teaching students full range of
benefits and costs of methods
Suggested solution:
• Our degrees need to do more to map onto
jobs
• We need to teach critical thinking to students
• Industry needs to offer placements and
feedback
• Students need to be taught practical skills and
how to apply them
Lack of applicability of academic work
Suggested solution:
• Need more on methods and how to do them.
• A new “how to” method book every six months!
• Disseminate information on methods and how to
use them
• Existing text books are not enough – they don’t
offer appropriate level of detail for industry
• Industry needs to take more responsibility for
contributing to the knowledge of methods, their
application and their appropriateness
Companies aren’t investing in the
knowledge and methodologies of HCI
Suggested solution:
• Companies in UK invest less in R and D than other
countries.
• Part of that larger problem.
• Practitioners are keen to learn so go to
conferences.
• Needs to be viewed as an investment.
• Community of practice and community
participation.
Lack of communication between
industry and academics
• Really poor, narrow channel
• Communication is not timely on the scale of
industrial problems specifically making a
profit.
• Knowledge transfer needs to be considered in
lots of different ways and in both directions
Suggested solution
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Maintain contact with students – they go into industry
Let alumni at the research, particularly postgraduates.
Need plain English in academia.
Encouraging conferences as a community event and bringing
students into them.
Promoting networks that include both academia and industry.
Give students a view of academics as approachable resources for
future use.
Consider industry placements for students instead of formal thesis
projects.
Professionals giving lectures as part of degree programmes.
Set industry challenges for students as part of course works and
see what students have come up with.
Participants
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Philip Bonhard
Paul Cairns
Lorraine Catwell
Chandra Harrison
Tom McEwan
William Newman
Natalie Webb
• Comments?
• Questions?