KMDI - Knowledge Media Design Institute

Knowledge media are building blocks of a knowledge society


Course Offerings for the 2009/2010 Academic Year

Current KMD courses are listed below. Information is being continuously updated. The descriptions here represent individual offerings, or "editions," of the standard KMD courses. For general descriptions of the standard KMD course roster see Descriptions. For past courses, course syllabi and websites, see Past.

Find out how to enroll [Enrolling]
See: KMD-affiliate courses
See: U of T qualitative and quantitative research methods courses

Current Course Offering: 2009/2010

The following is a tentative schedule.

KMD1001H F / TPS 1447H F
Knowledge Media Design: Fundamental Concepts
Megan Boler
Fall term, Sept-Dec. Wednesdays 5-8 pm
OISE/UT, Room 5-170 (i.e., 5th floor, Room 170)
Syllabus [PDF]

Knowledge media are systems incorporating computer and communications technology that enhance human thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, and learning. Examples include the Web, email, instant messaging, blogging systems, knowledge management systems, digital libraries, collaborative virtual environments, video conferencing environments, and webcasting systems. This course reviews the emerging field of knowledge media design, and the use of digital media for communication, collaboration, and learning. The course includes topics in human-centred design; knowledge media technologies; social implications of knowledge media; examples and applications of knowledge media; and the future of knowledge media, and is organized via themes of design, media, and knowledge.

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KMD 1002H F
Knowledge Media Design: Contexts and Practices
Nicholas Woolridge
Summer term 2009, May 12-June 18. Tuesdays 2-5 pm; Thursdays 5-8 pm
Bahen Centre, Room BA 7231
Syllabus [PDF]

This course is a theme-based Pro-seminar course for KMD Collaborative
Program students combining lectures, public seminars, and participation in
online discussions. Students who successfully complete the course will
receive a Credit on their transcript rather than a specific grade. If
students outside of the KMD Collaborative Program would like to take the
course, they require special permission from the course Instructor.

Visual Thinking is the theme for the 2009 Summer pilot course. This course
complements the survey begun in KMD1001H by considering Visual Thinking as a
specific context for KMD. The importance of visual artifacts and methods as
a means to support communication and reasoning is growing. Examples of
Visual Thinking include: visual thinking in art and design; visual
perception (e.g., in psychology and cognitive science); illustration and visual
communication (e.g., biomedical illustration); information visualization
(e.g., a computer science perspective); financial analysis and design (e.g.,
visual analytics for the financial sector); the phenomenology of perception
(e.g., in philosophy); and visual language research (e.g., comic book theory
and linguistics).

Participating students will attend all public lectures and seminars,
identify questions for guest lecturers, and help to define specific areas of
interest pertaining to Visual Thinking. Throughout the course, students will
reflect critically on Visual Thinking as a use of knowledge media and
knowledge media technologies used for Visual Thinking.

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KMD 2001H / INF 2169H ** CANCELLED **
Human-centred Design
Instructor TBA
Spring term, Jan-Apr. Tuesdays 7-9 pm

An approach to design grounded in understanding the real-world practices of users and communities. The course draws most heavily from the 'participatory design' school, in which the prospective users play a vital collaborative role throughout all stages of the development process. Students work in teams with a 'real' user group developing a prototype knowledge media application.

The purpose of this course is to provide students with both theoretical foundations and practical experience in developing information systems that are driven by the needs and active participation of users. It will prepare students for collaborating with users in a variety of settings to develop their own systems. In contrast to conventional rationalistic approaches to information systems development, in this course information systems will be regarded as fundamentally social processes that can be supported by information technologies. It views systems design as an on-going, multi-faceted process involving the balancing of conflicting social and technical opportunities and constraints requiring experience within the actual use context.

The main focus will be upon the development of relatively small scale information systems and knowledge media applications with relatively well-defined and accessible user communities using networked personal computers and popular software packages. This is currently the scene of rapid growth, largely without the benefit of appropriately user-oriented development techniques.

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KMD 2002H S
Technologies for Knowledge Media
TBD

Our goal in this course is to gain experience in designing knowledge media, with a focus on case studies in communication, collaboration, and information access. The focus will be on requirements analysis, prototyping, and evaluation. We will interpret “technologies” broadly in this course to include methods as well as tools.

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KMD 2003H S / CTL 1926H S ** NEW **
Knowledge Media & Learning
Jim Slotta
Spring term, Jan-Apr. Wednesdays 1-4 pm
Bahen Centre, Room BA 7231

In this course, we will think deeply about learning and instruction in the classroom, on the playground, in the museum, online, or anywhere else that learning may happen. We will start with the research on cognition and instruction. What is known about how people learn? Why should we even think that technology should expedite learning? If we do believe it, then what are the guiding principles of technology-enhanced curriculum?

We will also think deeply about classrooms - both K-12 and higher education. What should be happening in the culture of today's classrooms, and how can technology make an impact? What should the role of the teacher be, in the ideal world? How can we develop "smart" educational content that helps teachers with assessment and helps scaffold students in otherwise challenging pedagogical structures?

We also need to discuss different methods for evaluating technology-enhanced material, and how research can help us develop purposeful and meaningful learning material. What are the different research methods used in education, and in which contexts are they most effectively employed?

In addition to class discussions and readings, there will be a design component of the course where students work in groups to develop a theoretically grounded lesson, using technology-enhanced media. And finally, there is a wiki element, where we gradually construct a living and working document that we can use within the course.

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KMD 2004H
Knowledge Media, Culture & Society
TBD

The development and widespread implementation of new technologies is frequently disruptive and controversial, at least in their early days.  This is especially so for the most prominent information and communications technologies and related knowledge media, as they inevitably interact with established power relations and communication patterns.

This course examines contemporary controversial technologies in context. Explicitly resisting the conventional but overly simplistic notion of ‘social impacts of technology’, it treats technological development as a complex socio-technical phenomenon with multiple stakeholders vying with each other to shape trajectories of development and to define ‘success’ and ‘failure’.

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See general course descriptions [Descriptions]

See recent editions of these courses [Past]  

Find out about course policies [Policy & Procedure]

Find out how to enroll [Enrolling]

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