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Adieu and thanks: Hi all, I just wanted to take my leave and express my thanks for all the contributions that have made this virtual conference a memorable event. I'm again confirmed of the amazing value of this mail list as a constant source of inspiration for my own research and thinking and doubtless for many others as well. Thank you Ken for the concept and the enormous effort you've put into realising the conference. As to the actual conference, the breadth of discussions around the phenomenon of design and design education in general and in particular with regard to UCI's School of Design proposal, indicates quite clearly the range and dimensions that must be considered when educating design students, both from the students' perspective as well as that of faculty. And the dilemma of maintaining a healthy respect for design and design education traditions, (there is a reason why some things work) whilst at the same time embracing new attitudes and approaches. With regard to my own research interests, design learning, as a phenomenon that takes place in both design education and design practice situations, is not a "hot" area of research. There is so much that we still need to discover and understand about the processes and experiences involved that design students and practitioners have to deal with, especially when being involved in collaborative design activities. I noted with interest the discussion between, in particular, David Durling and Susan Hagan yesterday, on the topic of intuition. As someone remarked, this (intuition) has been going on for some time, yet I feel we are still not as wise as we should be, as to what happens when we are using our intuition. This is just a fragment of design learning, which is also shrouded in layers of mystery. My own experience and research indicates that by taking a closer look at the issues of design learning, one can help students and practitioners gain a deeper and richer understanding of "what is going on" throughout a design process. An understanding that there are many issues at stake, other than just producing design solutions and that alternative approaches to dealing with design tasks can be developed, that don't just end up as a buffet of prescriptive methods. One can make explicit much of design thinking and design learning, without throwing the spark of adventurous thinking out with the bath water. So I would like to ask UCI, considering the vast numbers of students and faculty who are going to be interacting together whilst exploring new horizons of design, that they take seriously, as an ongoing area of research, the development and maintenance of issues of design learning. This could be a first. A newly established design education institution, that embraces innovative approaches to multi-disciplinary collaboration and which has a research program that nurtures new understandings of the design learning of those collaborations. Thank you for listening. Best regards and adieu, Chris. ----------------------------------- from: Chris Heape Senior Researcher - Design Didactics / Design Practice Mads Clausen Institute University of Southern Denmark Grundtvigsallé 150 6400 Sønderborg Denmark e.mail : [log in to unmask] telephone : +45 6550 1671 http://www.mci.sdu.dk -------------------------------------- home: e.mail : [log in to unmask] telephone: +45 7630 0380