Teaching more-than-human perspectives in technology design (MOVA)
This is an Open Educational Resource (OER) targeting teachers in design and engineering in higher education, who aim to create conditions for students to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes to consider more-than-human perspectives in the design of technologies. The pedagogical framework offers a collection of teaching activities accompanied by learning outcomes outlining some of the core competencies the students need to acquire to think, act and perform as responsible designers.
The teaching activities included in the pedagogical framework are divided into three categories:
CONCEPTS
– Introduction to the underlying conceptual and theoretical foundations of more-than-human perspectives in technology design, as well as strategies to link these concepts and theories to design practice. By partaking in the teaching activities, the students will learn to think like responsible designers, which will influence their choices of methods, as well as their abilities to take responsibility for their end designs.
METHODS
– Introduction to methods and approaches for understanding, investigating, and designing technologies with more-than-human perspectives. This includes concrete methods to identify and engage with more-than-human stakeholders and practically design and evaluate technologies with more-than-human perspectives. By partaking in the teaching activities, the students will learn the skills to perform as responsible designers .
PRACTICES
– Design problems that relate to and address more-than-human perspectives in technology design are more uncertain, more nuanced, and more complex compared to working with human-centred perspectives. This complexity is unfolded through a series of practice examples of how more-than-human concepts and methods can be put into play in educational settings. The examples illustrate how teaching more-than-human perspectives can be organised and what the potential results of such explorations might be. By partaking in a sequence of teaching activities involving thinking (concepts) and performing (methods), the students will develop their attitudes, beliefs, and opinions towards design, and learn to act as responsible designers.
The OER is developed by the MOVA project based on a collaboration between Malmö University (coordinator), Aarhus University, and Eindhoven University of Technology, and co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme.