Program Details
Jon Udell
Evangelist for Microsoft, author, information architect, software developer, and new media innovator. Jon produces the interview series Perspectives, featuring projects in which Microsoft works with partners — universities, governments, NGOs — to develop new and socially impactful uses of its technology portfolio. Udell lives in Keene, NH.
You can read Jon's blog: blog.udell.net and check out some of Jon's screencasts on a wide range of subjects from using del.icio.us to digital darkrooms to counting pumpkins.
Teaching Users to Be More Usable Teachers
Technologists and designers, including those who self-identify as usability professionals, think of themselves as creators of products and services for “the user” or “the consumer.” But as Eric von Hippel argues in Democratizing Innovation, producers and consumers are not, and never have been, distinct groups. At various times and in various contexts, we are all producers and consumers, teachers and learners, co-creators of products, services, experience, and knowledge.
We learn by imitating how good teachers think and act. Conversely, good teachers think and act in ways that inspire and reward imitation. In the era of peer production on peer networks, we can all be better teachers — more usable teachers — by thinking and behaving in ways that others can imitate easily and effectively. From this perspective, online video and structured data aren’t just new ways to distribute entertainment and information. They’re new environments for teaching and learning. Engineers and designers aren’t solely responsible for making these environments usable. We, the inhabitants, must make ourselves usable too.