# Knowledge Media Design: Fundamental Principles


[![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Zw0GIJLh3-A/UFbxn82NXII/AAAAAAAAGb0/JNJtzSRNehI/s512/IMG_20120910_124129.jpg)](https://picasaweb.google.com/107702703184747130690/KMD1001Concepts2012)

I'm TAing for a class called "Knowledge Media Design: Fundamental
Principles" this term with [professor
Pennefather](http://www.pharmtox.utoronto.ca/faculty/directory/pennefather.htm).
The class is the intro course for the [Knowledge Media Design
Institute](http://kmdi.utoronto.ca/) program, and this year we are
focusing on the representation and communication of knowledge. A brief
introduction to the course from the
[syllabus](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/KMD1001-syllabus-3.0.doc):

> This course reviews the evolving field of Knowledge Media Design (KMD)
> and the application of design approaches to the creative, integrative,
> and augmentative use of digital media technologies in discovering,
> building, sharing, making sense of, and applying knowledge. These
> design approaches include: human-centred and participatory design;
> inclusive design of information technology; distributed information
> and knowledge building; free and open software and hardware;
> sensemaking; materialization, visualization and many other related
> concepts.

We are using [a course blog](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca), both to
communicate with the students, and share lecture slides and material,
and also for the students to post their own material and reflections.
This WordPress blog is both much easier for us to use than the
institutional BlackBoard, and it also has the advantage that all the
material is open to the world - and there are some great resources
there, which you should check out.

You can start by getting [an intro to the concepts of Knowledge Media
Design](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/?p=13) from the first lecture, and
look at [the sticky notes](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/?p=21) from our
brainstorming in that session. In [another
session](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/?p=70), we heard about digital
badges for learning, a great presentation by [Cynthia
Whitehead](http://www.dfcm.utoronto.ca/facultyandstaff/oes/eduschol/who.htm) on
the concept of the "good doctor" (see [student
response](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/?p=55)), and a presentation by
Pennefather on memory and digital representations. We also had a visit
by [Steve Easterbrook](http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~sme/), a computer
scientist who researches complex systems and climate research, who gave
[a very fascinating presentation](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/?p=156)
about how climate forecasts are made, and communicated to people
(audio+Prezi).

Students have also been posting short presentations about [audio
resources and wayfinding](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/?p=42),
[Timeline.js](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/?p=45), [waymaking and
implications for reference](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/?p=110),
[Vipassana meditation](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/?p=123), [concept
maps](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/?p=128), [pedagogical methodology for
media educators](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/?p=147), [visualizing
urban carbon emissions](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/?p=158), [Canada
and the green
economy](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/?p=167) and [participatory
design](http://1001.kmdi.utoronto.ca/?p=187). There is a small voting
system (only available for students), and the top presentations will be
presented to the whole program at a Christmas event later. We are also
planning to integrate with the [Open Badges
Infrastructure](http://openbadges.org/en-US/) to issue portable badges
to the students who have posted resources online.

We are planning a number of other interesting guest speakers, and the
students are all preparing larger design projects, so watch the class
blog, and feel free to leave comments on the students' work!

Stian