What to teach in HCI?: How to educate HCI students to envision the future of human being, not the future of technology?

Myounghoon Jeon, Michigan Technological University

Abstract

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has been rapidly changing from the design and evaluation of interfaces into the enhancement of general human values. Because of this dramatic change, there is a gap between what has been taught in HCI and what is (or will be) required in the HCI field. In the present paper I describe the status quo of HCI education as domain science and then, I argue that we had better focus more on human sides in HCI education: emotions and embodied cognition, socio-cultural interactions, and theoretical and design research approaches. This will enable HCI students to be independent researchers who can envision creating an interspace (a new eco-system), beyond just designing a fashionable interface.