Using techno-centric networks to develop flexible learning spaces outside studio-based classrooms: teaching and augmenting learning through network technologies

Collaboration is an essential aspect of the design process. Design educators go to great lengths to create dynamic and flexible studio-based environments that allow collaboration to occur throughout the design process, so as students can articulate, visualise and test ideas. Through class interaction and practical application, students hone their conceptual and theoretical skills as well as visual design sensibilities. However, learning can take place anywhere and anytime. While Design students learn through interaction and socialisation with their lecturers and peers in classrooms, they also learn over coffee and via network technologies, more specifically the World Wide Web (web). With a growing emphasis on inter-disciplinary design, information and communication technologies (ICT) now play an integral role in the communication, implementation and dissemination of design.