Transcending the information given: designing learning environments for informed participation

Informed participation is an approach for community-based learning and design in which all participants actively contribute toward the framing and solving of complex and multidisciplinary problems. Informed participants go beyond the information given to explore large problem spaces, learn from their peers, and create new understandings. Informed participation requires social changes as well as new interactive systems that provide the opportunity and resources for social debate and discussion rather than merely delivering predigested information to participants. This paper describes courses-as-seeds as an application of informed participation to university-level courses. This application demonstrates key aspects of our approach and highlights direction for future research.