Beyond a simple directory of where IA and related skills are being taught, it would be useful to link to sample curricula and course materials.

Going further, perhaps setting up a mailing list for IA educators would be a useful mechanism to encourage sharing of experiences.

Even further, setting up a group to investigate program certification and accreditation would also be important to consider. This is a responsibility that is typically handled by professional associations.

Other education-related activities could include creating a scholarship fund and creating a design competition for all sorts of types of sites and classes of information architects (ranging from students to those employed by agencies).

Finally, if we are to become an organization, how should we partner with the educational sector? Should we create a service to match student volunteers with non-profit projects? Should we even consider being an acrediting board? Should we get involved in teaching IA literacy at the primary schools level?

I'm teaching a course in Information Architecture at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA.

The course lasts for 14 weeks and is on Tuesdays from 7pm until 10pm. More information, etc at ArtCenter's web site [http://www.artcenter.edu/atnight]

Click on the image, Drop the 'enter' pull down to 'Courses', Then the 'menu' pull down to '_digital media', And finally select 'Essential Info. Architecture'

Registration opens December 3rd.

What follows is the draft of a charter for the education section of the community infrastructure. Please direct comments to Dan.

Community Infrastructure for Information Architects
Education Working Group Charter
Version 0.2 (11/19/2001)

Vision
Information Architecture, as a unique discipline, gains momentum day by day. It has attracted practitioners from many other disciplines and has earned a foothold in both professional and academic organizations. As the discipline continues to grow, it will require formalization, particularly in the academic arena.

Purpose
The Information Architecture Education Working Group (IA-ED) has three main functions:
To facilitate the education and development of practitioners, students, and educators on all current and emerging information architecture topics;
To support educators in their efforts to develop both formal and informal information architecture programs;
To advocate the practice of information architecture within the educational community through student and educator outreach.

Out of Scope
The work of IA-ED overlaps other working groups identified by the Community Infrastructure for Information Architects. Our group will focus on collecting and developing content specific to education. In cases where another working group is developing an infrastructure to support similar content, IA-ED will leverage that technology.

Ideas for Formalizing IA-ED
Use W3C Model?
Develop Charter Further?
Establish Team?

Ideas for IA-ED Initiatives
Curriculum Advisory Group
Curriculum, Credentials, and Certification Benchmarking
GuruWatch (point and counterpoint to IA “gurus”)
IA Lecture Series and Workshops
Students and Educators Needs Survey
Distance Learning
IA-ED Discussion Group
IA-ED Announcement List
Journal Contributions & Editorial Support
Database for Text Books, Instructors, and Programs