Creative, critical and constructive citizens
As a teacher, I help my students to become independent thinkers and creators. My job is not just to share knowledge and skills but enable the students to get the results they desire. The pursuit of positive social change guide my teaching philosophy.
Diversity in classroom
Encouraging diversity in class room is important for representativeness and for maximizing knowledge creation: Research shows that the more diverse a group is, the better it can outcompete a homogeneous group in problem solving. (See e.g. Scott Page’s work on diversity and problem solving.) When students are given an equal chance to succeed, it creates a positive effect on society.
Human-centered design
When teaching human-centered design methods, I apply a multidisciplinary approach for solving timely problems. In my class Journalism and Human-Centered Design, which I teach at UIC, we first identify users’ needs in terms of journalism consumption and then design solutions for those needs. In a class I taught at Stanford d.school “Douglas Engelbart’s Unfinished Legacy: Solving Global Grand Challenges”, we designed concepts addressing the urgent issues in three domain areas—environment, education, and health-by using information technologies.
Media sociology and research methods
My classes about media sociology intertwine theories with recent societal developments. In my class about “The Digital in Journalism”, we examine how digitalization affects journalism in various ways.
Workshops on media innovations and democratic innovations
I have led a number of human-centered design workshops for developing media innovations in academia, industry, and government, including the Government of Canada, a number of media companies, and the World Forum for Democracy at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France.
At the Brown Institute for Media Innovation at Stanford, I developed and implemented the concept of the Brown Media Innovation Base Camp. In these workshops, the students designed media innovations in multidisciplinary and bi-coastal teams.
In the Media Innovation Challenge Uutisraivaaja (News Pioneer) in Finland, I have designed and lead several media innovation workshops, e.g. at the Design Factory at the Aalto University.
At the World Forum for Democracy at the Council of Europe, I have designed and lead workshops for the Forum’s the Democracy Incubator.
