Automation in Construction 14 (2005) 687 – 688
www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
Editorial
Digital knowledge dissemination
The twin missions of academia are knowledge
acquisition and knowledge dissemination. The former,
to which we conventionally refer as research, corre-
sponds to those activities and methods that are used to
obtain theretofore unavailable knowledge. The latter,
which is normally called education, deals with the
passing of this and previously acquired knowledge
onto those who are embarking upon a task of academic
exploration. One mission cannot survive without the
other. Without acquisition knowledge will rapidly dry
out; conversely, without dissemination no one will be
left to carry forward the torch of academic work.
Perhaps in tandem with this idea, the papers that
were admitted for presentation at the Generative CAD
Systems, 2004 (G-CADS’04) Symposium, at Carne-
gie Mellon University, during July 12–5, 2004,
covered both missions. In this special issue, we
present a selection of papers from G-CADS’04 that
deal with the digital use and exploration of knowledge
disseminating technology.
The cyber teaching environment presents many
challenges. There are the usual ones dealing with the
difficulties of creating innovative technology that can
bring digital tools right into the virtual classroom.
When tackled, these challenges inevitably lead, at one
end of the spectrum, to cultural and social difficulties
of creating virtual learning groups through the
interface of the internet and sophisticated simulations
[1]. At the other end of the spectrum, we find
challenges that deal with the translation of digital
design strategies into the studio environment for
design education, which may or may not use digital
tools [2]. In the span defined by these two issues lie
interesting questions of digital pedagogy.
0926-5805/$ - see front matter D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.autcon.2004.12.001
Some of these are fundamental questions related
to the nature of the medium: how do we seek and
gather information from the web efficiently and
effectively? Others raise issues specific to design
ability: can we use automated training tools to
actually improve aspects of design skill? And finally,
there are questions interfacing the two: can we show
that the quality of design can be explained by the
quality of digital communication; and is there a
correlation between the sophistication of generative
tools and the level of knowledge of the knowledge
acquirer?
In exploring the question of information gathering,
Bhavnani [3] shows that while novices can easily find
information for questions that have specific answers,
they have difficulty in finding answers for questions
requiring a comprehensive understanding of a topic.
He explains this through the phenomenon of informa-
tion scatter: bas the number of information sources
about a specific topic increases, the information across
the sources follow a distribution, where a few sources
have a large amount of information, and many sources
have very little information[4].Q
The use of digital education in improving design
abilities, perhaps a central issue in this domain, is
addressed by two different papers. Rafi et al. [5]
show how automated training tools help improve the
spatial abilities of engineering drawing teachers;
while Wu [6] demonstrate the capabilities of a
grammar based tool intended to assist in traditional
architecture.
Rafi et al. present their findings based on an
experiment using a web-based virtual environment
they call WbVE. Using WbVE secondary school
688 Editorial

engineering drawing instructors have improved their While we are certainly further ahead in our under-
spatial manipulation skills which are assumed to be a standing of how digital tools can help design learning,
basis for design ability. While there is debate about this collection of papers is not the final word on the
this underlying assumption, [7] this does not negate exploration of educational issues in the digital realm.
the significant conclusions of this paper based on We still need to better assist information mining for
pre- and post tests of spatial ability measurements. design. We still have to improve the correlation of tool
This work is poised to become a precedent in the sophistication and design strategies with digital
development of the virtual environment based tea- design. Important challenges are still ahead of us.
ching and learning prototypes for secondary schools More specifically, are the methods of digital design
in Malaysia. fundamentally and qualitatively different from the
Wu, on the other hand, explores the use of a shape manual ones? What would be the tangible benefits of
grammar formalism, which assists the exploration of these tools for the world of design? Are there any
the underlying compositional principles of traditional blind spots in the overall progress of digital design
Chinese Architecture. This bnon-standardQ learning tool development for the purposes of education? And,
tool is expected to greatly ease the difficulties in perhaps ultimately, what are virtual design environ-
learning about the bracket system: ban important and ments really like and how can we start building such
characteristic component in traditional Chinese archi- environments without the encumbrance of traditional
tecture [8].Q design approaches, tools and strategies, which con-
Moving beyond the tools that improve teaching, tinue to serve as the most popular metaphors in the
Demirkan [9] explores the relationships between development of digital tools?
design information and design strategies, as well as Omer Akin, Ankara, 30 September, 2004.
design quality and digital communication, using an
agent based information processing approach. The
system designed by Demirkan and her students, using References
communication agents, benable designers to locate
and retrieve information from distributed sources... [1] Kalay, in this volume.
These agents, working over the web using sketches as [2] O. Akin, eXtereme Design, ARCHI, in print.
[3] Bhavnani, in this volume.
a collaboration medium in the conceptual phase of the [4] Ibid., pp. . .
design process [10],Q yield evidence supporting a [5] Rafi et.al., in this volume.
correlation between design domain and variables and [6] Wu, in this volume.
design strategies. Also the quality of a project appears [7] O. Akin, Spatial reasoning of architecture students with simple
three-dimensional arrangements, Fourth Design Thinking
to increase in correlation with the communication
Research Conference held at MIT 1999 (April 23–25).
among collaborators. [8] Wu, in this volume, pp. . .
Finally Scott [11] presents a retrospective study on [9] Demirkan, in this volume.
the correspondences between the sophistication of [10] Ibid., pp. . .
generative tools and the level of knowledge of the [11] Scott, in this volume.
learning agent. bComputer based generative design [12] Ibid., pp. . .
tools are often restricted in their scope due to
implementation issues. These simple applications
can serve as teaching aids for novice designers Omer Akin
[12].Q Scott argues that generative tools and methods Carnegie Mellon University,
can be mapped into a domain of pedagogical tools Pittsburgh, PA 15217, United States
appropriate for different skill levels.