Emeritus Professor Diana Laurillard presents 20 years of the UCL Knowledge Lab: Developing the future of human-centred design knowledge
UCL Knowledge Lab has evolved rapidly from its conception as the London Knowledge Lab 20 years ago. It was born of the complementary interests of Birkbeck’s computer scientists and the IOE’s educational technologists – we all believed that we had a lot to learn from each other, and a new unit would inspire fruitful collaboration. It did. And in a fast-changing field we can now track many different journeys and milestones towards our current range of themes on how digital technology, media and AI contribute to human learning, communication, culture, society, education, arts and play. What binds us together is the conviction that all those modalities can inspire and serve innovative ways of engaging with each other within all our societal systems. Our shared approach to what we do is a design-based methodology that uses the sciences, works with end users