Information Age, Knowledge Economy and Higher Industrial Design Education Strategies

The advent of the information age and the knowledge economy has rapidly and profoundly changed human society, and will have significant impact on our traditional economic structure, production and manufacturing methods, communication and communication methods, learning, management methods, work and lifestyle, and our ideological concepts. ,profound influence. The science and technology are making rapid progress. The competition of comprehensive national strength based on economic strength is the competition of science and technology. It is the competition of comprehensive and creative talents. In the final analysis, it is the competition of education quality and the competition of the overall national innovation ability. . Therefore, today's education is more important than ever. In order to face the new situation, institutions of higher learning must shoulder the historic mission of comprehensively promoting quality education and cultivating high-quality innovative talents. We must update educational concepts, deepen education reform, and establish innovative colleges and universities. Talent training model.

Countries around the world are constantly adjusting their education development strategies, reforming educational thinking, disciplines and professional structures, personnel training programs, teaching content, and teaching methods to adapt to an evolving society. Naturally, design education is no exception. National conditions and status Since the reform and opening up, China’s economy and culture have achieved tremendous achievements, but we still need to clearly see that we are still in the initial stage of industrialization, still relying on processing industries as the mainstay, and the reform of the economic system. The fundamental shift from a planned economic system to a market economy system has not yet been achieved. The knowledge content of products is not high, and the proportion of products with independent intellectual property rights is very low. In short, the quality of the citizens and the ability to innovate are not high, and it has become a constraint on China’s economic development. And a major factor in international competitiveness. Faced with the current fierce competition in the world, we need more than ever a large number of high-quality talents with a high degree of social responsibility, entrepreneurial pioneering spirit, innovative ability and practical ability, and good at collaboration. High-quality and competitive products that can meet the increasing material and spiritual needs of people are the key to winning the competition in the international market. Therefore, it is imperative to create a large number of high-quality industrial design talents! Everyone may agree with this view: Science is the law of researching existing things, and industrial designers are shouldering the world of creating the future—creating the way we live and work in the future.

According to statistics, China's state-owned enterprises have nearly 6 million engineering and technical personnel. However, the huge technical team and China’s economy are still underdeveloped, and the ability to innovate in technology is not high. In particular, there are not many high-tech content products and internationally renowned brands, leading to international The competitiveness is not strong and it stands in stark contrast. There are many reasons for this. In the product development and innovation mechanism of enterprises, the important role of industrial design has not yet been fully brought into full play. This is not related to the insufficient attention of the government departments. It is related to the current management and management system and the vision of the enterprise managers. This is related to the lack of sufficient understanding of the role of industrial design in product development. At present, the ranks of industrial designers in our country are far from meeting the needs of social development. The overall quality of designers is incompatible with the important tasks that society and companies should shoulder and the development requirements of the times. It is one of the important reasons. Industrial design in the era of traditional industry, the contents, theories, methods, and technical means of its research and design have undergone profound changes in today's manufacturing industry. Industrial design has evolved from a focus on the scale, structure and styling of individual machines and products to more systematic value pursuits. The scope of problems that industrial designers need to address has also become broader. National, social, and corporate-to-industrial design The division’s knowledge structure and overall quality put forward higher requirements.

Based on the above understanding, we are even more aware of the necessity and urgency to discuss the current reform of industrial design education. It should be noted that China’s industrial design education started a little over half a century after Western developed countries. However, after decades of exploration, introduction, and digestion, it has initially formed its own talent training model, and it has also provided With fewer industrial design talents, they have played a pioneering role in various jobs and have made very important contributions to the popularization and popularization of China's industrial design. Many scholars have contributed valuable youth. In recent years, with the continuous deepening of China's reform and opening up, the socialist market economy has continued to develop. In the face of fierce market competition, the demand for industrial design talents has increased. According to incomplete statistics, there are almost 300 colleges and universities that have set up professional direction for industrial design. The exchange of design and design education cooperation activities has been undone. The design cooperation between domestic and foreign high-tech enterprises and universities has also mushroomed. It reflects the growth and speed of the demand for industrial design talents in the era society, and industrial design is about to enter the main battlefield of China’s economic construction. International industrial design has shown some trends: the momentum of global economic development will stimulate consumption, and excellent products will have a huge market. The individual needs of consumers will be more concerned. The demand for design of information products has grown rapidly, especially for small and medium-sized companies, home offices and home computers, and the design of digital entertainment products will receive more attention.

The knowledge and information society put forward higher requirements for designers' knowledge updating, especially computer-aided design technology and virtual reality technology. How to use high technology to cut costs in design is one of the focuses of international design competition. Designers will work more closely with the business community. With global economic integration and China’s imminent accession to the WTO, the Asia-dominated Asian market will have its opportunities and competition rapidly increased and expanded. Many high-tech companies in China are starting or embarking on the establishment of industrial design R&D mechanisms to increase the market competitiveness of products and create corporate brands. Industrial design as a discipline has been increasingly valued by the government, society, and companies, as we are about to After joining the WTO, it is expected that she will enter a period of high development in the near future. This provides space for the development of industrial design education and also puts forward new requirements for the quality of our industrial design education and the speed of development. Facing new opportunities and challenges, we should reflect on industrial design education to formulate corresponding design education reform measures. Multi-level training of design talent China's current industrial design education is still basically a single model. However, the popularization of higher education is an objective trend, and popularization is accompanied by the diversification and multi-layered structure of higher education.

The development of science and technology is accompanied by the modernization of production and the modernization of social life. It will inevitably require diverse talents and talents for design. This is especially true in a big country like China, where the market prospect is huge, industrial design is in full swing, and the demand for talented people is urgent; Requirements and their own abilities and the needs of companies for design talent are diverse. To meet the diversification requirements, design education also needs to be diversified. This can see successful experience in the development of design education in developed countries from unity to diversification, especially in Germany. Diversification and multi-level design education will inevitably bring about diversity in education. After the expansion of enrollment in many design universities in China in recent years, it has caused concern for the quality of education. Under the condition that teachers do not have enough equipment, this is indeed a problem worth worrying. However, the quality is also hierarchical. Different levels of higher education should have different quality standards. Guaranteeing the quality of design education means ensuring the quality requirements that different levels and types of schools should achieve based on their human training objectives.

In terms of the total demand for industrial design talents in China, the quality of design education means that higher education meets the total or implicit demand of individuals, groups, and society. Therefore, the talents for design education should be multi-layered and the quality should not be just a standard. The design workforce will enter a wide range of work areas in the future: design management and design strategy, design and development, design performance, model production, and design promotion. , Design research and research... Although the talent requirements of individuals, groups, companies, and society will be different, they will eventually be unified to the total design needs of society. Young people learn design mostly for career. The occupational needs in the design field are diverse and multi-layered, so different levels and types of talents can be welcomed by the society. More emphasis should also be placed on ensuring the basic quality requirements for higher design education. In addition to meeting the requirements of the design profession and having the knowledge and ability to design professional careers, this basic quality requirement should also have a good overall overall quality. It includes noble morality, sense of responsibility to human society, ability to innovate and design, and awareness and ability for lifelong learning. This is consistent with student requirements at any level of design school. Therefore, all kinds of design colleges need to obtain corresponding degrees of freedom and flexibility. According to their own environmental conditions and to create and maintain their teaching characteristics is very important, can design education goals and specifications of personnel training, according to the corporate society This requires a positive and creative response. Broaden the basics of designing professional education and cultivate complex talents. Design education, especially undergraduate design education, is to cultivate generalists or professionals. It has always been the topic of our discussion.

The world today has undergone tremendous changes. Many major issues facing mankind need to be solved in a comprehensive way by applying social scientific knowledge and natural science knowledge. With the changes in the nature and content of current industrial designs, creativity and technology The increasing cultural composition gradually turns into an activity that combines science and art more closely. Designing and inventing new products not only affects people’s way of life, they also change people’s thinking methods and values, people’s value orientation and consumption. The trend has been diversified. In the changed world, in the changing corporate world, in the face of changing social needs, students trained in traditional over-constrained design majors lack the ability to adapt, create, and analyze and make decisions. Therefore, advanced design education should move from narrow professional education to comprehensive quality education, and it is very important to integrate comprehensive education with professional design education. We believe that the important responsibility of the university in designing digital education is to help students establish a system of image thinking and logical thinking and creative work methods. In view of the new requirements of designers in the knowledge society in the future, they should have the ability to analyze complex situations and have the qualities of creativity, initiative, responsibility, etc., and they must acquire more extensive knowledge while mastering general cultural knowledge and design skills. Transferable competence. In particular, we must strengthen the cultivation of innovation. In the teaching reform of comprehensively improving the overall quality of future designers, we should also follow the direction of “morality”, “learning knowledge” is the fundamental, “ability” is the core, and “physique” is the basic principle. In short, modern design education is to strive to cultivate students as a comprehensive and comprehensive designer of humanistic spirit, scientific and artistic qualities, and innovative ability. The future designer must have a sound personality and humanistic spirit, and correctly understand and handle the basic relationships between man and nature, society, people and others, and people. Former Director-General of UNESCO Accord.

Delorre proposed that education has four major functions: learn to understand, learn to do things, learn to be a human, and learn to live together. The latter two functions refer to educating people. Future designers should have a deep understanding of the natural, social, and intellectual systems of knowledge and insights into the nature of things, unique insights, and ability to anticipate the future. Design should have a kind of comprehensive intelligence: self-learning ability, especially the ability to access knowledge online, communication ability, choice and decision-making ability, analysis and synthesis, logic and image thinking ability, and innovation ability.