The Good Guide to Creative Practice

The Good Guide is an initiative aimed at equipping students of creative art, design, media, and technology with the knowledge and tools to embrace ethical and inclusive practices in their work. At its essence, The Good Guide promotes sustainability, equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and harnessing technology for positive impact. The objective is straightforward: to minimise harm in creative pursuits and actively contribute to positive change.

Navigating concepts such as ethics, sustainability, EDI, and tech for good can be daunting. This is where The Good Guide comes into play. It is an introductory handbook tailored to provide clear explanations of these complex topics and offer basic principles to aid understanding.

Below are a list of links to useful information, explainer videos and animations, as well as toolkits and other helpful materials relating to the three key themes of The Good Guide. We will be adding more! You will find a more larger list in the digital version of The Good Guide that you can download at the end of the page.

Below is a selection of books and reference links designed to provide insightful information, in-depth explorations, and provoking ideas on the key themes covered in The Good Guide. These recommendations span various genres and formats, from instructional manuals to dictionaries, and are tailored to deepen your understanding. The books are available in IADT Library and other material is freely available online.

• Design, Ecology, Politics by Joanna Boehnert
• Design Justice by Sasha Costanza Chock
• Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary by Ashish Kothari, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta

• Universal Design Principles
• Design for Public Services
• IADT Equality Diversity Inclusion resources
• IADT Ethics Policy
• Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-racist, Nonbinary Field Guide for Graphic Designers by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Tobias
• Mismatch How Inclusion Shapes Design by Kat Holmes
• The Little Book of Design Research Ethics by IDEO (free download available here)
• Universal Methods of Ethical Design by Sai Shruthi Chivukula & Colin Gray

• Climate Change – the facts in 4 minutes by David Attenborrough
• The Tipping Points of Climate Change – and where we stand, 2024 TED Talk by Johan Rockström
• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• UNESCO Biodiversity Portal
• COP Paris Agreement 2015
• The Dezeen Guide to Carbon
• Circular Economy – video explainer by the Ellen Mc Arthur Foundation
• Circular Design Guide
• Irish Government Circular Strategy
• IADT Climate Action Roadmap

• Truth, trust and hope, Nobel Prize Summit 2023 (YouTube Playlist)
• How better tech could protect us from distraction? by Tristan Harris, Technology Ethicist, Centre for Humane Technology
• EU AI Act Single Information Platform
• EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 
• GDPR & IADT
• IADT Data Protection Policy
• IADT Academic Integrity Policy
• Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of AI by Kate Crawford
• AI Now, AI Now Institute produces diagnosis and policy research on artificial intelligence
• A Critical Field Guide for Working with Machine Learning Datasets by Sarah Ciston, part of the Knowing Machines research project
• Anatomy of an AI System by Kate Crawford

We are currently creating a range of open-source educational materials, an OER, focused on core topics in each of the three Good Guide pillars: People, Planet and Tech for Good. These resources will include an introductory slide deck, work-sheets as well as a reading and references list. They will be shared on this webpage via a Creative Commons Licence for Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike, meaning full accreditation is given to the authors. The topics are as follows:

• People – Values; EDI; Future Thinking
• Planet – Climate Literacy; Sustainable Materials; Digital Sustainability
• Tech for Good – Accessibility; Data Privacy; Ethics of AI

If you wish to contribute to authoring and/or developing these resources, please get in touch with hilary.kenna@iadt.com.

SATLE is the Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement Funding in Higher Education, from the HEA. It funds research that enhances teaching and learning practices across Irish higher education institutions, with an emphasis on sustainable development, digital transformation and academic integrity.

N-TUTORR is the National Technological University Transformation for Resilience and Recovery initiative. It aims to transform the student experience, empower learners, develop staff capabilities and implement sustainable digital ecosystems in technological higher education in Ireland.