Product design software driven vs ideas driven: how CAID learning method can change the design approach?

Nowadays Product Design is strictly linked to Computer Aided Industrial Design (CAID) learning and the approaches and the methods used inside University can heavily influence the Design results. Starting from the contributions of Shön, Oxman and Cunliffe that outline the boundaries of design knowledge, the paper will underline the need to redefine the educational tasks of designer instruction, through the shift from an artefact production orientation to a cognitive-constructive approach. Considering the case study of the Faculty of Design at the Politecnico di Milano, where Computer Graphics studios are an important step of the curriculum, we'll try to show how an ideas driven approach can help students to enhance their creativity through a 3D software. The second part of the paper, defining the two possible approach to digital modelling education, will discuss the different ways in which technologies support Industrial Design learning. The result of the overlapping of this two levels of analysis will represent a new model which attempt to support the community actions in design education though a metacognitive approach. The original contribution relies in the identification of a learning model consonant with the idea of a flexible environment as Industrial Design learning requires. The metacognitive approach may open new ways for CAID education, centered on the learner and allowing an active, creative construction of his knowledge through a tool independent method.