digital design studio goals

Since we won't be working on any software-tool based training or exercises in the Digital Design Studio course, my expectations are solely in having a better idea of what digital design is, and what it can become. I'm really interested in the MIT Media Lab/Negroponte/McLuhan/Wired theories about the effects of interactive communication and how to leverage these ideas to better communicate with an audience. Even though we won't necessarily be doing any code-based work, I hope to get some ideas about effective interface design, setting the pace of a story or message, and similar concepts.