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Peace in pieces
Fig. 1. Poster commemorating the bombing of Hiroshima for Japan, 1985. Ivan Chermayeff, de la warr pavilion, Bexhill.
Trip FIVE to this exhibition, this time with my brother-in-law, is imminent. What I adore about exhibitions here is that they are ‘bitesize’ and smart; they are a perfect ‘mind burst’. They are the ideal repeat show too as with each visit you see more, and see differently … and are influenced of course by the person you are with.
The right image says what each viewer sees in it.
This idea naturally translates into any and every conflict we see today: MH17, fractured and not yet stuck together, the Middle East utterly smashed into dust – I have this visual in my head of Hanukkah Lamp, the smoke from which forms a fractured map of Israel and Palestine.
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| From E-Learning IV |
From a learning point of view to start with a poster such as this is to follow Robert Gagne theory of learning design; also the natural skill of storytellers and good communications: get their attention.
Pen and ink drawing class at the Jerwood Gallery, Hastings
Fig.1 Chair and shade
It was like being back at school: though the ratio of 15 women to 3 men felt like I’d gate-crashed the girl school’s class down the road; I was educated in all male schools from 4 to 19. Of the 15 two were under 20, two were under 30 and the others above 60 and 70. No difference. Just like school. I recognised this swimming with Masters that given any opportunity to be the child that we were we are.
My relationship with art is an odd one: a mother who taught art, had an MA from Durham University in Fine Art, but who discounted at as a career for any of her children. I took it as far as A’levels (under her tutelage).
In 90 minutes we has some history, so thoughts on kit, then we got on with it. I found a secluded spot in the central courtyard (Jerwood Gallery, Hastings). And picked first on the climbing plants on a wall, and then the chair I’d taken out of the class. My challenge was to look at different ways of adding shade. Eventually I found that changing from pen to cotton balls and ink would differentiate between the object and the shadow. This’ll take further work.
Other learning opportunities over the last few days have included:
Power Boat II (Refresher)
It is eight or more years since I did the course and seven years since I’ve been in a power boat. A bit of it came back. And new stuff was added. I need this so that I can operate a ‘rib’ during ‘racing week’ at the local sailing club: laying the course, keeping an eye on the fleet to rescue and assist. The sea can be choppy, the winds strong. Dinghies go over and their mast can pin them to the shallow sand and grit of Seaford Bay.
How to train a pigeon
In her wisdom my daughter has rescued a pigeon with a broken wing. The RSPB and animal sanctuaries aren’t interest. ‘Ralph’ is now accommodated in a garden shed; shits everywhere but is eating from my daughter’s hand. Muggins will be looking after it shortly of course. The volume of pebble-dash shit is impressive as every shit is onto a fresh patch of shed floor – it will be one shit deep, like a carpet by the weekend.
Graphic Design
The exhibition on the designer Ivan Chermeyeff at the De La Warr is so good I’ve been back three times. There is no book on this exhibition, though many of his books are nailed to a table to admire (the page it has been opened at), with a few books you can browse. There is an insightful video too – an interview with the designer talking about how he got into fine art and graphic design from an inspiration father. One of the things he talks about is ‘learning to see’. Had photography not been banned I would not have got out a pad of paper and looked more closely at his collages. Had I not taken such a close look I wouldn’t have seen, with magical surprise, that one was made from ephemera collected at the inauguration of JFKennedy as US President on January 20 1961.
Don’t make it easy
Fig. 1 Some ideas from the Ivan Chermayeff ‘Cut and Paste’ exhibition at the De La Warr, Bexhill
As photography isn’t allowed instead of moving from the gallery with my iPhone or camera clicking at everything and anything that caught my eye I was obliged to get out a sketch pad. Just as Ivan Chermayeff says in a exhibition video ‘most people don’t know how to see’.
We risk making everything too easy with e-learning: photos, screengrabs, instant research, transcripts of video, video as audio only or highlights or summaries thanks to others.
The above ideas were for:
a) A School of Visual Arts talk he was giving with a colleague
b) Arthritis – with letters torn from a type font catalogue and jumbled around
c) Mother and Child in modern art – a signal Magritte or Matisse like cut out.
What I would have missed entirely, and I do it no justice here, is a collage of tickets and seating allocation to the inauguration of John F Kennedy on the 20th January 1961. (Before my time, I’d been conceived a few weeks before at a New Year’s Eve party. Not even I can remember that far back).
Fig.2 Sketch of an Ivan Chermayeff collage/poster using bits and pieces from attendance at the inaugurations of US President J F Kennedy
Ivan Chermayeff ‘Cut and Paste’ @ the De La Warr, Bexhill.
Fig.1 Ivan Chermeyff – interviewed on his life in design
The pleasure from every exhibition I attend at the De La Warr is that they are modest in scope and ambition, engaging and inspiring without being overwhelming and curated in a way that gives you, other visitors, the art works and other parefenalia ample space.
The centre piece for IVan Chermayeff “Cut and Paste’ is for me the short, professionally executed, warming video biography in which Chermayeff gives a potted history of his life, influences and work; about as much as you’d cover in an episode of ‘Desert Island’ discs, though here, instead of music, you can then wonder off and look at examples of his work, works in progress and playfulness.
No transcript is offered so here are some excerpts and bullet points from mine.
Interviewed on two cameras Ivan Chermayeff waxes lyrical, the chronology from childhood and ealy influences, through art school and his early graphic design business, family and beyond; he’s in his eighties. His father emigrated to the US in the 1930s or 1940s I guess from the UK.
“For me inspiration is everywhere; I find it everywhere. I make a lot of visual connections by keeping my eyes and mind open to everything I see. It leads a lot into my design”.
His father architect as the biggest inspiration
“No matter what garbage at the age four, or making messes, he would always say that it was really great. And that was true of everything I did, no matter what. Instead of stopping you doing what you were doing because you wanted to make your old manhappy”.
His father he describes as both an educator and a self-taught architect.
Free spirited and supported. Moved everywhere.
Went to a lot of schools. 24. Andover (four years).
Allowed to do it in a free and open way.
Got to Harvard
Took any classes across the university.
Then
Design School, Chicago
Like a workshop of a school
Experimenting with design problems.
I then spent seven years recovering from my education
Trying to define what design meant
Design is all about seeing
You’ve got to learn how to see
You’ve got to make connections that are not necessarily obvious
“Be interested in training yourself to look around, to notice connections, such as a small colour connection, or the tinniest thing that brings two things together”.
Everybody who I find inspiring are artists who make great connections.
Iko Tannaka – Japanese Designer
We just liked what the other one was doing
Nice to have an inward connection with someone
Recognise that it is worth looking at.
I can’t sit still, so I’m always making things, so I make collages. I just prefer scissors to brushes.
Paul And
Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.
I never do anything that I didm’ think was damned good.
Work Ethic
Completely open understanding that we can contribute to what the other is doing at his desk.
Half the time a company doesn’t tell you what it wants accurately, you have to redefine what it is they want … and turn it into reality.
it can be as simple as finding a relationship between two letters in the alphabet or typeface that are original or say something.
Graphic design is all about audience after all … convince your client … they don’t tell you adequately what it is all about. If they were capable of do that they’d do it all themselves.
MOBIL
Held up extremely well
Business confirmation that we did a good job.
“I have intention of retiring ever”.
The video was created and produced by executive Producers
Ignacious Oearmun
Evee Kornblum
and directed by
Rick Boyko
Design overload?
I would never have taken a photo of a men’s urinal had it not blown my mind … I used the sit down toilet rather than wee on this. Look at it. Drop dead gorgeous. Too good for the use for which it was designed? Millbank Tower.
Design-Based Research:A Decade of Progress in Education Research
I skim through the article Design-Based Research:A Decade of Progress in Education Research? by Anderson and Shattuck, noting in particular the section on iterative design
Bridging the chasm between design and execution
I found this article on design based research not only fascinating, but oddly synchronous with the MAODE (Master of Arts: Open and Distance Education) module I am currently doing – H809 Practice based research in educational technology – as my interest is in how we construct learning programmes for use through our various Internet connected devices.
‘DBR is a methodology designed by and for educators that seeks to increase the impact, transfer, and translation of education research into improved practice’. (Anderson and Shattuck, 2012. p. 16)
We are currently stripping down a couple of papers.
I can see that I will automate this process, do a review of who, what, when, why a paper is written. Then check as a skim read for other signs that make it credible for my interests (or creditable at all).
- Being Situated in a Real Educational Context
- Focusing on the Design and Testing of a Significant Intervention
- Involving multiple iterations
- Involving a Collaborative Partnership Between Researchers and Practitioners
- Evolution of Design principles
In action research, the educator is both researcher and teacher
(Kuhn & Quigley, 1997).
This becomes inevitable. And is played out in just about anything we do if we think either that there is a problem with it or that it can be improved and we want to improve it. On the one hand as player and participant we are in the best position to understand what is going on, on the other we may be so adapted to certain behaviours and to the familiarity of a situation that we cannot see it with either fresh eyes or the eyes of an objective observer. These are techniques and attitudes that can be taught.
Mingfong, Yam San, and Ek Ming (2010) identified four design characteristics that they suggest must be aligned to create effective interventions. These are:
- Frameworks for learning,
- The affordances of the chosen instructional tools,
- Domain knowledge presentation,
- Contextual limitations
(Mingfong et al 1020 p. 470).
Design practice—whether in the manufacture of cars or of fashions—usually evolves through the creation and testing of prototypes, iterative refinement, and continuous evolution of the design, as it is tested in authentic practice. (Anderson and Shattuck, 2012. p. 17)
“Research through mistakes.” (Anderson and Shattuck, 2012. p. 17)
I came across this in the OU MBA module B822 ‘creativity, innovation and change’ – where mistakes are recognised as a test and a way forward, rather than a barrier to change or innovation.
Grayson Perry – is one of several artists and creatives who talk positively of mistakes. It’s how we learn.
Martin Sorrell – on mistakes in business
There are many others – a search ‘mistakes’ in this blog will find more.
Further Reading
Journal of the Learning Sciences, vol. 13, no. 1; Educational Researcher, vol. 32, no. 1; and
Educational Psychologist, vol. 39, no. 4.
REFERENCES
Anderson, T, & Shattuck, J 2012, ‘Design-Based Research:A Decade of Progress in Education Research?’, Educational Researcher, 1, p. 16, JSTOR Arts & Sciences IV, EBSCOhost, viewed 8 February 2013.
Mingfong, J., Yam San, C., & Ek Ming, T. (2010). Unpacking the design process in design-based research. In Proceedings pedagogy
Kuhn, G., & Quigley, A. (1997). Understanding and using action research in practice settings. In A. Quigley & G. Kuhne (Eds.), Creating practical knowledge through action research (pp. 23–40). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Looi, C.-K., Chen, W. the 9th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (Vol. 2). International Society of the Learning Sciences.
Way was, way is, way will be – Webs 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0
- Top down Web 1.0.
- Democratized Web 2.0
- Semantic Web 3.0
Doodle on the back of a hand out from WebSciences @University of Southampton DTC
14 years and this is what I’ve got to show for it
Supporting educators to rethink their learning design practice with the 7 Cs of Learning Design
‘Teachers want support and guidance to help them rethink their design practice, to think beyond content to and activities to make pedagogically informed design decisions that make good use of technologies’.
I’ve just been listening over the OLDs MOOC hangout for Week 3 and particularly enjoyed the Q&A with
Professor Gráinne Conole
The sentence above stood out from the 60 minutes, as well as how this was put into context for the MOOC in Week 3 and coming up in Week 8.
Personally I wish we’d had something like this to begin the week. I got in early, did a couple of activities then followed the noise from the active design group I’ve joined. Give others a turn. Let things roll over. This works. Leave gaps and sometimes others will come along and think, OK, he’s done that so I can see how it works, or might work for me. I won’t bother with that tool, I’ll try something else and see what people make of it.
I cherry picked and as this hangout suggests and recommends, I’ll go back and pick out more as required.
I enjoyed downloading, colouring in, cutting out then using the Activity Cards. This is more my thing than the EXCEL spreadsheet – which I planned on a sheet of paper then transferred over. I might use an APP to generate such a thing. I find EXCEL somewhat heavy handed, or I’d want to design it in a way that I like.
We learnt about the background to 7Cs. The background and context was invaluable. Credibility ought not be taken for granted. Work like this needs to be put on a pedestal and people told of its credentials and worth – i.e sell it to me!
7Cs is an OU with OU Learning Design Initiative with JISC through the Curriculum Design Programme. Activity Profile and Course Map. Trialed thoroughly.
Gráinne Conole continued this work with the JISC funded CARPE Dium learning design workshops at Leicester whiuch provides a ‘ rich storyboard of learning design’.
Gabi Witthaus
Ming Nei
More at http://www.olds.ac.uk/
And http://e4innovation.com/
Overarching conceptual framework
A lot Cs here:
Conceptualise – vision for the course, who is it for, what is the nature of the learners and personas
Course features – the essence of it.
Creative activity – capture, communicate and consider
Conceptual
Combine – into course map and activity profile
Consolidate – running it as face to face, or VLE, or more specialised learning design tool, or ….
From Gráinne‘s blog:
7 cs of learning design from Gráinne Conole
7Cs element |
Learning Design tool |
Conceptualise |
Course featuresDesign NarrativesPersonasAnalysing context: factors and concerns |
Capture |
Resource auditRepository search strategy |
Create |
Course mapActivity profileTask swimlaneStoryboard |
Communicate |
E-moderating frameworkMapping forums, blogs and wikisCommunicative affordances |
Collaborate |
Collaborative affordancesCSCL Pedagogical Patterns |
Consider |
Assessment Pedagogical PatternsLearning outcomes map |
Various systems offered and can be tried.
Listening to OLDs MOOCers it appears that the 7Cs framework has been received well
- It articulates what teachers already do.
- There are 7 aspects in a whole design process.
- What level are you teaching, what level of support do they need etc:
- Teachers (all of us I would say, educators, learning designers, L&D managers) are bewildered by the range of tools, the range of approaches so fall back on their own content. So use the tools to think about the activities, the core essence of hte course.
Gráinne introduced the work of Helen Keegan, Augmented Reality and risk.
More on use of augmented learning
7Cs has been found useful in Australia
- Indigenous Culture on locality.
- Introducing elements of serendipity.
- Activity profile
- Is it the right mix of learning for what you want the students to do.
- Correlation of time mapped out to what students are achieving … so she is poor at communication in Spanish … and there is little communication in the course she is doing.
Is this the right tool set?
- Covers all the aspects of design.
- Getting a taster for these in the course.
‘A huge amount in the MOOC is mix and pic, so take your time, come back to the resources. Six months down the line, you discover which ones you like’.
- Some love the activity profiles some don’t, so find the mix that works for you.
- Some with learning outcomes.
- Some with the content.
- Some with the characteristics of the context of the learners.
- Different tools will mean different things to different people.
‘We’re offering a Smörgåsbord of offerings that you can develop and use over time. Pick the ones that are relevant to you, don’t feel that you have to use all of them’.
Larnica Declaration on Learning Design
(More coming up in WK 8 to act as a springboard to reflect)
- What is learning design?
- How has it come about?
- Why is it different to structural design?
Professor James Dalziel
2011 ALTC National Teaching Fellow
- Driven by people in Europe and colleagues in Australia.
- What is learning design? How has it come about?
- How is it distinct from instructional design?
- Major Epiphany moment Sept 2012
- Two days in Cyprus
- Timeline of key moments since 199 learning design
REF: Key books on design science (Dianna Laurillard) Teaching Design as a Science
It’s aimed to be pedagogically neutral so that it can be used across a range of methodologies and pedagogies.
- Tools for guidance and support
- Tools for visualisation
- Tools for sharing like Cloudworks
What works for you
- It depends on the nature of how people want to go about things
- Visual
- Linear
- Connect and be sociable
- Open, unstructured … to form some kind of navigatable way through, as well as enjoying the serendipity. Having the options of the long and short routes.
- Is something more needed in the middle ground. B MOOCs.
BLOG
http://www.larnacadeclaration.org
Related articles
- 7 cs update (slideshare.net)
- How do you use an Activity System to improve accessibility to e-learning by students with disabilities? (mymindbursts.com)
- How to design learning using activity cards (mymindbursts.com)
- MOOCs, online education and the rights of learners. (dougbelshaw.com)
- The MOOC, an Incubator for Great Ideas: A Personal Experience (etcjournal.com)
- Some unexplored effects of MOOCs in the long-term (havingneweyes.com)
- Research questions on MOOCs: Who’s talking, who’s completing, and where’s the teaching? (computinged.wordpress.com)
- Use of Learning Technologies in Education (24by7masti.wordpress.com)
When the client moans and sighs, make his logo twice the size …
I’ve wanted to quote this for many years.
Winston Fletcher used this with images at an Advertising Association presentation at the CBI in October 1984.
When the client moans and sighs
Make his logo twice the size
If the client still proves refractory
Show a picture of the factory
Only in the gravest cases
Should you show the clients’ faces
Found in ‘Welcome to Optimism’ after several false starts finding the right search terms for Google.
This is another way to look at it:
I was a trainee Rep at JWT.
My merry dance around the world of advertising continues with occasional afternoons mentoring at the School of Communication Arts which I attended in 1987.
I kept a daily diary at the time, most days a single sheet of A4 whether I felt like it or not.
This was Tuesday 9th October 1984.
It was a fortnightly or weekly IPA meeting that attracted graduate account managers from across the London advertising agencies. The diary entry reminds me who I was with, the ads we looked at, where I was and what I got up to. Plenty in fact to bring it all back in considerable detail.
The other quote or image I am looking for was a set of dimming light bulbs to illustrate the ‘Mortality of ideas’ something that threatens and crushes many a great project.
Related articles
- Global Advertising Agencies Industry Market Research Report from IBISWorld has Been Updated (prweb.com)
- What is an advertising agency (vpssell.com)
- BBDO, Fitzgerald+Co., JWT, and Grey Perform Best in Unaided Awareness and Overall Impression Ratings in Recent Study of Atlanta Advertising Executives (prweb.com)
- Coca-Cola FM: Magazine Amplifier (adsoftheworld.com)
Mind Bursts 