LIN-R

As part of PPD, Fiona and I met with Level 2 Interaction students today.

Once participants turned up the session was very productive, everyone engaged and contributed to discussions exceptionally well and by the end of the session they had established some clear ways in which they could support their own learning more effectively. Fiona and I agreed that it would be useful to capture today's session in some way; for reference for next time we run the session with another group. So here goes...

The idea was for students to reflect on what they have been learning this term in their multi-disciplinary teams for Urban Environments.

As is usually the case, students have encountered lots of difficulties in managing their group working processes. We talked about these and identified some key common issues:-
- it was hard to describe the role of an interaction designer.
- Interaction students get identified as 'technical'
- group dynamics were hard to manage and got in the way of good work.
- also difficult to negotiate with tutors from other courses.
Of these the most important problem seemed to be the difficulty students had defining, describing and having-valued their roles as interaction designers within their teams.

We had a structured discussion to identify some of their more positive learning experiences on in this project. These mainly fell into the categories of
- Good communication, mutual support.
- Good group research process and good discussion.
- Good ideas.
Though we noticed how easily positive experiences were overshadowed by difficult group dynamics.

These conversations provided an excellent context for Level 2 PPD Unit where we want students to be thinking about how they can begin to be more in charge of their professional development (as they prepare for work placements) and their identity as designers.

At this point we asked students to work on their own to make notes on the following questions for 7 minutes.

 

 

Then, discussing in groups of four, they compared their answers for 15 minutes.

After this each member of each group represented the issues raised on each point in turn.

What was clear in the excellent discussion that followed, was that Interaction students contribute many valuable and innovative things to the creative work of their groups. These included:-
- devising and carrying out innovative 'probes' (initial outreach to members of the public for market research purposes).
- holding the group together
- usability solutions
- providing tools for documentation (physical and virtual)
- computer 3d modelling
- preparing presentations
- technical skills; flash, css, html

 However most students don't identify their contributions as particularly characteristic of Interaction designers. They also find it difficult to evidence some of the more facilitative roles that they perform within groups.

Speaking from experience, Fiona described how this is a common problem for interaction designers working in multi-disciplinary teams in professional contexts. As a relatively young area of design specialisation - there is still work to be done to develop vocabularies and map the processes of interaction designers. She stressed the importance of creating diagrams and visualisations of process to communicate more widely about the value of their work.

In discussions about the things that they were learning through the Urban Environment unit, students said that they had enhanced many of their practical skills to support their contributions. However, some of the most important learning had arisen from comparing their own processes with Product and IDEAS students who: -
- take a long and detailed approach to research.
- keep sketchbooks in which they record the development of their design ideas with sketches, beautifully crafted drawings, and notes of their thought processes.

In conclusion, these Interaction students now see how some regular record and reflection on their learning, in the form of a blog, photo archive, scrap-book, file, sketchbook etc., would help them to evidence every aspect of their contribution to the project. Also that it might provide them with the tools to start to describe and value their roles, with more confidence, in relation to other team members.

Ruth C

Continued thoughts and links re: discussing online identity for designers in PPD

Examples of student (and ex-student) blogs about their own work and inspirational work of other designers:-

Supergraphic, a recent, Graphics graduate, blogs a collection of inspirational graphic designs that then link to other graphic designers' inspirational resources in flickr and other blogs. This blog is commented by fellow designers and includes a public chat box feature (free widget available from http://cbox.ws/ cbox).

Maeve Duval, a recent, Graphics graduate, displays her own work alongside that of other designers

Group blogging
Jared Taylor has created a group blog for CVA students by aggregating links from their individual blogs into groups within a single page. This means that: -
- students and staff can find each others' blog posts as easily as 'leaning over the table in the studio and having a conversation.' (see students feedback on earlier attempts to facilitate group blogging)
- students can see how each group is working together, as well as how individuals are doing.

The following are examples of these CVA students working together on a group project.

Some excellent documentation and reflection of work process (note use of images and youtube video)
http://daryl-rhystaylordesignjournal.blogspot.com/, http://sbutlerjournal.blogspot.com/ and http://itchyharry.blogspot.com/

Rosy Little Things (linked from Maeves blog) is not a student blog but provided a point for discussion about approaches to writing good profile statements. This blog also has a Flickr slide show of her own work and is massively commented.

The theme of today's PPD classes with Graphics and Moving Image Level 2 students was how to represent yourself as a designer.

Towards the end of term students will be asked to make presentations that consciously reflect their design values, their design process and their range of skills; with both their own work and a selection of things that inspire them. The particular focus was on developing an online identity and how this would support their ongoing personal and professional development.

This was an opportunity for students to look at some of the approaches, tools and facilities available for them to use when reflecting on their design processes and showcasing their work.

We started by looking at examples of blogs (in its widest definition) and web sites, presented by students and discussed the benefits of blogging; what this approach allows people to show and talk about.

1) Matthew Wahl's Flickr account
provides links to his current graphic design work, a collection of inspirational designs and to documentation and promotional material for his 'Na' font (students commented that promoting a new font is usually a very expensive business).

2) Bionic Systems - studio for design and new media, has recently moved over from a more traditional (but very flashy) static website  to a blog-style showcase
We agreed that this move represented a desire to communicate corporate values of openness and approachability.

3) Mysterious Al is already well established and can therefore afford to have a less accessible portal to his work.

4) Joshua Smith develops his online reputation by blogging and creating tutorials and freebies for Digital Arts Magazine

There were others...By discussing these examples we agreed that the blog format facilitates a sense of progression through time. Also that some designers are using comments, links and tags within their blogs to raise awareness of their work (and play), to get it seen and to spread their 'brand values' within a network of other designers and cultural producers. They take the approach of 'if I talk about you you talk about me'

We also observed that some larger companies are adopting the blog format to create the impression of a more dynamic and open ethos. Though sometimes, they may not have comment, or tagging facilities.


Other main topics of discussion and concern were...

Web 2.0, How New and How Free?
Web 2.0 can be understood as an approach to networking and attracting attention using a range of new characteristics such as:-
- tagging: http://del.icio.us/ shows how this works
- personal/ soft interaction:  social networking as in facebook and myspace and comments on blogs.
What who owns my data and how safe is it, in social-software platforms. Is IP an issue? Will people steal my designs and my ideas? Are Creative Commons licences a useful way to go?

Moving my identity from from a social to professional status
We discussed what future employers, or companies offering work-placements might be looking for. Skills first then evidence that you might be a good fit in their company.This led to discussions of how to negotiate the transition from social/student to professional/designer within online spaces such as Facebook and Myspace ie. What happens when a future employer googles my name? What will they find?
Connected to these...The value to future employers of designers who understand about the benefits and pitfalls of online reputation management.

Profile pages
How can students communicate a range of skills and values in a Profile page, without writing in a way that is forced, embarrassing or self-consious. One strategy would be to write a short text that linked to a number of  particular posts within their blogs to demonstrate specific skills, strengths etc.

What next?
Students were interested to know about how they could be supported to experiment with available technologies but many had reservations about going public before they were ready. 

Ravensbourne attended the JISC E-Learning Programme Meeting on 11 Oct 2007 at Aston University, Birmingham. This was a meeting for all projects funded under the April 07 call and includes LIN-R. For full details click here.

The morning saw all projects participating in programme strand meetings where all projects in each programme strand. LIN-R is in User-Owned Technology Demonstrators. It was very interesting to see the other projects in our strand, in particular PADDLE and SPLASH. The following were present:

1. Isthmus - for older learners, adult and specifically Distance Education. This is run by the TALL group at Oxford University, and will use Facebook reservations by students as well as mail and possibly IM to promote interaction amongst students and staff.
2. Simple - Run by the Uni of Aberdeen. It's a transactional model of learning (learning by doing) using a web-based client and administration package that is envisioned to be applicable for all disciplines. It is essentially used for problem-based learning, with the s/w allowing tutors to create a structured scenario which the students use as part of the learning process. The pilot is used for legal studies for testing and evaluation, but it can be applied to any discipline.
3. Racing Academy - Univ of Bath. Uses the scenario of students driving a racing car in a simulated game to present engineering and science focused lessons. They are in the demonstrator stage and early indications are that it seems to be successful. Personally, I can't help feeling that it may not translate well into humanities or social sciences, as it is very much bent towards engineering/science.
4. MELAS - Uses a mix of Mobile texting technology and online access to create a data flow between staff and students for e-portfolios (PebblePad) and other teaching purposes. Tutors can write quizzes online, and students use their mobiles to actively participate in completing them. Text bundles are provided for each student. It is about to pilot.
5. PADDLE - Chester Univ. Web based learning, piloting data push of VLE information to iGoogle and thence to students. Uses ical, RSS, iTunes and the UWE learning platform. Contact Henry Blackman, project leader at h.blackman@chester.ac.uk.
6. SPLASH - Univ of Sussex. Envisages own homepage for each student, essentially a dashboard with RSS feeds from specific applications or websites. See SPLASH.

Out of the list above, we really need to be talking with PADDLE and SPLASH as they seem to be doing essentially much the same thing as we are, in that they use existing social software applications and services to promote student interaction, independence and reflection. We could learn from each other, and possibly, may even be able to merge projects to achieve greater results. I have passed the contact details of Roger and Miles to members of both projects.

All projects have been requested to pass their blog URL on to Heather Williamson, JISC programme manager for this strand, who will publish these to all involved.

The afternoon saw a plenary session on the TESEP project run in Scotland. This is very inspirational, and is a great example of real transformations in the teaching and learning in FE and HE involving three participating institutions. In essence, it is very much like LIN-R, in that it is based on pedagogy and pedagogic change, and aims to transform and enhance the student experience through these. It is about cultural changes, using technology as an enabler, instead of a driver. Key constructs are engagement and empowerment of both teachers and students, with a shift of control from the teacher to the learner. It is based on social constructivism, employing push technologies like RSS feeds and podcasts, as well as social software applications and services (Web 2.0). Senior management was behind this project from what looked like early on, and although it was a pilot, involving a small number of teaching staff across all three institutions, the results have been such that the model has been accepted for all three. Their results are what we are still attempting to do here at Ravensbourne, and we would be remiss not to look closely at their methods and experiences. See it at TESEP.

The project leaders are very open to speaking at other institutions about their experiences and results, and at present are very much in demand. I would suggest we contact them to see if they would speak when they are in the London area.

Further details are in the day's information pack provided by the organisers which has been passed on to the LIN-R project team.

The latest release of the social web-browser, Flock, is based on Firefox 2.x. Some useful extensions haven't as yet been updated for Flock 0.9.x versions. In particular, the Microformats extension Operator and the bibliographic extension Zotero won't install with current Flock builds. I've tested these extensions and they do seem to be pretty much compatible with Flock 0.9.x. To install them, all that's needed is a simple tweak to Flock's configuration.

• In the Flock address bar, type about:config to show configuration options;
• In the Filter box at the top of the extension list, type extensions.checkCompatibility to display this setting;
• Double click on the extensions.checkCompatibility to set it to false. This turns off extension compatibility checking.

No compatibility checking of extensions can do bad things to your browser if you install a genuinely incompatible one, so this is only a temporary solution until updated version of Zotero and Operator are released. Be careful with other extensions in the mean time!

For once, I was ahead of the curve. The Facebook developer platform has been launched with a great fanfare - Facebook is officially huge, and hip. It's hardly personalisation - just one platform - but I've got a feeling, when I sign into Facebook, I'm looking at a PLE.

I have to admit I've been on a bit of a social software jag. I've been a reasonably long-time Flickr and del.icio.us user, and I joined Twitter early on. Otherwise, I've not bothered that much - particularly with exclusively social-networking sites like MySpace or LinkedIn. Recently, Ruth sent me a LinkedIn invite, and I accepted, and, feeling it was time to lay claim to my 21st century, I signed up for a lot of other sites too.

I noticed that Facebook had some developer resources, for which you needed a Facebook account. Sites for the yoof can feel a bit cradle-snatchy, but, what the hell, I thought - I'm signing up for everything! Facebook plonked me straight in the Ravensbourne group thanks to my institutional email address. And, wow! Hundreds of Ravensbourne students (and ex-students) are signed up. Amazing. Take up is as good as the institutional VLE - and we force students to sign up for that.

Is Facebook the new VLE? I wonder what I can do with the developer tools.