Visual Communication Research 2019

This friday was the poster (visual reflection) moment. I had Lee as my 1-1 feedback person and I got some great feedback and encouragement from him to move forward with. Peer feedback:

Following up moments from the Xero grad night event ‘Xero Design - Wellington: Behind the Screens.’ Xero, 22 May 2019, Wellington, Event. 2 Awesome connections came out of this evening: I had a great chat with Peter Montgomery , the Creative Director at Xero, about my project. I sent a follow up message on LinkedIn that night, and have continued the conversation there. (He added his insights to the survey I'd made in week 4.) I also caught up with a previous mentor Kelcey Braine (Brand and Design Specialist at Creative HQ.) She got me in touch with a friend of hers who works as a design teacher in Wellington. Kelcey was kind enough to set up an email introduction and Laura and I have organised to have a coffee catch up Saturday the 8th June. 

Time to turn the page on education? It shouldn’t be so black and white. Not every shirt suits every person. And one size doesn’t always fit all. So why are we forcing our youth to fit in the same style of education?  Why are we putting everyone in the same classrooms, with the same teachers, and offering the same subjects. People think differently; students learn differently. So what if education was flexible? It’s about time we change the way we teach, to account for learning diversity. Students aren’t being inspired by class content. They aren’t being engaged, and teachers aren’t enabling positive learning spaces as they feel restricted by the current curriculum. There is a clear disconnect between what is taught in class, and what is required in the workforce, and most importantly, in adult life. NZ classes are allocated either by holistic ‘intelligence’ or completely randomly, not taking into account different learning styles. Teachers are therefore feeli...

What do I want to know??? Context questions: their teaching background Opinions context. What resources do they currently use? Success or failures? Can they see any flaws in my theories or ideas? Would they be interested in helping me work through my ideas as I prototype? Would it be a possibility for me to participate/ spectate in a professional development day at their school? Are there any coming up in the next 6 weeks? Do they have any networks or connections they could link me up to to further this project?

Last week at the Xero Grad event I bumped into an old contact in the startup world. I had a great convo with her about my project and she's been super helpful. She's got me in touch with Laura, a teacher who I've just begun communications with which will hopefully lead to some solid ongoing connections for this project. ‘Xero Design - Wellington: Behind the Screens.’ Xero, 22 May 2019, Wellington, Event.

Rapid Ideation Exercise: Random words Some sketch mock ups using random words as inspiration (Inspo words from left, top down: Circle, Broken, Light, Key, Book, Game, Bold, Book x2, Book x3, Water): These are the mini A5 sketch ideas I took into Karl Kane's friday feedback session. When going over these with my peers, we talked about the pros and cons of each. The bottom right two stood out the best, and we talked about combining those into one poster idea. When Karl came around to talk, he quite liked the 'lets turn the page on education' idea. His overall comments were: he liked the ideation process I went through to get to here, he liked the range of ideas, however he mentioned they all took quite a negative tone, they were all quite problem focused not solution focused. He proposed that the 'turn the page' concept would be perfect for combining a positive/ negative, solution/ problem contrast between the layered posters. I love this idea and will develo...

How to incorporate diverse teaching methods into education resource design: http://campusutra.com/ContentEvent.aspx?id=2908&name=62-teachers-both-private-&-govt%2C-from-across-the-State-will-be-felicitated-for-their-%u201cIdeal-Teaching-Methodologies.%u201d Could this teacher resource create a template structure for a story... that encompasses both learning lessons, as well as the different learning styles of engagement? How to create stories for older children in ways that don't come across as 'lame' or 'kidsy'?

Pettus, B. ’Justifying ART and Art Education.’ Create Art with Mrs. P! Blogger, 20 Mar. 2014. createartwithme.blogspot.com/2014/03/justifying-art-and-art-education.html Saw this poster pop up on my news feed today, really great summary of why creativity and arts is so important in education. And not just in the stereotypical visual arts classroom. My project is about creating teacher resources that help diversify class content. However when making a prototype it's probably a good idea for me to choose one class, or at least begin with one area from which to diversify. Eg, how can I bring creativity and other soft skills and learning styles into English?

Word count: 2853 Key Terms: Learning Diversity: Diverse student learners include students from racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse families and communities of lower socioeconomic status. ... A diverse learner is a learner who is open to all learning styles and has an open mindset to worldwide learning. https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-diverse-learner   learning Styles:  diversity in how people think- and therefore learn. an individual’s learning style refers to the preferential way in which the student absorbs, processes, comprehends and retains information. Individual learning styles depend on cognitive, emotional and environmental factors, as well as one’s prior experience. https://teach.com/what/teachers-know/learning-styles/   Creative Literacy: Creative Literacy is a method for design awareness in education, composed of a set of tools aimed at contributing to the development of creative thinking. https://www.google.com/   Student En...

'The diversity in how people think- and therefore learn. An individual’s learning style refers to the preferential way in which they absorb, process, comprehend, and retain information. Individual learning styles depend on cognitive, emotional and environmental factors, as well as prior experience.' ‘Learning Styles: All Students are Created Equally, and Differently.’ Teach: Make a difference, n.d. teach.com/what/teachers-know/learning-styles/ External link Swot Strategies Referred to as SWOT (“Study Without Tears”), Flemings provides advice on how students can use their learning modalities and skills to their advantage when studying for an upcoming test or assignment. Visual SWOT Strategies Utilize graphic organizers such as charts, graphs, and diagrams. Redraw your pages from memory. Replace important words with symbols or initials. Highlight important key terms in corresponding colors. Aural SWOT Strategies Record your summarized notes and ...

Use play theory/ game design to bring teachers together... Group environments can spark unique ideas, share insights, and overall reduce the workload. Benefits of the Collaborative Instruction Collaboration is a wonderful teaching tool. Teachers have the opportunity to assess and differentiate instruction for students more readily and they can learn new instructional techniques from one another to expand their teaching repertoire. Cooperative teaching experiences also provide mutual support and assistance for planning and implementing lessons, assessing students’ progress, sharing professional concerns, and addressing students’ learning needs. Most importantly, teaming allows more opportunities for students to understand and connect with content thereby maximizing individual learning potential. Considering the number of ways that team teaching can be used effectively in the classroom, it is no wonder that it remains a popular instructional model. Collaborative teaching allows te...

NCEA fees scrapped, literacy and numeracy benchmarks brought in “NCEA fees scrapped, literacy and numeracy benchmarks brought in.” 1 News now, news, 13 May 2019, tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/ncea-fees-scrapped-literacy-and-numeracy-benchmarks-brought-in Key Points: Level one of the NCEA will stay, and the number of credits required to get each level will drop from 80 to 60. students will not be allowed to resubmit assignments unless they are trying to improve from a fail grade. There will be a new externally-marked 20-credit literacy and numeracy benchmark.  The standards would be externally graded, to avoid increasing teacher workload and to guarantee credibility,  There will be fewer achievement standards for each subject, but each would be broader. "This is worth celebrating in itself, but also as a signal that the system priorities are shifting back towards student experiences and outcomes in practical ways, not just on paper," said  NZSTA Preside...

Hi, my name’s Ruth, I’m a student from Massey University working on my honours project.  I’m looking to design teacher resources that help the process of planning coursework, as well as making it easier for teachers to incorporate learning diversity into their classrooms.  I’d love to ask you 3 quick questions to validate my research so far, are you the right person to talk about this?  No:  All good, is there any chance you could pass me on to someone who could help? Or even pass on some contact details to call or email another time? Yes: Awesome! All right, so as I mentioned, my project is about supporting learning diversity in the classroom. I want to improve student engagement by helping teachers provide more diverse and effectively planned coursework. In your opinion, do you think there’s a need for something like this in schools?  So far most of my research has come from articles, reports and studies, but I’d really love to actuall...

Master, Game. “Gamification as an innovative approach to HR.” Playful Solutions, 2 Jan. 2017. http://playfulgamification.com/gamification-resources/articles/gamification-hr-innovative-approach/ Source: “Need help getting started with gamification?” Learning Experts, n.d. https://learningexperts.com.au/need-help-getting-started-with-gamification/ " addingplay ™ by Playgen  is a set of 52 cards designed to help you create games.  The fun thing about this tool is that you actually play a game to make a game!  There are four types of cards: Motivator, Game Mechanic, Victory Condition and Social Mechanic.  This is how the game goes: Pick 2 Motivator cards to define player motivations, i.e. the reasons people would play the game Pick 1 or 2 Victory Conditions which define how players will succeed Pick up to 5 Game Mechanics, which are essentially the rules of the game Pick up to 5 Social Mechanics to define how players interact with each other during...

Key Feedback ideas/points: Gamifying may just trivialise a very serious issue, be careful with the form of your prototypes. Chrome Toaster precedent Project based learning- giving real world application, understanding the  Really look into my idea of using students as part of the process- bringing them in and giving them autonomy and recognition. "School is the first step into the world."  -Samuel Pitcher. "Teaching something without students realising they're being taught."  -Ryan Walker. Perceptions about specific classes, eg 'gateway'.

A theoretical 'resource booklet/ workbook' planning out content that teachers would need in order to understand the problem, and then take action to change. I hate the cover art... needs to change somehow.

Source: Harris, Morgan. “Teaching High School Adolescents: Chapter 4 Intelligence Theory.” EDPR Morgan Harris, n.d. https://sites.google.com/site/edrpmorganharris/home/chapter-4-intelligence-theory "Intelligence Development:  Whenever we think intelligence, we think of how levels of intelligence are determined. At different points throughout history, particular psychological theorists have suggested that intelligence is primarily an inherited quality or, instead, primarily something influenced by children's environment. Both of these views have merit, as it turns out. Currently, most researchers agree that a combination of both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the development of intelligence." "One of the more recent ideas to emerge is Howard Gardner's theory of intelligence. Instead of focusing on the analysis of test scores, Gardner proposed that numerical expressions of human intelligence are not a full and accurate depiction...

Looking to find my 'teacher resource' niche. (Looking for base content to redesign) https://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/resources/course-design/designing-a-course/

Communication design can be used to improve student engagement by creating teacher resources that encourage a diverse and creative learning environment. (Secondary level) A recent NCEA review by the Ministry of Education has highlighted a number of issues, the need for greater teacher support among them. It’s well known (and researched) that teachers can make or break classroom atmospheres, yet many NZ teachers are overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated. So how can we expect teachers to create positive learning spaces under this immense workload and pressure?  The children of today, are the changemakers of tomorrow. But are New Zealand students being adequately prepared for the future?  Teachers aren’t being given the opportunity to teach to their full potential. They don’t have the time to pay attention to individual students differing needs, meaning that many students are slipping through cracks in the system, being forgotten and left behind with handicapp...