Visual Communication Research 2019

I’m looking to design teacher resources that help the process of planning coursework. I want to improve student engagement by helping teachers provide more diverse and effectively planned coursework. Context Questions: How long have you been teaching? 2 years Details on school + level + courses teaching? High school visual design teacher, personal interest in level 1 (year 11) Does your school teach with NCEA? Yes, decile 2 school, so more funding and smaller classes, but much much harder students to work with. Are you aware of the current situation with the NCEA review? What’re you’re your experiences and opinions working with this system, are there any changes you believe need to be made?  What’s the process when it comes to teacher resources- are they provided by the school, or do you have to source them yourself (is there freedom) (is there support) Curriculum requirements are given with NCEA, however creative freedom for how you want to teach, and...

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. 

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.

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...

Contact info with Ed Strafford: Notes from conversation + context of event On Thursday I went to the NZ GovTech Hub launch party at Creative HQ, there I had the good fortune to bump into Ed Strafford from the Ministry of Education. We had a great chat about how entrepreneurs can fit into the education space. Ed was an excellent connection to make. I also passed on some details from my peers also working with projects in education, and he's been able to link them up with colleagues from his network too. I plan to keep in touch, and will be having another quick chat with Ed next week.

Buckholt-Payne, Anya. “The Speaker Series: Our City Tomorrow.” Creating Places for People, Wellington City Council, 28 Ma r. 2019, City Gallery Wellington. Speaker Series. I went to a talk by the Wellington City Council: The Speaker Series: Our City Tomorrow, Creating places for people. From this I got some enlightening insights from Anya Buckholt-Payne, where she talked about making a better city for youth. She talked about the lack of engagement within school cultures, and how students weren't being inspired- and therefore weren't getting involved- in their education. They weren't investing in themselves because the majority of her peer group didn't feel represented within the world, which is reflecting in class/ learning engagement. She talked about student voice, and feeling " powerless and isolated". She stated that the conventional education environment needs to be challenged . Her observations cross over a lot into my project, and I've gotten i...

Today I had a catch up coffee meeting with Phoebe, (a mentor I've had in the past outside of Uni.) It was great to run over where I'm at with someone who has a fresh perspective, and getting some new ideas and clarification for the direction I'll head in now. We went over the research map I'd made earlier with Mark, and discussed the potential and flaws within each area. It was great talking it through, as it drew to light the parts that needed further research and documentation. Phoebe reminded me to go back to the original problem, to refine and develop this in the context of my new research, and then use that to prioritise what to do from there. I need to choose a primary objective, and have secondary ones as well. I don't need to throw away everything else I've been researching, but focus in on one section to prioritise and 'go deep.' We also discussed the scale of my project. So far my research has been quite broad, and as such somewhat vague. ...

Notes and observations from a talk by MK Haley (Professor at UCLA, Disney rep) On Monday this week, I went to a seminar by MK Haley, Professor of UCLA, and representative of Disney (experience design.) ' Innovation in the Experience Economy." She talked about how creating experiences can be an important part of any sales, business, or marketing strategy, referencing The North Face Campaign: https://www.adweek.com/creativity/north-face-gave-these-shoppers-vr-experience-suddenly-got-awesomely-real-167900/ . I've been inspired by her guidelines; guides (POV), gossip (stories), and games (interactivity) which respectively becomes; ' make me aware, make me care, call to action '. These three key points are what's needed to build a great experience, so how can I translate these into education? That's what I'll continue researching this week. (PHOTOS TAKEN WITH PERMISSION- AUTHOR: MK HALEY 2019)

Whitcroft, Aimee. “The Speaker Series: Our City Tomorrow.” Smart Capital, Wellington City Council, 14 Mar. 2019, City Gallery Wellington. Speaker Series.