Friday 19 December 2014
Introduction:
I had thought I had done one of these introductions already but as I can't find it i shall make another. This was my first encounter with reading a blog, let alone writing one and I have to admit I was very resistant to it. However, somehow I've ended up strangely enjoying it. I'm not convinced I have done it correctly after looking at some other peoples but here it is : )
Ted Talk
I found this this Ted Talk by Ken Robinson about creativity and how schools kill it. I think most creative people could have probably told you this already. I guess it's good to reinforce the message though. I thought it ended quite positively but didn't really say a lot. I shall make an effort to watch more of these and in particular one from this same series as this was only a short one that i believe was part of 3 or 4 day event..
Explain Everything
Explain everything, from what I can see looks brilliant as a way of creating different types of presentations. If you are comfortable being creative, drawing etc then you could really do some great things with this. I think it's application as a tool for teaching is probably best suited for a younger audience. I can image be ing able to make great history and science presentation with this not mention the rest. For my self and my particular cohalt I don't see it really working. I do however, similarly to Presi, as an artist see great potential in this as very accessible way to create installation/video/performace art.
Pinterest
When I was introduced to Pinterest for the first time on the course it was easily the one bit of new ICT I had seen that I immediately thought could really bring something to my specific subject and the format in which is is mainly taught. I could see how personally i could use it to organise my different kinds of work from digital to analogue, design, research and through to presentation, fabrication and evaluation. What I really liked about it was it's format and physical layout. In particular the ability to organise everything with pictorial headings which for me gives me almost infant recall and recognition of what I'm looking in comparison to something like Moodle which for me, wether its to do with some aspect of my dyslexia some other element of my mind that doesn't compute it well, just looks like noise. Endless lists of things that look slightly different from each other. Navigating it at all literally makes me want to smash my computer up. So I felt there were legs in this Pinterest. The only drawback from me was that this isn't just an organisation and presentation tool. I don't like the fact it's as far as iI understand it all open to the public. I can see how that could be good for some people. But for myself it would stop me using it in the way I would like to as I don't want all of my best unused or incomplete art and design work to be in a public forum where it can be pinched. with regard to using it in the sense it's meant to be used this wouldn't really happen in my current placement. There are absolutely no interactive white boards and though I could connect my laptop to the large monitor we have on the wall and sit at a desk looking at the wall whilst controlling it through the laptop for some sort of presentation it couldn't be used in the way in which I'm mainly used to seeing educators using it. if i needed show slides and talk about them to the class I would rather use a slideshow on my laptop using the remote control which would allow me to move around and point at places on the screen and importantly i feel make a better connection with the students.
Prezi
Simple example I found online.
Preszi is another presentation tool, Its basic format consists of everything being on one potential very large image and the camera view zooms in and out, up and down and left and right etc... Some people love it some people hate it. Generally when ever I have seen it used it makes me feel duff, It's bait like being on one of those rides that make you feel like your moving around when your not and can make you feel quite sick or dizzy. For me I find it a distraction and it make it harder to concentrate on the information. That said I think it's a really interesting bit of software with huge amounts of potential. It's one of those things where the person directing it will make it work or not. If you just stick a standard presentation in it which give the impression of moving backwards and forwards 50 foot really quickly every three minutes you might end up feeling sick. I think you carefully however it could be really interesting. The first thing I thought when I saw it was that you could use it to brilliant effect for art installations. With regard to me using it in my current practice for presentations I would say it's pretty unlikely.
Spicy Nodes
Unfortunately Spicy nodes is not available at this time, It's normally available here
As it isn't I'll just recall it from memory, I believe Adam showed it to us as a class when his group are doing there presentations about alternative to PowerPoint. As I recall it was a fairly nifty graphical way of displaying information connected by "nodes" I had thought it was one of the more aesthetically pleasing presentation tools. It seem seems to me to be a way of essentially using the mind map format but with the interactive angle of bringing able to navigate physically around it. If I had to give presentations with a large amount of different pieces if information and wanted to particularly display their interconnectivity I would definitely consider this software.
Todays Meet
Todays meet is a free to use application that allows you to create temporary news feed style meeting boards. It has a very simple look and is very usable. It seems to me a really easy way to have a specific discussion going on for a specified period of time. I can see this being very as a tool that can be used with a class or a group or colleges. Such as the above example for just arranging logistics between a group in an casual yet effective way. I can see myself using this or a similar thing in the future. I particularly like it as it is a straightforward alternative to arranging things on Facebook which personally I despise : )
Reflective bubbl.us
Bubbl.us is essentially a lightweight but effective mind mapping tool that is available online. Is in't free but it is cheaper than some more developed software of this type. If you find mind mapping helpful then this tool may be of use. I see the benefit of digital mind mapping over analogue being that, amongst other things, your mind maps can become huge and complex whilst still being easy to read and manipulate as well as being able export them in to software such as Microsoft Word and have it reformatted in to a different shape, This can be great for writing large complex works. Personally in my own practise I already use MindView which though more expensive is much more comprehensive. Therefore personally, bubble.us isn't something I will use but I can image others using it to help plan and organise themselves.
Some of my examples of my positive use of ICT whilst on my placement:
I used both Photoshop and Illustrator in the making of my exercise
handouts for the teaching of this software. I also used the snipping tool to
create the screen grabs and screen shots. This was new to me as I have only
worked with macs for years however for my placement I had to familiarise myself
and work with the Windows OS, which took a little getting used to.
I was able to introduce the some new ICT into the module I
was teaching such as requiring the students to hand their work in digitally on a
flash drive. Until last year you had to print it all out, as I had had to, and
stick it in sketchbook. This both cost a lot and seemed counterintuitive to the
concept of working digitally. This also made it easier to mark as the work
could be seen as it was designed plus everything including all their additional
workings could be easily submitted and taken in to account as well as not being
effected by the issues of bad printing.
I suggested they use PowerPoint as a means to hand in a
series of images in a specific running order that could be viewed easily for assessment.
They weren’t required to submit it in a formal PowerPoint style presentation
but as they were not very computer literate at this point it seemed like an
acceptable option. I intend to continue to investigate some other ways they
could submit their digital work. Obviously they could use applications such as
Pinterest etc. but as this was the first significant experiment with using this
digital method I didn’t want to overload them with demands to get their heads
around programs they don’t know or haven’t heard of and can be resistant to. I
felt a softly softly approach would be better to get them on board.
When I do a similar program with the first year next term, as
they are a little younger and more confident I think I will be able to be a
little more adventurous with the ICT. As it was the group this term though
initially slightly resistant and out of their comfort zone initially they all
did well with some particular surprises. The conclusion I came to, was that
they were very capable they just needed to be introduced to the software and
encouraged in a certain way.
Another positive use was the fact that this past term I was
unable to interact with Moodle as I should be able to next term. As such I
couldn’t provide digital copies of the handouts to the students as I wished to
so as a workaround I used Wetransfer.com to send the files to the students.
This was great as unlike Dropbox there is no registering, It is very quick and
in the free version you can send up to 10GB each time. This meant I didn’t have
to compress the files and when I needed to could easily send large Photoshop
files that had numerous layers for specific exercises.
In addition to this I set up a specific email account just
for this lesson where the pupils could communicate with me as required. I feel
the introduction of these ICT methods proved invaluable.
My experience of mobile technology and learning:
As I have mentioned there is very little use of mobile technology where I am doing my placement but some examples of my using mobile technology which to me personally have proved very valuable in, taking pictures of mine and students work for reference, being able to send and receive emails and texts which is the main way I communicate with my students and obviously very convenient. Another thing that comes to mind which I’ve used more than once is in the absence of a connected scanner or camera, the ability to use the phone to photograph something, a page in a sketch book say and then immediately email it to the student where they can then almost instantly access it on the computer and open it in Photoshop for example. This is pretty handy when you don’t have cables and such. I've mentioned this elsewhere but also using my phone to record information. This can be audio, dialogue for example but also when I need a quick record of some technical information, settings etc. And of course any time I use the phone to access the internet to find a broad range of information.
Observations:
My first couple of days on my placement have been interesting to say the least. I don't think that my time in townhill has really prepared me for my time here. The time learning about white boards was not exactly useful as here they don't have interactive white boards and and the old fashioned white boards sit in front of very expensive large monitors that I believe can be connected wirelessly to any computer or laptop. something new i will have to learn about. My time with Cath has been productive and she is very positive about my ideas for taking an additional class or classes. I'm not sure yet how to proceed . I think it's essential that I speak to the students to firstly ask them what they want and then to present to them the benefits of improving their own core computer skills for the purposes of this course firstly and secondly for the purpose of promoting their own work which is crucial if they want to succeed in the contemporary art and design scene. We shall see how up for it they are.
How technology has changed the way we learn:
Technology, like education, is in a constant state of flux and always has, does and will continue to change the way we learn. Equally the way we learn and what we learn will also continue to inform technology. On a personal level technology has transformed the way I learn and engage with education. For example when I was 25 I made the decision to go to university, at this point I didn’t know I was really dyslexic I just generally avoided writing anything with a pen and thought I was bad at spelling. The letter that I wrote by hand to apply to the university took me around three weeks to complete. This included showing it to people and editing it numerous times to make it sound as less mental as possible. It wasn’t a long letter and a normal person probably could have knocked it out in about an hour. After being assessed and getting statemented the following year, which allowed me to discover the particular flavour of dyslexia I have and how it impacts my ability to write and consequently how I can overcome this (use a keyboard to type not a pen). The result was that a year after writing that letter I was able to write, using a laptop, a 3000 word synopsis of the history of stained glass off the top of my head in two hours as some additional notes for a module. This probably doesn’t seem a lot by other people’s standards but for me it was totally life changing. I discovered I actually enjoyed writing as apposed to the experience it had always previously been using a pen where my prose always broke down to “the cat sat on the mat” it was liberating suddenly being able being able to see my thoughts and ideas written down as they were and not bastardised. In addition to this I learnt to record lectures, more often than not using my phone. I used MindView (mind mapping software) to organise myself and read and write text reading software. Another significant way technology has changed the way we/I learn is of course the Internet. Nearly everything I’ve learnt in the past 5 years has been through this medium. I can’t underestimate how much I’ve learnt this way I find it highly successful. I "would rather learn over the internet and get more individual attention from instructors in online courses" (Pallof and Pratt, 1999). I find them much more effective for me than traditional classroom learning. it includes among other things; using Photoshop, Illustrator, SketchUp, Rhino, Word, rejigging my mac, taking it apart, servicing it, replacing components, similarly completely taking apart and repairing at least 10 different types of mobile including iPhone 3G/3GS/4/4S. Completely taking apart my MTB's and rebuilding them, Taking apart a motorbike engine and parts of my truck, various vacuum cleaners, cooking, propagating plants, learning guitar and saxophone. It’s endless really and definitely represents the most amazing change to the landscape. All around the world it enables people to learn things they could never have dreamed of only a short time ago. I do slightly live in fear that this may not always be an option and that a time may come when I look back at this sweet spot where so much was available to so many people but in the end everyone just wanted to watch films and buy stuff and we blew it. It definitely makes me think I need to make an effort to contribute to it and not just rely on the efforts of others. I digress.
The Value of mobile technology in teaching and learning:
When I was at school the concept of mobile
technology and learning consisted of a very heavy computer on a trolley. Much has changed
since then, "Mobile learning has left the status of a new born child" (Frohburg, 2006) and though we haven't yet all been composted buy our biomechanical overlords
we have achieved a level of communications technology that would have impressed
Captain Kirk. My own experience, that of having a laptop, has been largely
transformative in allowing me to capitalize on my inspirations, as and when they
take hold, and greatly increase my productivity. With regard to current
developing practices I have little to no experience having only today engaged
with a QR codes. It seems to me that the hardware has now got to a point where,
however briefly, the limiting factor is currently the human, be it the software
designer, end user or more likely the facilitator. We're less limited by
storage capacity, processing power, accessibility etc. All of which, on the
whole, continue to increase at a pace that is greater than the users demands of
them. That’s not to say that everyone has access to the best of what is
available but on the whole with regard to technology within education and more
importantly the software, which is in its infancy, we're almost at a point
where educational tools can start to be rolled out and incorporated in to education on a
wide scale. The mobile phone is now the single piece of pervasive technology
that people from all socio economical backgrounds have and with that
access to an increasing plethora of applications. I understand that one barrier
currently is that most schools and collages, where you would image there is
maybe the greatest potential for mobile technology being successfully
incorporated in to teaching and learning have no phone policies in classes or
at best inconsistent policies. All which make harnessing the potential of the
technology more challenging. It would seem to me that this is largely due to
the fact that the proximity of the student, the educator, the technology and
the learning environment, though potentially a recipe for accelerated learning
didn’t come together as part of any kind of plan and therefore the potential
for time wasting and inefficient experiments is reasonable as the different
parts of the equation find themselves in this situation. I have a feeling that
the best practice is going to occur with the youngest students and educators
and it will be them that set the president for best practice. I think its
possible that when the 5 year olds of today are 16 the way they will interact
with technology in the educational environment will be as different as a 16
year old today compared to when I was 16. The technology will possibly have
moved on by the time the current educators have worked out how to work with
today’s set of circumstances. Maybe you wont have a desktop computer or a phone
or a laptop. Screens might just be incorporated in to most of the things around
us and as you move around your “desktop” or “homepage”, as it were, would just
follow you around.
This is a pretty interesting paper on Mobile learning
Barriers to the effective use of technology in education:
Taking the problem of not physically having the said
technology in the first place, due to a lack of financial resource, as a given
barrier. I think there can be quite a few further factors that can cause
technology, when in place, to be used ineffectively in education. The following
are some of the barriers I have experienced as a student and more recently on
my present teaching placement.
The technology not being fit for purpose:
With regard to the equipment available as an undergraduate in my second year, "essential requirements" (Maier and Warren, 2000) such as the computers we had
access to weren’t fit for purpose. As students we had to use Photoshop
and Illustrator for aspects of are work but the computers were so old and slow
that it made doing even the simplest task frustrating. We would be told to turn
them on an hour before “the lesson” started as they literally took this long to
boot up and you could forget about doing any kind of complex rendering unless
you wanted to spend hours sat there waiting doing what on a reasonably good
computer would take seconds or at worst minutes. This seriously handicapped the development of
the students concerned with regard to their digital skillset which as an artist
in 2012 was no small thing including the preparation of files for laser cutting
and water jet cutting various materials including glass.
Insufficient knowledge or an unwillingness to share that
knowledge:
If the educator’s knowledge of the technology being used is
poor it is likely to have a negative impact on the students learning. During
the same period as mentioned I found that the educator was unable to answer
many questions about the software we had to use and we were very much just left
to sort of coast along with very little direction. This resulted in the
students who had the most prior knowledge essentially teaching the students who
had little or none and themselves learning nothing in the classes. On the whole
this approach led to little innovation from the majority of the students and
the potential of the digital aspect of their studies was essentially wasted, a view supported by (Leask, 2001) who states "When teachers disengage from the the use of technology and leave pupils to use it and teach each other how to use it, the potential for enhancing learning drops away steeply". I
think sometimes if an educator is not confident or has gaps in their knowledge
they can sometime be unwilling to engage for fear of that being exposed as they
feel they shouldn’t. I can understand this point of view but I think ultimately
it’s a bad way of dealing with the problem. We all continue to learn and
increase are knowledge base but to have an expectation to know everything about
a subject is unrealistic and arrogant and even more so when it come to ICT as
it is continually developing and requires keeping up to date with the relevant
aspects of it. That said I feel that when a student does ask me something I
don’t know I’m ok saying that I don’t know but that I’ll make a priority of
finding out for when I see them next, I think they appreciate the honesty.
Different educators with contradicting approaches:
This was something that happened to me whilst on placement.
As I’ve mentioned above previously the digital visual studies lessons were
quite unstructured and relied more on the students just trying to work it out
with minimal instruction. When I designed the scheme of work for this year I
chose to have a more structured type of lesson very much like the style of the
second micro lesson I did for the PCET, though much longer being three hours.
This included as a main element a concise handout with detailed instructions,
which included relevant screen shots of exactly what they should be seeing in
front of them, in this case the Windows OS version of the software as the students
would be working on PCs. Two thirds of the way through this scheme of work it
was necessary for the previous educator to take one of the classes for which
they now prepared a handout. However this handout was done in very different
style. The screen shots weren’t very helpful and they were from a mac so they
looked different which is ok if you can tell the difference but you have to
take in to account that this group of students has a wide spectrum of abilities.
There ages range from about 20 -70, a few of the students have some experience
of Photoshop a couple of them almost need help turning the computer on, there
are quite a few dyslexic students and a couple with quite significant learning
disabilities and some mental health so a real range. As it goes they have all
done really well and been able to rise to the demand of the exercises but with
some of the students that change in approach of the educator for just one
lesson had a negative impact on there learning experience. (Reece & Walker, 2007)
Timetabling and apportioning appropriate time:
In previous years the digital visual studies module was just
tacked on to the end of the life drawing class. This meant that students, after
standing and concentrating in silence for two hours life drawing would then
have a third hour where they are expected to learn (teach themselves to use) Photoshop
and illustrator. Obviously this didn’t work very well with regard to the
digital work for several reasons. Their ability to concentrate and learn new
complicated software after two hours of concentrating on life drawing was pretty impaired. Also when combined with the fact that the life drawing was
very structured and focused by the educator and then the same educator stood
back more with the digital drawing maybe fostered an attitude that the digital
aspect was not very important. Fortunately this year things seem to be turning
around and the timetable was changed with digital and life drawing being
separated which has made a considerable difference and there is a definite
sense that the digital module is exactly just that which make the students take
it much more seriously.
All of the above mentioned barriers have mainly been removed
this year and the contrast in the students output has been significant, I feel
the educator’s own knowledge of the technology is paramount to it successful
incorporation.
Maier, P & Warren, A., 2000. Integrating Technology in learning and teaching:A practical guide for educators. Kogan Page Limited.
Leask, M.,2001. issues in teaching using ICT. RoutledgeFalmer.
Reece, l. & Walker, S., 2007. Teaching, Training and Learning: A Practical Guide. 6th Revised ed.
s..:Business Education Publishers Limited.
Wednesday 1 October 2014
QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) and Aurasma:
I had heard of QR codes and applications similar to Aurasma (an augmented reality application) before but not yet engaged with them. This is my first attempt, though the content is irrelevant the functionality is apparent. I think these tools, used wisely, have great potential in the field of education and I can immediately think of of some situations where these could be used. For example in the workshop where documents containing instructions and technical information for equipment can be hard to find or go missing. This would allow a student who needs to be reminded, for instance, what the fusing temperature of float glass is to rapidly find out and simultaneously have a record of the information. This is information that the student will have already been told and should probably know but people forget these details after a long break from practice. This will allow them to quickly find out the information and continue with the work at hand without having to stop and find a technician and taking up their time. Additionally having to ask staff can sometimes put people off the task at hand leading to the pupil avoiding the technique. This technique should not replace the technician but aid them to increase the overall volume of information available to the student.
Try scanning it with a QR Code Scanner and the Aurasma Ap
Monday 22 September 2014
Blog Review:
Review of sculptorandsculptureblogspot.com
Layout.
The layout of this blog is
easy on the eye but quite simple. The posts are distinct but some are repeated
in a side menu that have no titles but share the same picture. A search bar
would have been helpful but there is a concise list of categories on the left
and above this there is a good list of additional blogs and resources.
Photos.
The qualities of the
pictures on “Sculpture and Sculpture” are very good and appear to be, on the
whole, of a professional quality. Being a blog about sculpture the quality of
the photography is fundamental and on this point they have been successful, the
images are vibrant and engaging.
Background.
I like the clear
background. I think this allows the different subjects to be seen in a good light. There is no
confusion to the presentation. The viewer can, at a glance go, straight to their
choices.
Text& Comments
The information is very
informative. However there are no references or links. The author runs through
the various artists’ career and lives as if reading from a gallery hand out,
with his own words. The delivery is clear and easy to read. The author may have
missed critical points in the artist’s career (Serra, Tilted Arc). There are
also some unusual uses of words, in describing an idea, in this same article.
This may not be very distracting to the general viewer, but may point to a
weakness in the content of the Blog’ information.
http://sculptorandsculpture.blogspot.co.uk/
http://sculptorandsculpture.blogspot.co.uk/
Microsoft applications
The main MS applications I use are Word and Powerpoint. I have had to use these at Uni and have only used them minimally but they have proven to be useful. I find them fairly user-friendly but ultimately barely know how to use them. Recent knowledge of Words ability to compile and place my references has come as a pleasant surprise, as has the fact that this feature is not available on the mac version, thanks Microsoft.
Wednesday 17 September 2014
Technology
I have a smattering of tech. I design on the computer a lot and usually use a digital stylus, laptop and external monitor. Apart from my phone I don't really have any other digital tech.
Tuesday 16 September 2014
The digital tsunami:
It can seem sometimes that
we are drowning in a sea of digital functionality that for millennia we have
not had need to engage with. As with most new technology what initially
promises to save us time, money and improve our quality of life can sometimes have
a sting in the tail. Never the less now is a good time to learn to swim : )
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)