"cultivate a spirit of inquiry"

I have been re-reading Emigre No. 65, If We're Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants, What Are We Reaching For? Of particular interest is You Mean We Have To Read This? by Anthony Inciong. Emigre 65 was published in 2003, but this article reads as if it was written today.

On a holistic approach
"Graphic Design education, now more than ever*, must address the broader issues facing the profession. Amidst sociopolitical upheavals of late and ever-advancing technologies (for better or worse), it is vital that undergraduate programs take an holistic approach towards teaching graphic design that will surpass purely formal concerns in the service of industry. Educators must cultivate a spirit of inquiry within their classrooms that will transform their students into highly motivated and capable designers who are incisive critics of their work......"

On audience
"A foremost concern of many graphic design programs is that its graduates be well rounded and capable of providing competent, sophisticated service through visual language of design in a professional environment. "Service" implies that designers have a responsibility well beyond their own penchants and that to design for an audience means that they are communicating messages visually to and for a particular community of people (society) whose culture (way of thinking, beliefs) they inevitably influence. However, issues of audience and culture will not be a concern to students if they are not emphasized or brought to bear upon projects and lectures within the classroom......"

The author goes on to discuss the role of technology and the question of whether or not to teach it, pointing out that students may begin to believe that the "answer" lies in learning software. "There is a misconception among undergraduates that technology will solve the issues for which they are accountable. Sadly, that frame of mind is also content to eliminate the pleasures of exploring ideas through sketching, research and writing, all of which are part of the design process....."

On the point regarding the elimination of sketching, researching and writing, I wonder how much of the blame belongs with us as educators. Are we continuing to pile on more and more objectives, thereby reducing the amount of time to work through concepts all at the expense of exploration? Change is hard, especially in academia, where things move as slow as molasses (southern reference, stay with me).

Despite the 7 year old date on this article, I will (have to) remain hopeful that we can continue to s l o w l y broaden the scope of design pedagogy.

* i hereby vow to never again write: "now more than ever"

Pillows for A Good Cause

This summer my friend Rebecca, founder and designer of SOWN, asked a few designer-friends to participate in a charity event. Using her strategy, of using old feed bags, we all designed and created pillows. You can see my design and the whole series. The pillows will be sold at the Piecing it Together Foundation website.

Upcoming events

Gretchen Rinnert and I are in the process of co-writing a paper, Interactive Tools and Online Communities that Support Media Literacy. Our abstract has been very well received thus far, with acceptance to the MeCCSA 2010 Conference in London (January 6) which will explore "Media, Communication, Policy and Practice."

As well as The Society for Applied Learning Technology's conference (March 3) New Learning Technologies

We are hoping that one of these conferences will manifest an opportunity for publication.

from twitter

love it

Alternative formats for conferences

While at NC State I participated in planning a graduate symposium. Denise Gonzales Crisp encouraged our graduate class to keep the idea of a symposium in mind, versus a traditional conference. It took me a while to get my mind around what the differences really were as I had not been to many conferences myself. Now, as a professor, my time spent at conferences is increasing. What makes a good conference? And what makes a bad conference? Are there alternatives that really work? What do you do if one person from the audience dominants the conversation and what they have to say just really isn't that interesting? It happens. How do you balance speaking times? Pecha Kucha is an interesting option, but certainly doesn't work for everything. I realize I am posing more questions than answers here, but I'm at a hotel after a conference and my brain is in a fairly mushy state.

This article by Valerie Casey explores some of these issues in a more coherent manner.

Now to skip the conference dinner and seek out a cool local joint. I am 'conferenced' out.

Upcoming events

October 7th I will be presenting my research, Teen Independent Learning Online: Visual Literacy Tools for Assessing Credibility, to an Interaction Design class taught by Professor Rebecca Tegtmeyer at Michigan State University. I look forward to presenting my explorations regarding credibility in the online environment as well as asking the students some questioning regarding their own online research habits and perspectives.

November 5th I will also be presenting Teen Independent Learning Online: Visual Literacy Tools for Assessing Credibility, at the International Digital Media and Art Association’s 7th annual conference. I'm looking forward to the iDMa conference -- the keynote speaker is Tom Kelley of IDEO.

A few pivotal videos

During my thesis explorations, I came across many videos that helped shape my opinions, ideas and design work. It sure is a pain to cite videos in bibliographies!

Here are some of my favorites:
Sex, Lies and Photoshop.
Why magazines should let readers know if images have been retouched.
BY: Jessie Epstein

The 21st-Century Librarian
School librarians like Stephanie Rosalia have transformed into multi-faceted information specialists who guide students through the flood of digital information that confronts them on a daily basis.

Dove Evolution



Media Smarts:Kids Learn How to Navigate the Multimedia World
BY: The Edutopia Foundation


Eeny Teeny Maya Mo - Simpsons Episode

clip: 4:14 - 6:32

Teen Independent Learning Online: Prototypes

I would like to share my final explorations. Below you will find three videos simulating each scenario that constituted the project: Teen Independent Learning Online: Visual Literacy Tools for Assessing Credibility. I will not post the full text, but if you are interested please contact me.

Main Researchable Question:
How can online interfaces encourage students to analyze, interpret and judge the credibility of visual language?

Scenario One:
What aspects of visual language and originating sources inform and educate students to the credibility of information?

Thesis: Study One from marty on Vimeo.

Scenario Two:
What online activities encourage students to critically analyze the visual language they view, create or alter in informal learning environments?

Thesis: Study Two from marty on Vimeo.

Scenario Three:
In what ways does understanding the history of an image inform a student’s ability to critically analyze visual language?

Thesis: Study Three from marty on Vimeo.

I am currently taking a step back from the project and thinking about where I would like to take it. There was only so much I could cover during the 9 months allocated for this project, so I have many threads that need to be followed, untangled and explored.

transition

from jessica helfand at design observer.

"Your education will not end the day you graduate: on the contrary, what you're doing is learning how to learn, and how to think, and how to visualize the ideas that percolate in your brain. So here's what you do: never stop thinking. Never stop asking questions. Never, never stop reading, looking, imagining what else can be done. And don’t be afraid to start small. You’ll get there, eventually..."

Props to Microsoft, say wha?

Well, I never thought this day would come. I have had a typically infuriating day attempting to write in Microsoft Word. (This is not the unexpected experience) "No, don't make this a list!" "YES, just return, NO number! NO bullet!" Ok, so this probably sounds familiar to all you designers out there. This is not the software for visual thinkers. Amidst this torture, I was sent an email about an exciting addition to Microsoft. My brain crush, Danah Boyd, has just joined Microsoft's New England Research & Development Center. Danah has done great research in the area of teens and online culture (to name a few). Her research has served as a major foundation for my thesis work. It will be interesting to see the mark she makes at Microsoft.

After hearing the news about Danah, I was feeling better about my lost hours from my Word debacle this morning. And to top it off, I just came across a video called Microsoft Sustainability. It's a speculative video from Microsoft that is pretty amazing. So many ideas packed into this 5 minute video. You can see so much potential for education applications. I particularly love the brief extension in the garden!

Intercom Research Exchange

Today I will be presenting at the 2nd annual College of Design Research Exchange, Intercom.



It will be my second time to present in the Pecha Kucha format.
I made my presentation into a movie, so you can see what I am showing. I didn't include a voice over, b/c that would just be too weird. ha.

Pecha Kucha: Thesis from marty on Vimeo.

Graduate Research Symposium

This Wednesday, I will be presenting my thesis at the University wide Graduate Research Symposium. Here is the poster that I created for the symposium.

Paper Based Visualizations

Love the paper based explorations from Information Aesthetics


image pulled from information aesthetics

inspiration from a friend

i stole this from cady's blog. i had to....

Graduate Research Symposium

I will be presenting my thesis at the 2009 Graduate Student Research Symposium on March 18th. The abstract for the symposium was due today and I will share my poster presentation as it is completed.

abstract:
Online tools that assist high school students in determining credibility when researching online.

According to research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University, teens tend to rely on the look and feel of the presentation of information online to determine the content’s credibility. As design technology has become more available, average users can create content and websites that look just as “professional” or "trustworthy" as traditional expert sources. This issue of side-by-sideness becomes problematic as teens look to the web as a source for research and information, not just a social activity.

Many teens utilize the Internet for academic research because they desire the multiple perspectives it can provide. My current investigation seeks to develop online tools that assist high school students in critically sorting through the complexity of the visual presentation of online information. How can online collective research teach students to analyze, interpret and judge visual language and attribute it to the source and the credibility of information?

Researchers Shawn Tseng and B.J. Fogg state four types of credibility assessment used in the online environment: experienced (relationship over time), reputed (third party recommendations), presumed (cultural or media based assumptions) and surface (look and feel of information). One of the goals of my investigation is to incorporate these assessments into the design of online environments.

This investigation seeks to explore ways in which high school students can be prepared to critique the multiple perspectives that the Internet provides. While this project focuses on high school students, the development process ensures transferability to other age groups and scenarios.

Online Mind Mapping

This online tool would be great to use for a collaborative research project. It could also be really helpful for a fun collaborative brainstorming session between people who are not in close physical proximity. The interface could be better, but it works.

MindMeister

more explorations

last year i was encouraged to explore analog 3d modeling and i found that it works very well for me in the beginning stages of a project. i've picked this method up again this semester for thesis explorations. with nothing particular in mind, i started making things. i am interested in what credibility looks like, what it feels like and how you might interact with credible sources differently than with non-credible sources. i'm interested in making a users path visible, allowing them to visually see the connections as they move from one website to another. the connections are important; the journey and entry to information.

i'm interested in the relationship between 2d and 3d representations online. we are in a definite state of transition into a more 3-dimensional online world. exciting times!

the models are all very abstract and therefore i was able to project several scenarios onto each one. they served as a great point of departure for discussions in my thesis meetings.

rapid explorations

tonight i wanted to do some quick thesis explorations. i was curious to find out if seeing images at a larger scale might effect how i wanted to interact with them. i was also curious to see if the play with the projection and objects would reveal any formal ideas. i'm trying out new ways of sketching...

thinking:
what if you want to see the history of an image?
what if you want to get a deeper understanding of an image?
are there multiple viewpoints surrounding an image?
what if you want to focus in on one element and discuss it in relation to the larger context?






















i want to do more with multiple projectors to explore a user moving from one website to another, but that will have to wait for another day.
all images from flickr

words of the day

thesis thinking in the form of words and phrases:

assemblage
malleable
contrary
curious
critical
entering into...
lens
didactic vs intuitive
search path
relationships between
multiplicity of source
layered sources
recency
confusing multiplicity
credibility markers
fiction section vs non-fiction section online
proximity
evolving with user
alternate ordering
compound messages

Thesis Map

I've been working on this concept map for my thesis. I needed to get out the new developments and realizations from my reading over break. I wanted to show a scenario that I am imagining my thesis will operate in. Also, I wanted to make it clear that I am focusing on the different online environments in which teens need the skills to be critical when engaging with visual language. I'm starting to focus in on specific environments and consider the different ways of looking and interacting that are needed and used.