art, design, history of art, history of design and media in higher education carolyn bew, academic...

Art, Design, History of Art, History of Design and Media in Higher Education

Carolyn Bew, Academic DeveloperDebbie Flint, Academic Developer


“How can e-learning enhance the potential of the art, design and media environments in which learning and teaching takes place?”

Current E-Learning project


How addressed?

• Survey

• Focus group research

• Case study research (small-scale development projects)

Findings and recommendations December 2006


Case study

• BA Graphic Design, specialist institution, North of England

• The impact of integrating specialist technologies into Graphic Design studio spaces– data projector and laptop– Macs– Internet access

• Opinions of tutors, students, and technicians• Observations of technology use


Research Methodology

• One-to-one interviews with lecturers (full and part-time, in a range of specialisms including illustration, editorial design and typography)

• One-to-one-interviews with students (BA Hons. Graphic Design, all three years)

• Observations (18 hours of events, at varying times)


Data projector and laptop

Perceived advantages

• Enables use of digital visual resources (easy, cheap, quick, contemporary)

• Potential to contextualise learning• Flexibility• “You can see more.”• Encourages staff to digitise resources


Data projector and laptop - potential to contextualise learning

“Each project we do now, by and large we have a digital projection to contextualise what we’re doing.” - Tutor comment

“There’s always some background stuff as well as ‘this is what you’re doing’. The technology has been used to get our interest in what the project is about…the research, background and preview work.” - Student comment


Data projector and laptop - flexibility

“It’s just much more flexible in terms of workshops where we would be bringing things in and showing them.” - Tutor comment

“The same method of slide projection can be used to support a lecture, or to display student work in an informal peer assessment. It has overcome practical issues and improved opportunities for all students.” - Tutor comment


Data projector and laptop - flexibility

“We had a pragmatic problem in crits because one student would talk to the group and show moving image work. Then we found there was a disparity in impact. If you project stuff with sound and moving image compared to a small illustration on paper it doesn’t have the same impact. So what we started doing was showing everything on screen” - Tutor comment


Macs

Perceived advantages / disadvantages

• Home/college?• Changed environment• Access to specialist software


Macs - home/college?

“If they weren’t here I would probably spend more time at home doing my work on the computer at home. In that sense I am quite reliant on them.” - Student comment

“I’ve done more work on my PC at home because I’m used to PCs rather than Macs.” - Student comment

“You tend to think you don’t need to come into college, because you have the computer at home and you can do it there. Now I tend to come into college every day. Because as well as not having the Internet at home, it’s just better to be around other students.” - Student comment


Macs - changed environment

“If you went into a studio fifteen years ago there would be drawing boards everywhere and pots of paint, and collages stuck on the wall, and very experimental, tactile things. And to some extent that’s what we’ve sacrificed with the advent of Macs in the studios.” - Tutor comment

“White wall, white computers, grey desks. I would like to see a bit of colour. I suppose it’s our fault as well, we could decorate it. I think people just can’t be bothered putting stuff up when they’ve got stuff to do. I think most people put stuff up when they want to look at work in progress, but other than that it is quite bland in here.” - Student comment


Internet access and virtual learning environment

Perceived advantages / disadvantages

• Research opportunities– The here and now– Access to professional world– Tutor directed?

• Communication


Internet access - research opportunities - the here and now“I don’t have a problem with free access to the internet. I get a little bit frustrated when research begins and ends on the Internet because we have a fantastic library that’s really underused.” - Tutor comment

“The old problem with graphic design was the time lag between the book and the practice now. So you’d have to go and read Creative Review, and you’d get a small insight into what was happening, because books by the time they go to print are always five years out of date anyway… So I think the more tuned-in students now are far more informed about what’s going on in the here and now than people of our generation were.” - Tutor comment


Internet access - research opportunities - the professional world

“I know that students use the ‘blog’ system, uploading stuff to news groups and chatting to designers, I know they find that very useful.” - Tutor comment

“Every graphic design company has their own website these days, so it’s good for looking at what’s there already as well.” - Student comment


Internet access - research opportunities - tutor-directed

“There are some great teaching resources on the web, primarily other companies and what they’re doing. We have found some quite good examples of more tutorial / teaching based sites, but we don’t really use those as part of the teaching process. We tend to direct students towards good practice.” - Staff comment

“I was talking to the tutors the other day, because I was trying to do an action on Photoshop, but I didn’t know how. So rather than them telling me what to do they said go on to the Adobe site and search for actions. It will come up with an explanation of how to do it.” - Student comment


Internet access and virtual learning environment - communicationInterestingly, frequent student attendance seems to inhibit the use of email, and noticeboards remain the primary means of course communication.

“We could send stuff on a weekly basis at no effort and no expense.”- Staff comment

A VLE would “reduce the different strands of communication and centralise them. So questions like ‘do you have a copy of the brief?’ would be cut out. It wouldn’t save much time but the impact would be quite high.” - Staff comment


Conclusions - primary benefits of engagement with new technology• Access to the ‘here and now’ - access to ‘current’, ‘up-to-date’ and ‘contemporary’ materials, expertise and interactions relevant to the Graphic Design subject area

• A view of knowledge as distributed across and beyond the immediate context appeared to be prevalent… the permeability and responsiveness of the curriculum to wider influences is an accepted feature.


Conclusions - the integration of virtual and physical studio spaces

• Tutors believed the integration expanded the potential of the learning environment.– Enabled more flexible use of space and supported more diverse

learning and teaching activities

• Observation suggested that studio ‘inhabitation’ had increased with students making use of the available technologies


Contact:

Centre AdministratorADM-HEAUniversity of Brighton68 Grand Parade, Brighton, BN2 9JYEmail: [email protected]: www.adm.heacademy.ac.uk

Carolyn [email protected]

Debbie [email protected]

art, design, history of art, history of design and media in higher education carolyn bew, academic...

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