So first interview didn’t go as planned as confusion between myself and the participant on whether it was in person or online! Fortunately, this didn’t cause too much delay as we were due to meet the following week so able to shift things back a week!
Following the tutorial on ethics, I decided to rethink whether to survey the wider school staff, which feels too extensive for this piece of research and I also feel like I may be putting my ‘head above the parapet’ on this topic I feel if I extend out to the school. Not sure why I feel like this, and it’s not really like me to shy away from rationale conversations, I guess because I’m new to the School and feeling my way with the ‘way things are done around here’…
I will undertake the 4 tutor interviews and then consider whether to run an online session with students on the PGCert to explore the topic from a student point of view. I have discussed with four members of the course who are willing to give their time but I’m going to make a call on it after I’ve done the comparative marking exercise.
Blog Tutorial – online session
Useful session thinking more widely around blog topics – in particular how we work or can create focus – in particular for me was interesting on how to get started, how to get focused, a discussion I frequently have with students and it’s good to reflect on how I am doing this myself.
Today I have brought myself down to the co-working space of which I am a member, it’s Sunday morning, totally quiet, no-one is here and I’ve given myself three focused hours to:
update the blog
prepare for next week’s research sessions with tutors
read two articles on AI and teaching practice
There are a lot of A’s in Samantha
We also did some activities around Mnemonics, again it’s a technique I’m familiar with to support students and my own children in their exam revision but it was new to think about it as a keyword tool or a way of triggering ideas for blog posts…
S – social justice A – artificial intelligence M – marking A – articulate N – nuance T – tutors H – hold-up A – academic
We discussed using these as starting point words from which to develop keywords or indeed to start blog posts – I’m going to extend them out to see where each one can be developed and then see where I can identify where to explore more.
We discussed how this might help us identify where gaps exist – I could have done with fewer A’s and an E for ethics – Samentha/Semantha!
In thinking about this gap it made me reconsider if exploring the ethical considerations could be more explicity addressed in the next interviews…. whilst I’ve always known that it was a core issue I don’t feel that I specifically explored it enough in my first interview.
KEY REFLECTION – what it has made me consider is whether to add some specific questions into my comparative research exercise around the issues of ethics – exploring how much tutors know about the problematic ethical issues of using AI or ChatGPT – most cite the issue of referencing and incorrect information however there are deeper issues around how AI has been developed, of particular interest is the paper by Myke Healy, Approaches to Generative Artificial Intelligence, A Social Justice Perspective where he explores the concept of digital colonialism.
I’m also experimenting with listening to Binaural Beats on Spotify to see if this helps with focus and concentration!
Update: I’ve moved from Binaural beats which seemed to just make me sleepy to a Focus Mix which is working brilliantly!
Shades of Noir Interview with William Whitcombe: The chaplain and interfaith advisor for LCF & LCC
I chose this article as I wanted a perspective that was not a student or teaching staff and it was interesting to hear his views that ‘faith, religion and spirituality’ can increase creativity and I would like to have seen this part expanded.
From my teaching practice perspective, we don’t currently specifically discuss faith and design however we do have students for whom their faith is the starting point for their design thinking and the projects chosen for their final projects. Religion and faith could be integrated as a part of ‘the human experience’ discussions and within the context of human-centered design which we cover in Global Design Futures or the Design Management and Innovation unit.
This would support William’s suggestion that arts educators can show ‘interest and a willingness to engage with the stories that students of faith want to have’, in response to this unit I have chosen to supervise two students next term who are specifically considering design projects connected to their faith and the Shades of Noir case study detailed below has contributed to both my confidence and interest in these projects and working with the students to understand how they see the connections between their faith and design practice.
Kwame Anthony Appiah – Mistaken Identities
This resource gave me some of the most interesting and useful insights however I was a little less clear on how it could inform my teaching practice, but it offered an alternative and previously unconsidered view on the value of faith
As an atheist, I sometimes find discussions around faith a little tricky to navigate at times. Key areas which resonated and gave me pause for thought were the idea that doctrine means little without practice and that increasingly doctrine is being driven by practice. In some ways this has parallels with creative, design, and arts studies, that it is through practice that we change, learn, and reinterpret. This could be an interesting discussion point, how does practice manifest in both faith and in creative studies, can they inform one another in any way? This could be a more ‘comfortable’ way for students to discuss their own and one another’s definitions of faith.
Kwame says that if ‘scripture can’t be reinterpreted then it cannot survive’ and that the idea of ‘one true way’ is used to both strengthen and defend doctrine whilst at the same time it is the basis of a critique of faith. That identity is constantly changing and being redefined is key to the survival of faith.
The concept of religion as a ‘verb, not a noun’ has given me an alternative way to understand other’s faiths and the value of faith beyond that which it gives the individual, the importance of faith in the community, and the positive impact it can have if practiced as Kwame Appiah describes.
Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education (Modood & Calhoun, 2015) – Secular states and public regions – Western European moderate secularism – The ‘vaguely Christian’ UK
The two articles on secularism explored the unseen matrix of religion behind our public institutions and making the hidden visible, arguments such as organised religion ‘builds social capital and production of attitudes’ resonated with me. There is a possibility that in a secular society, we assume religion has less influence on society and sits in the individual domain.
The funding of ‘religious schools or religious education’ by the state in all EU countries was new to me, however, I would question whether religious education and religious schools are so easily connected in this way. I personally feel the teaching of religious education is important, it encourages students to understand the ways in which organised religion connects with the fabric of the state and the public good or bad that can emerge from such a relationship. I feel this is an important educational principle and encourages critical thinking in a way that perhaps religious schools may not, where doctrine is taught and religious practice observed. In this sense, I would agree that RE should be included in curriculums of state education and therefore funded by the state.
This is further supported in the article ‘The Vaguely Christian UK’, where it is argued that there is a ‘thin grasp’ of religion’s place in British history and that religion is unevenly taught and disconnected from other important fields such as politics, and sociology.
Calhoun’s discussion around multiculturalism helped me think again about how race, religion, and ethnicity are often conflated, and how this might present itself in my teaching practice and my understanding of the students on the course (MA Design Mgt) where we have students from over 10 different regions of the world.
Key learnings/reminders
The way in which religion presents itself in the UK – ‘elite led official religiosity’ (think Coronation!) or debates around multiculturalism
The conflation of race, religion, and ethnicity
Extended reading: Shades of Noir Case Study | Faith
I found the focus on the role that teachers have in facilitating fair and equitable discussions, important and personally relevant. If a student does not feel safe or have confidence that the teaching staff can effectively facilitate in-class conversations around faith and how faith might influence their design or creative work this will both stifle debate, lead to a lack of confidence in the student, and impact on their learning outcomes.
It is interesting that the staff member felt the need to disclose that she was an atheist – the article does not give any context for the discussion that took place – was this in the context of an overall discussion about faith to which the staff member was contributing or simply an ‘announcement’ to the tutor group? Should this disclosure have not been made at all or, if it was in the context of everyone sharing, then perhaps a caveat, such as… “I am an atheist however I recognise and support your own personal faiths”. So far, I have never made any disclosure of my own personal faith or absence of faith
I am supervising two students whose final major projects are focused on Muslim fashion and the design of prayer mats, this article felt like a useful reminder for my discussions with those particular students, how to ensure they feel comfortable openly discussing their faith and the impact it has on all elements of their lives from fashion choices through to prayer rituals. I could use this resource as part of our opening discussions around their projects.
References
BBC (2016) Mistaken Identities, Kwame Appiah, 22nd October, (online video). Available from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z43ds
Terms of Reference Journal from Shades of Noir (SoN) Faith
Terms of Reference Journal from Shades of Noir (SoN) Faith
Modood & Calhoun, 2015 Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education
‘I’m not sure it’s holiday reading’ was my comment to our group having spent 30 minutes reading and processing the reading in our group session called Academic Attribution by Ken Hyland. I chose to read this one as it felt as thought it might offer a bit of a challenge, however I wasn’t expecting to find it so interesting and engaging.
I feel like there were a number of key takeouts for me:
The idea that the construction of academic facts is a ’social’ activity
That citation places your work in a ’body of knowledge’
The discussion around reporting forms in citations
The different use of reporting verbs depend on how, as the writer, you relate to the texts and authors
the message presented is always embedded in earlier messages
This was helpful to my practice in a number of ways, I think it helps my articulation of the importance of referencing, literature review, and support to students through their FMPs. Students from design backgrounds or different educational contexts may not have engaged with academic writing in the way we explain it in our course and I think helping them understand that their work does not sit alone but within a body or community of knowledge is an interesting way to explain this.
We also reviewed the Creative Attributes framework, which I was not familiar with, and found it a really useful tool for articulating the skills and capabilities that our students develop throughout their learning journey, I was particularly interested in the ideas of connectivity and curiosity. I sometimes explain to the students that approaching literature reviews through a lens of curiosity and exploration rather than as a reading list may help them engage more with their topics.
I also feel that some students do not really understand what we mean by literature review, it feels like a very academic term (and perhaps constraining, as literature leads to assumptions of books and texts – which is not really how the world operates now) and I think the idea of a contextual review better explains what is required.
Connectivity: the ability to… contribute to communities of practice
Curiosity: the enthusiasm to seek out new perspectives, to create and build on existing knowledge
I have not been exposed to the Creative Attributes framework before and actually feel it would be interesting to use this more explicitly in the course. If this is the language and framework to aid employability then perhaps having interim sessions with students to help them see how their learning fits within this and align their learning to the framework may help at the end of the course. An iterative ‘CV’ – so much is forgotten by the end of the course that capturing learning and experiences ‘as you go’ could be a really beneficial output for students.
I feel the language is more accessible, the definitions more clearly articulated and it is generally more inspirational than the current assessment criteria with which we are working – but that may be because it aligns more closely with the language of my practice.
I would like to understand more about the framing of the current assessment criteria and how this connects to the creative attributes framework and also how we measure students learning journeys at the end of the course.
When I very first started teaching (not at UAL) I was completely taken by surprise at the lack of joined-up thinking across the unit on which I was teaching. I couldn’t make sense of what the course roadmap looked like, how all the units fitted together and how my teaching needed to connect.
My very first contract was to undertake some marking with very little guidance or understanding of the course. I took the work on more out of curiosity and because I was interested in moving into higher education. When exploring the apparent disconnect with the course leader, I was told that it was for the students to piece together the learning, to connect the dots across various content. At the time I didn’t question or challenge this as I was new to education but felt uncomfortable about the quality of the teaching and learning that this approach created. I did not really know how to articulate this.
In preparing my planning and design case study, this topic came up again and I tried to find reading around the topic of disconnected curriculums (my own words for how it felt) this quote from Faculty Focus seemed to support what was an intuitive feeling for me.
Another reason why learning doesn’t seem to last long for many students is because they don’t see how each “part” of the instruction fits into the “big picture.” Teachers often choose to teach their material in discrete units for ease of course organization. This often leads students to compartmentalize, cram, and then forget as they turn their attention to the next unit.
Using Context to Deepen and Lengthen LearningTyler Griffin is an assistant professor at Brigham Young University
The idea that this is for ease of course organisation does not seem to support a student-focused learning environment. My experience at UAL is that this is less of an issue, however, I have only taught on one course and have a long and positive relationship with the course leader who is very inclusive with our team and encourages all of us to input to unit and course design and ensures we have a clear understanding of the ‘shape’ of the course.
However, this seems to happen by default due to personality and leadership rather than being systemised as part of ‘how we work’ at UAL. I am aware of teaching staff who have moved to other courses who still feel this sense of disconnect and lack of joined-up thinking regarding learning outcomes and teaching inputs.
On discussing my case study topic with Lindsay she mentioned the concept of a ‘hidden curriculum’ which is a new phrase for me. We also discussed the idea that this creates a sink or swim situation for many students, which has implications for inclusivity – some students may be capable of making those connections enabled by factors such as previous educational context or language, for others it will be much more challenging and may reinforce and exacerbate inequalities. I was interested in this idea of a hidden curriculum so read further about it.
I found Unpacking the Hidden Curriculum published by the Quality Assurance Agency and downloaded the guide for educators and will discuss with our course lead whether this is currently part of our planning, it may be covered in sessions in which I am not involved. I also feel it connects to ideas around cognitive load – if international students are navigating so many mentally competing situations and environments when they first arrive in the UK and at UAL, we could aim to reduce some of that through extra support on the hidden curriculum. I intuitively feel that this issue is probably the most difficult for them to navigate as it is, by definition, opaque and hidden!
The ‘hidden curriculum’ of higher education refers to certain unspoken ‘rules of the game’ about the norms, processes, and language of higher education that students are implicitly assumed to have but are not explicitly taught or explained (Hubbard et al, 2020; Semper and Blasco, 2018).
Unpacking the Hidden Curriculum – a guide for teaching staff
I followed up by listening to a podcast from the developers and authors of the guide, Pam Birtill, and Richard Harris, amongst the points made, were the ideas of confidence and cultural capital bringing advantage to some students. They discuss the idea that some students are ‘just surviving’ their university experience and that even by the final year of a degree some topics are unclear. This ‘survival’ mode can deeply affect stress levels and a sense of belonging which in turn can impact learning and outcomes.
Podcast note-taking
Reflections: I am currently unclear how much of the hidden curriculum thinking is explicitly covered in the Design Management course, and even if work has been done to address this, my own experience of dealing with students on a one-to-one basis in workshops and FMP tutorials would indicate there is more that could be done. On the DM course, 100% of our students are international, many of whom are living away from home for the first time and whilst they all have previous experience of university it will often have been totally different in the cultural norms and rituals that exist vs UAL / studying in the UK. Birtill and Harris discuss the differences between universities in terms of language, terminology and rituals and that applying a local context for their hidden curriculum guide is critical – at a university level but also at a course level.
Additionally, I feel I could integrate some of the principles of the hidden curriculum into how I design my topics or units, for example, checking understanding of terminology using padlet or whiteboards (for anonymity if students don’t feel confident speaking up) at the start of a teaching session
I would like to run a more explicit session on elements of the hidden curriculum with students at the start of my FMP supervision process. I usually ask/check if there are any questions but I think I could do a deeper dive to assess levels of understanding and make it a much more interactive session – again using padlet, asking them to work in groups to identify areas that are unclear or confusing.
I’m a big fan of visual frameworks for aligning, problem-solving, and enabling different points of view, `I use them all the time in my practice workshops and designing consultancy projects
In a deliberate attempt to develop new skills, I attended the Thinking through Drawing workshop with Ilga Leimanis FHEA . From a teaching point of view I wanted to attend a workshop that is totally different to anything I currently teach myself to see what learnings I may have for my own practice.
Ilga’s view is that too often we think of an idea and try to draw it, this keeps our thinking in the rational side of our brains. To unlock alternative thinking she advised we need to try not to think.. just do (it all sounds very Jedi) and see what emerges
As you can see I’ll never have a career in illustration (!) but accessing a different part of my brain around one of my work topics on the future of work design was enlightening and indeed gave me alternative thoughts on how to talk about tackling it.
the workshop
The workshop was online with approx 12 attendees. The steps that Ilga took us through reduced my worries about being able to draw, she made it very clear that the workshop was not about drawing ‘skills’ but about thinking and unlocking thinking. We worked individually for an hour or so as she guided us through various stages which involved inputs of words to help us iterate and develop our thinking, laddering through ideas.
We then moved to Padlet where we shared content, talked through our work and how we found the experience, Ilga then offered ideas and thoughts on how to develop the work further, in my case that meant not using so many words but perhaps using shapes in their place.
reflections
Ilga’s tone was measured, thoughtful and encouraging. This encouraged a relaxed learning environment where I felt confident to explore and less worried about comparing my output to the other attendees (all of whom seemed to be from either illustration or fine art courses!). I hope I deliver an encouraging learning context for my students but I do feel I sometimes rush through content, I would like to bring more ‘breathing space’ into the teaching I do, more reflection, and ‘ease’. This relates also to my other blog post on learning environments and time to think.
Ilga runs this workshop often and her use of the technology and smoothness with which that worked was evident, this in turn ensured she was relaxed. Her expertise in this topic was clear – a reminder of the benefit of testing tech and smooth transitions between tools used
At the end was a link to a very simple questionnaire to understand what value we had taken from the workshop – I would like to test using a simple Typeform survey at the end of some of my teaching sessions or perhaps a more engaging, playful way of getting feedback.
I’m keen to encourage my students to attend this workshop or perhaps use this technique when planning teaching to see what options it unlocks
“Object-based learning (OBL) is an experiential pedagogy concerned with the close and tactile study of material things, such as artworks, specimens, texts and artifacts… Like its historical antecedents, object lessons and object teaching, contemporary OBL practice draws its strength from the power of sensory experience.”(Barlow, 2017, p.27)
Barlow, 2017, p.27
first thoughts
On reading the Moodle brief for this exercise I had three immediate questions
1. what is object-based learning and why have I never heard of it before? 2. what constitutes an object in this context? 3. how could this be relevant to the course I work on?
As someone who feels the need to ‘ground’ concepts and make them relevant and meaningful, I needed to clearly understand in my head what a potential outcome might be from an object-based teaching session and I was struggling to see an outcome. In my professional practice, I work with organisations where the workshops I run are very outcome oriented and I’m learning that there is a mindset shift for me to make with regard to the difference between commercial facilitation and higher education teaching.
unlocking an approach
I read an article by Dr Francesca Baseby on Edinburgh Universities ‘Teaching Matters’ blog that offered a moment of clarity on how to structure the session and how an object could be used. Dr Baseby comments that ‘it is about looking beyond the object as a container of information (whether textual or graphic) and considering what its physicality can tell us about the context in which it was created, consumed and preserved’.
I decided to structure the micro-teaching as if the audience were students on my course. The idea was to teach how objects can be another way of helping them think differently about inquiry and design insights, this would be as part of the Design Management Research and Critical Practice unit.
Approaching it in this way meant that the object did not need to be connected to any particular topic – it needed to pique curiosity, prompt questions and then help the students stretch their considerations of what ‘research’ may consist of and encourage them to think about how to use objects in their own contextual research or as inspiration starting points.
The core thought: when we do research, we often have a linear process, starting with data gathering through to insight, inspiration and leading to a designed outcome, I wanted to explore ‘if we start with the designed outcome and think backward, what different conversations or insights might we open’?
My intention was for the students to learn one way of using an object in their research approach, to reflect on the usefulness of this technique, and to stretch their perceptions of what research might be.
designing the teaching session
My core design principles were as follows:
have clear learning objectives
give context
assess the learning from the group
choose an object to pique curiosity and create conversation to give a sense of fun and energy in the room. I am interested in the idea of playfulness in higher education as based on Lisa Forbes’s work and her findings that ‘play is under-utilised and devalued in higher education, and the idea of play seems to intuitively connect to object-based learning https://jtl.uwindsor.ca/index.php/jtl/article/view/6515/5264
I created a short PowerPoint deck to support the session as I wanted to be clear on the learning objectives, to ensure students understood what we were planning to do, and to give some context around how we do research and where this exercise might fit in that process.
Learning Objectives
I gave the session the name ‘Thinking Backwards’. Naming something can give identity, indicate purpose, and give meaning from the start, so I wanted to test if that was the case for this session.
To give some context I created one slide to demonstrate how we often approach research in a linear way, explaining we were going to use an object to reverse that process and think from the outcome backward.
Context of research practice
I then placed the object on the table. Without touching it I asked the students a simple open question “what do you think this is”?.
I was interested to see how the conversation progressed from only being able to view the object through to touch and a more sensorial engagement. So, I then invited the students to pick up the item, touch, feel, and build on their initial assessments, this created a different relationship with the object and we started to discuss what its purpose might be and what design inspiration may sit behind it
At this point I told them that the object was a product called The Ostrich Pillow, one student knew the object, but the others did not.
I then posed the following question to the group:
Group Discussion – around the table
This opened up discussion around insights and human needs, and indeed expanded out into more considerations about work & society, and I captured the discussion using a mindmap technique
To assess learning I had a separate question, in all honesty, this felt like a slightly loose and unstructured way to assess learning or value. I felt I had rushed my thinking on how to assess the learning – I was so relieved to think of a way to use an object that I didn’t give the assessment process the attention deserved.
Final assessment question
reflections / what I feel took place
I had some very insightful and useful feedback from my group, which was positively delivered and constructive, this feedback combined with my own reflections is synthesised below.
Overall the feedback indicated it was an immersive experience, partly from ‘teasing’ the item first, creating a lower-risk situation for exploration and conversation, and having a playful structure to the session. There was a sense of relaxation as no one knew what the object was and this seemed to have an equalising effect as the students built on each other’s guesses and suggestions and it seemed there was no risk in speaking up or participating. Additionally starting with an open question seemed to bring immediate contributions – the question was not based on students’ knowledge, simply a point of view.
I felt that starting with the learning objectives should help the group understand the purpose of the session and this clarity of aims and objectives was appreciated.
My concerns about assessing learning were realised, in that we ran out of time to address the final question, and feedback from the group indicated bringing this question forward would have been helpful. Finishing with a summary or key takeaways would have rounded off the learning effectively in place of exploring the final question.
Additionally, clarification on some terminology would have been helpful, I had felt this might be a concern and had included an image to help with the understanding of the research process which the group felt had been useful.
The object analysis did seem to open up both specific design considerations with regards to what human needs may have led to its creation, and also a more wide-ranging discussion on societal expectations of the culture of work, why a product such as this may be needed, and what that means for society?
what to do with this learning?
My key takeouts would be
building on the idea of play to de-risk learning, and to encourage more equal participation
continuing to simplify using visual language for concepts in line with theories on cognitive load
always include learning objectives at the start of each teaching session
further consideration on how to build assessment of the learning objectives a session into the design of the learning activity
with more time I would ask students to capture their own thoughts but in the interests of time I participated as a facilitator of the discussion as shown below.
Attended my first PGCert intro session whilst sitting in the French Alps on a family holiday, not for the first time I reflected on the impact of the seismic shift to remote working and learning, how it has both enabled balance of life and work and simultaneously brought other challenges around setting boundaries and not being constantly available.
It felt almost luxurious to have 3 hours of reflective practice, and my first thought at the end of the workshop, as I looked out at the snow and my different surroundings, was how had this different environment influenced my ability to process, learn and engage with the content of the session. I had felt relaxed, engaged and open to listening and learning from others.
We know that the digital / metaverse / phygital world provides many options for new blended learning experiences, however the reality is that I teach again in an uninspiring room, in a building not fit for purpose, and with the physical restrictions of tables, room layouts, etc.
How can this type of space stretch thinking, and inspire creativity and reflection?
Having recently visited my son’s new university with a £25m investment in a new engineering building, all the staff enthusiastically and excitedly talked about the design thinking behind the new building, the labs and how the lecture rooms have been designed to encourage group work, focus and healthy learning environments.
I have worked in the design of retail space and am a co-founder of a creative co-working space outside of London where we took inspiration from the writing of Nancy Kline in Time to Think and the Ten Components of a Thinking Environment to create an effective working environment.
With reference to Place, Nancy Kline says
Producing a physical environment – the room, the listener, your body – that says, ‘You matter’. When the physical environment affirms our importance, we think more clearly and boldly. When our bodies are cared for and respected, our thinking improves.
Thinking Environments are places that say back to people, ‘You matter.’ People think at their best when they notice that the place reflects their value to the people there and to the event. And because the first place of thinking is the body, it needs to be in a condition that says to us as thinkers, ‘You matter’.
In these ways, Place is a silent form of appreciation.
The question of how does the space at LCC say to our students ‘you matter’ is an interesting one. In the meantime how am I managing the space we have and myself within it to reinforce a message that my students ‘matter’? What can I do with the space that I have and the restrictions of that …
Shelia Ball takes Kline’s ideas and questions ‘in what ways does Kline’s Thinking Environment create the conditions for developing equity? What are the implications for education policy and practice?’ This got me thinking about power structures and the development of teaching spaces.
Further explorations around this topic in connection with academic environments brough up a Spark Journal article ‘A journey around my classroom: the psychogeography of learning spaces’ – the term psychogeography was new to me and the focus of one of the presentations in the workshop this morning. In this article the writers pose the following question
‘If it is common practice in art and design subjects to create a non-hierarchical relationship between students and staff, why are we still looking for the educator who supposedly holds all the knowledge and stands at the front of the room?’
I’m interested to think about this further, how in my own practice I can think about both the use of space in terms of a learning environment and connected with that how the use of space can contribute to a non-hierarchical relationship between myself and students. This is particularly interesting for me in my role as an AL – I often feel that as an AL I am engaged with the university for my content knowledge and less for my teaching and learning expertise. Therefore students do not tend to challenge or perhaps I am too directional in the way I approach topics.
Further exploration of this topic led me to a book called Bernstein, B. (2000) Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research and critique (Rev. ed). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, it appears this is available in the LCC library so note to self to pop in next time I’m at LCC and take a look
So.. in my efforts to bring small changes, this week I used music, playing the song Lovely Day by Bill Withers as the students entered the room – I could sense a slight surprise and a lightness in the room and environment as students filed in and connected differently with both myself and one another. It helped that the sun was out and the sky was blue! Reminiscent of my week in the Mountains before.
Definition of Psychogeography
Psychogeography is the study of specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals. (Debord, 1955
Debord, G. (1955) ‘Introduction to a critique of urban geography’, in Knabb, K. (ed.) (1981) Situationist International Anthology. Oakland: Bureau of Public Secrets
A good thing to be ‘forced’ into doing a blog. Have thought about it in the past but like many things has been pushed down that list of life things, curious to see what value I find personally as I espouse the benefits of reflection in many conversations with clients and students.
Let’s see.
Sam Barber, teaching on MA Design Management at LCC Curious to learn, worried about time, constantly reframing
