Students as Designers
In this lesson we experienced being student designers. Our task was to create a video summarizing the Design Principles that we learned in class. The experience allowed me to revisit the lessons, this time, not as a passive recipient but as a designer. In the article "The Creative Spirit Design" the author mentioned that "design is
the ability to imagine that-which-does-not-yetexist, [and] to make it appear in concrete form
as a new, purposeful addition to the real world” (McDonald, 2011, p. 54). The process of creating the promotional video taught me that: 1) as a designer it is important to have a clear picture of the end product; 2) designing involves constraints and limitations that we face in the process; 3) creativity and ingenuity makes a design exceptional.
Instructional design is compared to a game of chess (McDonald, 2011, p. 53) it is an intellectual activity involving constant problem-solving. The ultimate goal is to win and it can be done in many different ways depending on the nature of each moves. Similarly, a designer has a clear end-picture in mind, has the ability to mitigate losses while continually understanding the nature of the situations with all his actions governed by his individuality and level of experience.
The challenge for me as an educator is how to take my students to this level of learning and understanding. For students to be good designers, they need to have a clear grasp of the subject matter. They also need to understand the process of designing. This is where scaffolding is really important. Constant monitoring and immediate feedback will be beneficial if we want our students to be good designers.
In conclusion, I believe that every individual is a designer in nature. We do need to provide opportunities for students to push their limit and give their best. We also make adjustments where needed in order for students to be effective designers.
McDonald, J. K. (n.d.). The Creative Spirit Design. Retrieved from https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/blackboard.learn.xythos.prod/5a30bcf95ea52/6281652?response-content-disposition=inline; filename*=UTF-8''Creative%20Spirit%20of%20Design.pdf&response-content-type=application/pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20191111T050813Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIL7WQYDOOHAZJGWQ/20191111/us-east-1/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=3b89eb52a16d4bdd0eb4c64f7a3b9dc0708e0f78d7a255ea444127cadd073e14.
Instructional design is compared to a game of chess (McDonald, 2011, p. 53) it is an intellectual activity involving constant problem-solving. The ultimate goal is to win and it can be done in many different ways depending on the nature of each moves. Similarly, a designer has a clear end-picture in mind, has the ability to mitigate losses while continually understanding the nature of the situations with all his actions governed by his individuality and level of experience.
The challenge for me as an educator is how to take my students to this level of learning and understanding. For students to be good designers, they need to have a clear grasp of the subject matter. They also need to understand the process of designing. This is where scaffolding is really important. Constant monitoring and immediate feedback will be beneficial if we want our students to be good designers.
In conclusion, I believe that every individual is a designer in nature. We do need to provide opportunities for students to push their limit and give their best. We also make adjustments where needed in order for students to be effective designers.
McDonald, J. K. (n.d.). The Creative Spirit Design. Retrieved from https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/blackboard.learn.xythos.prod/5a30bcf95ea52/6281652?response-content-disposition=inline; filename*=UTF-8''Creative%20Spirit%20of%20Design.pdf&response-content-type=application/pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20191111T050813Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIL7WQYDOOHAZJGWQ/20191111/us-east-1/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=3b89eb52a16d4bdd0eb4c64f7a3b9dc0708e0f78d7a255ea444127cadd073e14.
Your quote about students making a "purposeful addition to the real world" reminded me of Renee Hobbs' thoughts in "Copyright Clarity." When students are designers, they certainly may create their own material, but may also create new interpretations using the work of others. Thinking about our group's project, we took what we knew about dating shows, found a theme song, and repurposed all that information to create our own meaning of the DDLS principles of design (with good scaffolding from Dawn, of course). Much more effective than taking a sit-down multiple choice test on the principles of design.
ReplyDeleteWe are teaching students for jobs that do not exists yet, think about that. When we educate students how to design they become the leader of their education...Powerful! The challenge that we have as educators is how to educate them to create their own content, not someone elses.
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