Month / January 2016

The reflective portfolio is the process of making a tool kit that I will use to help make research in the field of Design Education. The tool kit contains methods and processes for research and practice, and without this reflective making process (i.e. making a reflective portfolio), the the kit is without context or direction.…

Process of research (non-liner, can be cyclic, also can be very messy!) Reflective context “Reflective practice…is a framework that encourages reflection in different ways. Retrospective reflection – ‘reflection-on-action’ – is a critical research skill and part of the generic research processes of review, evaluation and analysis. ‘Reflection-in-action’ is a particular activity of professional practitioners and…

The following themes outline my approach to defining and applying the methods in this “Kit of Process”. Using these approaches helps me to establish a way of looking, and thus shapes the course of my research. They are part of the critical framework in which I make research. And it is within this framework that…

These methods and processes do not exist as totally separate entities. They can be used in combination with one another (i.e., in a workshop there may be interviews, documentation, mapping and drawing), there are crossovers (i.e., when a map or diagram is a drawing or a drawing is a map/diagram).

A literature review is a comprehensive study as well as an interpretation of literature that relates to a particular topic. The slides written for a lecture by Mike Waller and Steve Keril were really useful in developing my understanding of what literature is, and how you go about reviewing it. Pdf of the literature review…

Map as process: A map that is part of the learning process, or development of ideas, or a timeline. Clarifying ideas in Radical Pedagogies class. Design education students organise ideas, and as a result make patterns with post-it notes. Carl DiSalvo community design research (screen shot from “A short rant on the what and why…

“What was the role of drawing if not to evoke new possibilities? To open new readings, to provoke a conversation? To openly question, not to dictate absolutes to a reader in a synoptic sense! To actively pull apart the seeming ‘givens’ we too often took for granted, those perceptual padlocks that close the door to…

Making swatches is a way to mock up ideas, develop and prototype technical content, and have small examples in real space (without the work of creating a finished item). Swatches are used as: Language: to communication a technical idea “Sensor station” hands on engagement with sensors to get an idea of what might be possible…

Making ideas Rapid prototyping -simple making process to convey ideas. The making process becomes language, it is a way to communicate and idea, but also a way to develop an idea between participants or designers. It is a conversation. “Dream it yourself” is a making research project for with high school students in Boston. Through…

“[Cultural] Probes are collections of evocative tasks meant to elicit inspirational responses from people —not comprehensive information about them, but fragmentary clues about their lives and thoughts” (Gaver et al., 2004). I see value in the Cultural Probe as a method for obtaining textural information, and providing a sense of the complexity and subtlety in…

Communities of Practice are social spaces where learning takes place. Jean Lave writes about learning as a situated process, where learning stems from participating within the network of practitioners in a given community (Lave, 1991). Part of my research is learning about learning practices, and I will participate in learning with peers, young people, and…

Workbooks and sketchbooks demonstrate the design process through the organisation of ideas and research. In my practice a workbook has dual purpose and contains the process of making, recording, and reflecting. I make a log (weblog -blog) online in order to orgnaise and reference work. Weblogs are useful for: – Making sense of research: organise…

I love making interviews! I have found that I get a deep insight into the perspective of the people I am working with through conversation, dialogue, and feedback. The interviews I made for Radical Pedagodies were crucial in gaining perspective from students studying science and technology. Things to consider: – How do you reference or…

As a design educator a lot of the the research I make is event based, which means documentation is a key part of the research. In the context of my research documentation is storytelling. Documentation could be: Photography, drawing, animation, ideation, writing, model-making, and story-boarding. Things to consider: How the photos / drawing / obejcts…

Play as a way of research? Can research be fun? How does fun-ness in the research process to fun-ness in research writing or research making? Here are some things that could help to factoring in fun: Allowing time to play (i.e. take your time and allow other to take thier time) Allowing thing that occur…

I was going to make a zine that “instructs” the reader to question some of the ways we teach science and technology, ideas that I have explored in the past Radical Pedagogies. However, in the spirit of dynamic education I made short film of the making of the zine instead.