Educational Insights
(Asynchronous - Online Only)
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Empowering the Visually Impaired: A Collaborative, Interdisciplinary Approach for Design and Engineering Students View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lisa Winstanley, Lay Tan, Peer M. Sathikh
University graduates are increasingly expected to develop an exponentially broader skill set in order to effectively traverse dynamic social, cultural, and professional landscapes. Thus, educators should also aim to re-contextualize pedagogical approaches with a view to empowering students with the relevant knowledge and skills being demanded by industry. It was with this in mind that an undergraduate design thinking curriculum was developed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration between students and faculty of the School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) and the School of Material Science Engineering (MSE) at Nanyang Technological University. The overarching aim was to equip students with a human centric, multimodal skillset, relevant for the demands of transitional post covid industry. Working alongside a local NGO, Etch Empathy for The Blind, students were tasked to develop innovative solutions to empower the visually impaired community in Singapore. The course aimed to create an optimum environment for undergraduate, design and engineering students to collaborate and in doing so, put forward an active learning, design thinking framework for inclusion, empathy and the making of real human connections. This paper positions this interdisciplinary, collaborative pedagogical approach as a pragmatic and adaptable lens from which to aid the development of innovative, empathetic solutions to real world, wicked problems.
Design Processes Guided by Indigenous Knowledge: Making Whanaungatanga, Authentic Connection, the First Step and Rangatiratanga, Self-determination, the Output
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nan O'Sullivan
While Aotearoa, New Zealand’s design prowess impresses globally, the indigenous knowledge that has, for centuries, also driven Aotearoa’s innovative practice, has yet to be recognized for its ability to impact some of society’s most significant concerns. This paper acknowledges the wisdom extant within indigenous cultures and the value of it to design’s capacity and capability to impact positive social change. Current uses of design thinking may speak to inclusion and empathy, but more often than not this process facilitates ‘designed’ outcomes ‘for’ clients. Moving away from solutions that are ‘design by’ outsider experts, to one of ‘designing for’ others, this study highlights alternative approaches informed by te ao Māori, the Māori worldview. This study asserts that a shift away from the influences of Euro-American models and methodologies, so entrenched in design education today, can be guided by tikanga Māori, (Māori values), enabling decisions to be placed in the hands of those who have the experience and feel the impact most. This study, promotes rangatiratanga (self-determination) as a design output and suggests to achieve this the methodologies and mindsets used in design thinking, participatory and co-design require redress and rethinking. This research offers options for and examples of this recalibration and suggests authentic connections (whanaungatanga) as a key driver for a new generation of designers with a nuanced appreciation and respect for indigenous knowledge and who will demonstrate the skills and courage to engage manaakitanga (respect and generosity), akoranga (reciprocity) and rangatiratanga (autonomy) as strategic values of design.
Barriers to Change: Faculty Change Readiness and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Brian DeLevie
Design programs (DP) are in a period of immense disruption due to student demographic changes, economic pressures, and approaches to student learning. These swirling forces are driving DP to consider and pursue systemic organizational changes to fulfill their missions and remain financially viable. Historically, DP has pursued missions and curriculums that embrace multicultural paradigms that promote inclusivity and produce graduates who serve the economy and as social agents and activists. However, through privileged hegemonic pedagogy, these same entities have perpetuated "symbolic racism" that denies existing racial inequality patterns and sent implicit messages to minorities about what constitutes valid knowledge and who are the dominant classes. Organizational change is a process that each DP has to undergo to meet changing expectations and reach meet its stakeholders' expectations. The success of change efforts within higher education rests upon an individual faculty's attributes (e.g., beliefs, values, attitudes) and the change context. By developing a better understanding of the variables affecting change readiness among faculty in response to impending equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) change efforts, DPs may better plan for and implement necessary change efforts. This paper examines how the concept of change readiness can be used as a lens to understand faculty's responses to EDI and better equip administrators in implementing and facilitating systemic institutional change. Questions investigated include how does organizational culture, climate, dynamics, and motivational needs influence individual faculty change readiness when faced with EDI challenges? How can developing a more nuanced understanding of faculty readiness inform EDI change efforts?
Enabling Students’ Representational Imagination: Drawing Architecture in Charcoal to Transform ‘Seeing’ View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stephen Temple
Students new to architectural drawing are challenged with ‘seeing’ architecture through representation. Learning to draw as a transformation of seeing must involve a range of seeing experiences to enable representation to make sense. Learning to draw orthographic drawings challenges ‘seeing’ by making engagement of imagination subservient to the tedium of precisely constructing line drawings. Charcoal drawing instead flips the challenge of representing buildings – imagination informs and what is learned enhances rather than challenges ‘seeing.’ Charcoal drawing offers a pedagogical antidote to diminished imaginative thinking. This paper explains the pedagogical use of charcoal in an architectural drawing course in which many have never before drawn. Black and white architectural photographs by Ezra Stoller, Julius Schulman, and Berenice Abbott comprise subject matter. The study shows that charcoal drawing engages ways of seeing that measurable drawings do not, in the following: 1. Charcoal’s reduction to black and white displays the experiential and spatial content of architecture as a range of light and shadow. 2. Because of #1 students discover that architecture is activated by light, overlooked compared with form, structure, or material. 3. Charcoal does not allow the making of detailed marks, necessitating engagement of imagination during the drawing process to represent light on a surface. 4. Because charcoal drawing is an imprecise media, details are imagined rather than ‘in’ the drawing. 5. Because charcoal drawing is an atmospheric whole it looks more accomplished than it is. 6. Charcoal drawing transforms ‘seeing’ in students (e.g. imprecise marks may better express an architectural idea).
The Pedagogical Prototype: A Didactic Tool for Addressing the Dimensions of Culture in the Design Studio View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Marianne Holbert
When the world is becoming more globalized and multicultural, does design education empower the future generation of designers to engage in multicultural environments? While conversations around diversity and inclusion have become more common, what tools and practices are utilized to support these discussions? This research focuses on the questions above through the creation of a pedagogical prototype tool to examine cultural dimensions present in the design studio to support more culturally sensitive environments. Culture is integral to interaction as it influences ways of thinking and organizing, values and beliefs, communication styles, sense of self, roles, and expectations and motivations for learning. Often, the values, attitudes, and priorities of leaders and mentors are modeled and/or perpetuated among community members often without recognizing the implications. This paper shares a didactic tool designed for faculty, students, and designers to examine, evaluate, and discuss the values that influence how people work, think, and engage in diverse social, cultural, and professional situations. It adapts the cultural dimensions of learning framework (CDLF) developed by Parrish and Linder-Van Berschot for the studio. It builds upon the research of Hofstede, Nisbett and Lewis and implements a survey for examining issues such as leadership balance, atmosphere of support, independent and group dynamic, structure and uncertainty, communication and rationale, systems and situations, time, and motivation. This pedagogical tool allows users to gain iterative feedback and insight into the cultural dimensions at play in the studio to advance levels of cultural consciousness in the design curriculum.
Arenas and Student Success: Utilizing Applied Behaviorism to Construct Student Motivation during the Pandemic View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jingtian Li, Leo Charikar
The pandemic forces classes to be conducted online, and the separation causes depression and cognition problems for students. It becomes vital for the instructor to help spark the students' motivation and help them back on track. Instead of long and lifeless lectures, it becomes evident that students improve faster by hands-on trial and error. However, it is also cumbersome to allow students to advance without good guidance and time restrictions. Therefore, arenas are held multiple times during a semester to help students focus and study quickly and effectively. The arena's competitive nature helps students focus on the task at hand, motivating them to push their skills to new heights. By grouping teams together, students are encouraged to work as a team, helping each other to identify errors in their work, reduces loneness caused by separation, and help construct good behavior and personality. Through arenas, students become active and focused on the task at hand. As a result, learning happens faster, becoming more solid and more likely to remain in the long-term memory. It is beneficial and practical with the online format and is proven very effective during face-to-face classes.
Desktop Injection Molding in the Academy: Increasing Student Access to Injection Molding View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kiersten Muenchinger
Injection molding is the most common production method for polymer parts. Injection molding is not, however, an easy method to implement in design labs due to size and cost of machines and operation. Recent developments in desktop injection molding machines and desktop 3D printing allow injection molding to happen at a scale that is possible in a design lab, workshop or studio. Providing access to these tools allows students to learn design and production issues with injection molded parts first-hand, leading to increased understanding of product design, part design and design for manufacturing.
