Principles and Practices
Explaining the Nature of Design: A Pragmatic Definition View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Richard Herriott
Nigel Cross´s much-cited paper about design in education of 1982 explicitly states that design is not natural science and is not the humanities but is a third and exclusively different thing. This paper examines that proposition and proposes an alternative. What we are in need of here is a description of design that acknowledges its distinct character as human activity. We do not wish to subsume it into science, humanities or the arts. For the sake of ontological and epistemological tidiness it would be preferable to avoid proposing that designers have a special way of knowing. In keeping with design´s graphic approach, this diagram paper explains the overlap of science, design and art which is the persistently missing element in the discussion so far of what design is. This element accords with the fact designers don´t just look at the world as it is (as scientists do) and accords with the fact designers make things with intentional aesthetic content (as planners and managers tend not to do). Reference: Cross, N. (1982). Designerly ways of knowing. Design studies, 3(4), 221-227.
Principles of Motion: An Open Educational Resource View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anson Call
Iowa State University has made extensive efforts at providing grant funding for open educational resources, which are implemented to lower the costs of resources to students by creating high quality, free to use educational materials that are published using the Creative Commons licenses. As a recipient of the grant, I created and published a free, educational 43-minute video explaining the Principles of Motion. These principles provide a new but familiar framework derived from the foundations of visual design, the 12 Principles of Animation by the Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, and film/TV cinematography. These new principles are presented in a simple and straightforward manner using design terminology that fits with today's design pedagogy, all in a free-to-use online format that is easily accessible.
Featured E-book Online Repository: Digital Archiving from Crisis Response to Pedagogical Opportunity View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tarryn Rennie, Subeshini Moodley
Nelson Mandela University’s (NMU) drive toward greater online and blended learning was expedited by the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic. Staff and students were suddenly confronted with having to transition from contact teaching to teaching via digital platforms. While this was a mammoth task with several layers of complexity related to knowledge of online platforms and more practical issues surrounding equipment and data/wifi access, the move to online and blended learning was ripe with opportunities and affordances. As such, a digital archive of staff and student work was conceptualised by the Department of Media & Communication at Nelson Mandela University. The department needed a consolidated online space where research and creative/practical work could be accessed. An e-book online repository responded to many questions linked to online learning by preparing students for content creation focused specifically on online exhibition and reception, by developing industry level online competencies through novel and experimental digital assessments, and by providing staff and students requisite online exposure. In this way, the project fitted squarely within the NMU Technology Enabled Learning philosophy and the institutional theme of Innovation and Digital Economy. The conference paper details the trajectory of the online repository from conceptualisation though to production of the first editions and the work currently being done on the latest edition. The discussion offers critical perspectives of project planning, challenges faced and the novel approaches developed and applied to address these challenges through the lenses of affordance theory, theory-based-practice teaching and learning, digital archiving and crystallization.
