Carolyn Bew, Academic Developer

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Carolyn Bew, Academic Developer Debbie Flint,
Academic Developer
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Current E-Learning project

• How can e-learning enhance the potential of the
  art, design and media environments in which
  learning and teaching takes place?

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• How addressed?
• Survey
• Focus group research
• Case study research (small-scale development
  projects)
• Findings and recommendations December 2006

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Case study

• BA Graphic Design, specialist institution, North
  of England
• The impact of integrating specialist technologies
  into Graphic Design studio spaces
• data projector and laptop
• Macs
• Internet access
• Opinions of tutors, students, and technicians
• Observations of technology use

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Research Methodology

• One-to-one interviews with lecturers (full and
  part-time, in a range of specialisms including
  illustration, editorial design and typography)
• One-to-one-interviews with students (BA Hons.
  Graphic Design, all three years)
• Observations (18 hours of events, at varying
  times)

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Data projector and laptop

• Perceived advantages
• Enables use of digital visual resources (easy,
  cheap, quick, contemporary)
• Potential to contextualise learning
• Flexibility
• You can see more.
• Encourages staff to digitise resources

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Data projector and laptop - potential to
contextualise learning

• Each project we do now, by and large we have a
  digital projection to contextualise what were
  doing. - Tutor comment
• Theres always some background stuff as well as
  this is what youre doing. The technology has
  been used to get our interest in what the project
  is aboutthe research, background and preview
  work. - Student comment

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Data projector and laptop - flexibility

• Its just much more flexible in terms of
  workshops where we would be bringing things in
  and showing them. - Tutor comment
• The same method of slide projection can be used
  to support a lecture, or to display student work
  in an informal peer assessment. It has overcome
  practical issues and improved opportunities for
  all students. - Tutor comment

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Data projector and laptop - flexibility

• We had a pragmatic problem in crits because one
  student would talk to the group and show moving
  image work. Then we found there was a disparity
  in impact. If you project stuff with sound and
  moving image compared to a small illustration on
  paper it doesnt have the same impact. So what
  we started doing was showing everything on
  screen - Tutor comment

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Macs

• Perceived advantages / disadvantages
• Home/college?
• Changed environment
• Access to specialist software

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Macs - home/college?

• If they werent here I would probably spend more
  time at home doing my work on the computer at
  home. In that sense I am quite reliant on them.
  - Student comment
• Ive done more work on my PC at home because Im
  used to PCs rather than Macs. - Student comment
• You tend to think you dont need to come into
  college, because you have the computer at home
  and you can do it there. Now I tend to come into
  college every day. Because as well as not having
  the Internet at home, its just better to be
  around other students. - Student comment

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Macs - changed environment

• If you went into a studio fifteen years ago
  there would be drawing boards everywhere and pots
  of paint, and collages stuck on the wall, and
  very experimental, tactile things. And to some
  extent thats what weve sacrificed with the
  advent of Macs in the studios. - Tutor comment
• White wall, white computers, grey desks. I would
  like to see a bit of colour. I suppose its our
  fault as well, we could decorate it. I think
  people just cant be bothered putting stuff up
  when theyve got stuff to do. I think most people
  put stuff up when they want to look at work in
  progress, but other than that it is quite bland
  in here. - Student comment

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Internet access and virtual learning environment

• Perceived advantages / disadvantages
• Research opportunities
• The here and now
• Access to professional world
• Tutor directed?
• Communication

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Internet access - research opportunities - the
here and now

• I dont have a problem with free access to the
  internet. I get a little bit frustrated when
  research begins and ends on the Internet because
  we have a fantastic library thats really
  underused. - Tutor comment
• The old problem with graphic design was the time
  lag between the book and the practice now. So
  youd have to go and read Creative Review, and
  youd get a small insight into what was
  happening, because books by the time they go to
  print are always five years out of date anyway
  So I think the more tuned-in students now are far
  more informed about whats going on in the here
  and now than people of our generation were. -
  Tutor comment

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Internet access - research opportunities - the
professional world

• I know that students use the blog system,
  uploading stuff to news groups and chatting to
  designers, I know they find that very useful. -
  Tutor comment
• Every graphic design company has their own
  website these days, so its good for looking at
  whats there already as well. - Student comment

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Internet access - research opportunities -
tutor-directed

• There are some great teaching resources on the
  web, primarily other companies and what theyre
  doing. We have found some quite good examples of
  more tutorial / teaching based sites, but we
  dont really use those as part of the teaching
  process. We tend to direct students towards good
  practice. - Staff comment
• I was talking to the tutors the other day,
  because I was trying to do an action on
  Photoshop, but I didnt know how. So rather than
  them telling me what to do they said go on to the
  Adobe site and search for actions. It will come
  up with an explanation of how to do it. -
  Student comment

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Internet access and virtual learning environment
- communication

• Interestingly, frequent student attendance seems
  to inhibit the use of email, and noticeboards
  remain the primary means of course communication.
• We could send stuff on a weekly basis at no
  effort and no expense.
• - Staff comment
• A VLE would reduce the different strands of
  communication and centralise them. So questions
  like do you have a copy of the brief? would be
  cut out. It wouldnt save much time but the
  impact would be quite high. - Staff comment

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Conclusions - primary benefits of engagement with
new technology

• Access to the here and now - access to
  current, up-to-date and contemporary
  materials, expertise and interactions relevant to
  the Graphic Design subject area
• A view of knowledge as distributed across and
  beyond the immediate context appeared to be
  prevalent the permeability and responsiveness of
  the curriculum to wider influences is an accepted
  feature.

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Conclusions - the integration of virtual and
physical studio spaces

• Tutors believed the integration expanded the
  potential of the learning environment.
• Enabled more flexible use of space and supported
  more diverse learning and teaching activities
• Observation suggested that studio inhabitation
  had increased with students making use of the
  available technologies

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• Contact
• Centre Administrator
• ADM-HEA
• University of Brighton
• 68 Grand Parade, Brighton, BN2 9JY
• Email adm_at_heacademy.ac.uk
• Web www.adm.heacademy.ac.uk
• Carolyn Bew
• c.bew_at_brighton.ac.uk
• Debbie Flint
• d.flint_at_brighton.ac.uk