24th January
My proposed question.
How can I embed a sense of social purpose (through making) into the course I teach on – GB&I BA (Hons)?
The question I posed allowed me to explore and experiment with mixed methods research, connect with staff and students to learn more about how they felt and most importantly to me, I got to make a creative outcome to answer the question I had posed at the beginning of my Action Research Project. I also learnt how to analyse my data and importantly, I got to experience what life is like as a student at LCC. I used the digital print space to produce my artwork, found how frustrating it can be to use Orb to book the facilities available and how wonderful and kind the technical staff are in our college and all they do to help students fulfil their desires. I learnt how to pay for my printouts – something I have since been able to share with my year 1 students who are just completing the first unit of their undergraduate degrees. I attended a Risograph induction workshop, used print finishing on several occasions to cut, trim and shape my cards. I spent time in the library, reading and writing my blog posts. I visited the shop to get advice on what paper I could print on in Risograph but most importantly, I spent my time doing something that I really wanted to do and learnt a lot as both as a researcher, a creative and an educator at LCC.
I shared my prompt cards with my year 2 students who study across the School of Design in BA (Hons) courses including Art direction, Design Management, User Experience Design & Illustration and Visual Media. They experienced my cards and filled in a questionnaire to give me feedback and help me consider my next steps. Their thought included the following.
‘It feels sometimes that Ual talk about sustainable practise, but don’t execute it in the classroom – it just feels like greenwashing. These cards are asked direct questions which I can apply to my project, they’re very useful.’
‘These prompts make me think about my projects differently, they remind me to stay true to my own values and ensure I’m not producing more trash the world doesn’t need.’
‘As an architecture student there’s a lot of information in the question that I would need to think about as one of my projects goes along.’
‘These questions help me reflect myself from a different perspective. Each question has a certain depth of thought, closely relating to the collective framework.’
I feel that their feedback was mostly positive, although I understand that I am approaching them for their thoughts from a position of power as their tutor. For my next steps I would like to try my cards out in more workshops and share them with GB&I staff for their input and feedback. I would love to get my colleagues to use them in suitable workshops with students, to review how they work in situe and amend them if required. I would also like to see if I can apply for funding to continue and develop my project and perhaps publish packs of these cards for distribution. I would like to consider designing some packaging for the set and perhaps add a dice to heighten the sense of play through the gamification of the experience. In all, this has been an incredible learning journey both in the theory & knowledge I have gained as a researcher and through the practical creative experience of designing, making and being a student at LCC.
Thank you for this opportunity and I will hope to apply for the MA in Academic Practice later this year. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time and all that I have learnt during the PgCert, I feel I am at the start of a new journey of learning which I feel really excited to continue.
