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Designing the future: light on two sides

I was recently asked to write a short article for 'Pulse' - the university online newsletter here at UNE and here is a copy of the text highlighting my love for all things design pattern.

Designing the future: light on two sides 

One of the challenges posed by our new decadal Future Fit strategy has been the acknowledgement that to deliver on the intended goals we need to work together in different ways. Team-based approaches that cross our academic and professional spaces is one of those methods that UNE has started to adopt more widely. I have been reflecting on what that means with a number of large projects coming up to the start line for the newly formed division of Education Futures. These projects, which include curriculum renewal phase two and the review of our learning management system, present the significant challenge of delivering on large cross institutional multi-workstream plans. One excellent example of team-based working that relates to these areas is learning design. Why is this such a good example? First, to be successful it requires a multi-functional team, bringing together individuals that can operate in a space where skillsets are complementary not competitive. Second, this is a space where all ideas are welcome and success is a joint enterprise born from shared endeavour. The crucial, and golden element here is the understanding that we are all designers. As Herbert Simon, the influential design scientist remarked:  

    ‘Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.’ 

Yet, learning design, and in fact any design process is not simply the blind application of a set of rules and procedures. There is a rich set of methods and purposeful processes that underlie design and designing where past successful design solutions can be used to inform future ones. This sharing and reuse of design knowledge is critical and in the field of educational technology I often rely on design patterns to provide a guiding framework. Design patterns find their roots in architecture and the work of Christopher Alexander who in his seminal work synthesised knowledge from multiple experts in the field to create 253 design patterns that together formed a language for the building of towns, buildings and urban spaces. The patterns describe a problem within a specific context then offer a solution such that it can be used a million times over but without doing it the same way twice. The beauty of patterns is their openness to design interpretation exemplified by my favourite pattern from Alexander’s book: 

159 … Light on two sides of every room 

When they have a choice, people will always gravitate to those rooms which have light on two sides, and leave the rooms which are lit only from one side unused and empty. 

Therefore: Locate each room so that it has outdoor space outside it on at least two sides, and then place windows in these outdoor walls so that natural light falls into every room from more than one direction. 

What this pattern presents is an abstracted solution to room design but within allows for freedom of interpretation in implementation – for example, it does not predetermine the size of the windows, their shape nor the materials used to produce them. Many design patterns have since been created in the fields of software engineering, user experience design and education. 

So, what can we take from these short insights into design and team-based working methods? For me, as we move forward with more interdependent and interconnected team-based working, we need to acknowledge the value of grounded design methodologies and the value of using the blueprints of past successful solutions to inform future ones. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we need to maintain openness and trust. With this we can celebrate the pleasure of collaboratively generating solutions through designing and design-based thinking with colleagues across UNE.

 

References:  

Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S., Silverstein, M., Jacobson, M., Fiksdhl-King, I. and Angel, S. (1977). A Pattern Language: Towns, Building, Constructions. Oxford University Press, NY.  

Simon, H. A. (2019). The sciences of the artificial. MIT press. 

 

 

"Sustainable Kitchen" by Jeremy Levine Design is licensed under CC BY 2.0

 

Pedagogical patterns - advice for educators

Finally available: a great resource on design patterns for educators from the pedagogical patterns group.

http://www.pedagogicalpatterns.org/

Pedagogical Patterns: Advice for Educators Pedagogical Pattern Editorial Board: Joseph Bergin, Jutta Eckstein, Markus Völter, Marianna Sipos, Eugene Wallingford, Klaus Marquardt, Jane Chandler, Helen Sharp, Mary Lynn Manns (Eds.) Published by Joseph Bergin Software Tools, 2012.

Design patterns formats

A design pattern can be laid out in many different ways, though the core remains the 'problem-solution-context' elements. Another example of a layout I have come across is for 'social software design patterns':

1. Name: The name and a short summary of the pattern
2. Problem: The problem the pattern addresses, including a discussion of its associated forces
3. Example: A real-world example demonstrating the existence of the problem and the need for the pattern
4. Context: The situations in which the pattern may apply
5. Solution: A resolution of the problem stated in terms that could be applied in many situations
6. Implementation: The fundamental solution principle underlying the pattern
7. Technological Assumptions: What infrastructure must be in place for the implementation to be practical
8. Variants: A brief description of variants or specializations of a pattern
9. Consequences: The benefits the pattern provides, and any potential liabilities

 

 

Innovation versus control

Working in the field of distance education is a challenging one. Not simply because we are now debating the nature of what DL means or has to offer in a highly connected world where open access to a variety of rich data sources are available but also in terms of the kinds of business models we deploy. Being innovative in curriculum design is important yet this does not mean that we need to lose control of development and delivery costs. A lean business model approach that lets the users pull value from the system requires a backend development process that is flexible and agile. In this presentation - from the EADTU conference 2011 - I explore some of the features of the University of London International Programmes' response to these contradicting forces.

Innovation vs. Control

View more PowerPoint from Steven Warburton

 

 

Related links:
Lean business models http://www.slideshare.net/PeterHines/the-principles-of-the-lean-business-system

New book call - Design patterns in teaching and learning

Practical design patterns for teaching and learning with technology

A book for Sense Publishers ‘Technology Enhanced Learning’ series

Editors: Yishay Mor (London Knowledge Lab), Steven Warburton (King’s College London) and Niall Winters (London Knowledge Lab)

Deadline:- Submissions should be sent to: [email protected] by July 31, 2009

Introduction

The design, development and implementation of an educational intervention often involves learners, teachers, educational designers and policy makers. To support collaboration and effective sharing of design processes between these participants, a common language is needed. One form this can take is a design pattern, which articulates sharable design knowledge in a meaningful and actionable form.

Practical design patterns for teaching and learning with technology will produce a collection of patterns across six themes:

1. Learner centred design
   
   • Supporting learners to become active, self-directed and self-responsible participants in the learning process
   • Section Editor: Michael Derntl (University of Vienna)
2. Learning as collaboration
   • Supporting content creation, communication and collaboration between learners and tutors
   • Section Editors: Christian Kohls and Till Schummer
3. Learning as conversation
   • Supporting learners to effectively communicate their learning process
   • Section Editor: Diana Laurillard (London Knowledge Lab)
4. Games
   • Supporting game-based learning practices
   • Section Editor: Staffan Björk (Chalmers University of Technology,  Göteborg University)
5. Social media
   • Supporting learning using social media
   • Section Editor: Steven Warburton (King’s College London, UK)
6. Assessment
   • Supporting effective assessment of student learning
   • Section Editor: Harvey Mellar and Norbert Pachler (Institute of Education, UK)

These patterns will be supported by case stories that illustrate a critical problem and elaborate its appearance and successful resolution within a concrete context. For an overview of the book and further background information, please see the book’s supporting website at http://www.practicalpatternsbook.org/

Submission procedure
Authors are requested to submit co-ordinated contributions of patterns and their supporting cases. These can be individual submissions, or a joint/group submission, where person A produces the case-story, and person B provides the associated pattern. Each submission is expected to be 3,000-4,000 words in length: 1,500-2,000 for the pattern and 1,500-2,000 for the supporting case-story. We encourage the use of images (with appropriate copyright clearance) to illustrate submitted case-stories and patterns. For more details, please see the author guidelines at: http://www.practicalpatternsbook.org/guidelines.

The book will be developed in an open-content process, using a collaborative web-site. Submitted cases and pattens will be reviewed by the section and book editors, and those selected will be included in a shepherding process. During shepherding, all contributions will be openly available for comment. The section editors will iteratively work with authors to ensure quality, coherence and cohesion of the book as a whole. Authors will also be asked to comment on their peers’ contributions and identify links with their own contribution. The web-site will continue to evolve, as a companion to the book after its publication, while the book will remain an authoritative, quality controlled and professionally edited off-the shelf resource.

Important Dates

• July 31 2009: Proposal Submission Deadline – submissions should be sent to [email protected]
• October 15 2009: Notification of Acceptance
• October 17 2009 – February 15 2009: Shepherding process under the guidance of section editors
• December 2010: Publication

Further Questions and Contact

Please consult the FAQ page.
All enquires should be made to: [email protected]
Please subscribe to http://groups.google.com/group/practicalpatternsbook-announce for future announcements

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One plus one equals three: the seventh barrier to innovation in MUVEs

'In design, one plus one equals three or sometimes more.'
Josef Albers (1969)

'Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.'
Herbert Simon (1969)

We make design decisions all of the time and Second Life offers particular design challenges that demand us to address not only our teaching approaches but also space, architecture and aesthetics. The art of design is not a natural skill but one that is learned and developed – Simon called for a science of design. Albers captures the complexity of design in the quote above, one that acknowledges the multi-layered nature of design and the multiple interactions that occur between these design layers when they come together.

'When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.'
Richard Buckminster Fuller

My question is - are we as educators in virtual worlds equal to this challenge?

 

 

 

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