Dridgett's Weblog

Botanic Gardens

dridgett — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:23:09 +0000

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:”";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

Aaaaggghhhh my back hurts.

The big project for this semester is an online learning resource for the Botanic Gardens of Australia. This is going to be an accompaniment to the trail and activities school groups do whilst in the gardens.

But anyway, this is why my back hurts…

I’ve been named the project manager for the Botanic Gardens. This means my sleep is going to be going from some to none. But it also means that I am in charge of all the paperwork, management and stuff for the project. This means lots and lots of stuff to carry around. My bag was already breaking because of all the stuff I take to TAFE, today it got a lot heavier.

I thought I would mention this for anyone reading this, just as a set up because I’ll probably be putting a lot of stuff up about this project.

Learning Theories

dridgett — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:37:51 +0000

There are many different teaching philosophies or learning theories. These are the two most common ones.

Constructivist Model

Reflecting on our own experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. A curriculum based on the constructivist model is based on prior knowledge of the learners

The purpose is for the student to construct their own meaning, rather than regurgitating someone else’s. Memorizing quotes about the cause for the industrial revolution is not the same as learning about the circumstances and formulating your own theory about it.

Maths teachers use this method often. Teachers and textbooks always have examples involving children, this relates the problem to the learner.

The constructivist model is generally competency based learning. Rather than earning A’s or B’s the learner earns a skill. At the end of the course the learner can either change a tyre or not. The learning is the reward.

Behaviourist Model

Behaviourism seeks to change the way the learner behaves. Students are deemed to have succeeded when they exhibit a new behaviour based on what they have learned. At the end of the course the learner needs to be able to demonstrate changing a tyre to be successful.
Behaviourism often uses conditioning or ROTE learning. Forcing repetitive behaviour to imprint a new behaviour on the learner.

ROTE learning is used for children between 1 and 16. An example of this is writing on blackboards

I will not write stupid blogs
I will not write stupid blogs
I will not write stupid blogs

This is used a lot by religious schools and marketing towards children

Hi5 uses this. Every week they have a different song at the end of the episode. This song is repeated for the children every day for the five days.
The Behaviourist model is not effective on all learners, because it does not adapt to different types of learning. A learner could be completely understanding the subject matter, but without exhibiting this behaviour the learner wouldn’t be successful. Behaviourism discounts the actions of the mind.

http://funderstanding.com/theories1.html

3 Levels of Processing

dridgett — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:49:07 +0000

At the start of 2008 my lecturer gave us information about the 3 levels of processing relating to design. These levels are Visceral, Behavioural and Reflective. the following is what I gathered from what he said.

Visceral responses are first impressions. Visceral design initiates an automatic response for the user, before the brain has a chance to analyse any of it. Visceral design includes the use of colours and familial shapes.

Visceral design in most cases is only useful to draw the user’s attention. This is because behavioural and reflective processing interrupts it after that point. Designing for children usually includes colours and shapes as a base because children are still closer to their visceral behaviours.

People in positive environments are more creative, more functional and more productive. These are visceral responses. Positive reinforcement to an extent is visceral.

Symmetry is visceral. This is because symmetry causes shapes to emerge. Humans on average prefer symmetrical objects, faces and design.

————————————————————————-

Behavioural design has nothing to do with aesthetics, it is all about functioning.

If something works then the users won’t replace it for aesthetics

Things only get replaced if something else works better

Behavioural design relies on 4 criteria; function, understandability, usability and physical feel.

Function – The product needs to be able to be used for its intended purpose
Understandability – Users must be able to know how to use the product. Negative emotions come with hard to understand products. A good product needs to provide feedback at all times.
Usability – The user should be able to use the product easily. Just because something functions the way it is supposed to doesn’t mean it is usable; eg. Short vacuums: A vacuum may be functional as a vacuum, but if the handle is too short and the user needs to hunch over to use it then the product is not usable.
Physical feel – The product should have a physical/tactile feel to it. Good products attempt to emulate the physical world. An instance of this are the vertical sliders or knobs in volume control, this emulates physical sounding boards.

Generally behavioural processing is what comes straight after the visceral. Once a person is attracted to the visceral elements, the functionality of the product is assessed

————————————————————————-

Reflective processing is the sum of our accumulated knowledge. It is a mixture of where we live, where we were born, our family history, our friends, etc. It is more commonly known as ‘Style’.

Style

Emotion over function

Style is choosing emotionally responsive products over purely functional products, eg. Myers over Reject Shop, Jay Jays over Big W, etc.

The product still functions, but people pay much more for the emotional response attached to it. This response is based on cultural history and accumulated knowledge. Products with a history attached do much better in this respect.

Reflective processing tends to override visceral and behavioural processing.

A movie scares you:

Visceral: you’re scared
Behavioural: you act normal
Reflective: you laugh about it, pretending you weren’t scared

This information was typed from notes taken during a lecture at TAFE. I don’t know where my lecturer got his information from.

Here is another blog that I found that helps to explain the 3 levels of processing relating to design.

I hope this helps anyone who wasn’t sure about this, and anyone who does please correct me if I’ve gotten anything in here wrong.

David

What we have here

dridgett — Sat, 24 May 2008 11:48:25 +0000

I’m doing a multimedia course at Tea Tree Gully this year. I’m doing an analogue journal for inspiration, research and such, but I decided to do a digital one as well. This is so I can learn how to do things like this and also so there’s more of a chance of getting clarification if I get something completely wrong.

So yeah if anyone notices any concepts or information on here that I’ve misinterpreted or misunderstood, then please tell me so I can try to get it right.

And my name is David by the way.