Reading Discussion Questions

Shepard Fairey-
Q: When is it or is it problematic for a campaign or system, designed to be expressive for a cause, to become a franchise?

Guerrilla Street Postering-
Q: What ways are there that guerrilla can not be slanderous or illegal?

Adbuster Véronique Vienne Interviews Kalle Lasn-
Q: At what point does true cost become a burden on a company, or does it at all?

VA_Questions_Week5

Massive Change:
Where is the balance between the modest and and ambitious designer or design team? Where are the dangers for a push to hard in either direction?

Q&A for MX Educational System

JESSICA

I understand that you're goal within this projects is to improve and challenge the existing system for communication between student, parent, and teacher. My question for you is how can you improve this without limiting yourself to an iPad? While it is a great tool for a learning environment and is one method of addressing the issues at hand, it could be groundbreaking to speculate new ways or new technology to access and share information while keeping that important aspect of privacy. 

We’ve considered not only using the iPad with it’s typical functions, but also exploring potential functionality that would break the limitations that the device currently has. As for other technologies, there may be something we can dream up that would aid in data mining a child’s interests and aspirations, or something that could aid in the student to mentor relationship.

COLLIN

students often don't like parents communicating with teachers, or give a rats ass about their education. are their any tangible incentives you might be able to give the student to fully participate in your program?

If we do this right and take into consideration the child’s other interests, and make those interests an integral part of the program, we propose that the child would not need to be given reasons to participate. The child would discover them as the system unfolds through extended use.

PATRICK

How can the student's awarness of their tailored education affect their overall performance?

Ultimately knowing what type of learner you are will affect the child positively by instilling the most efficient way of gathering knowledge and experiencing the world around them. Also their interests would be fostered in order to maintain involvement. They may know how they are being tailored for, but it should not be done so in a way that feels foreign to them.

JUMPER

Who is going to pay for all this technology? Parents of the children, or the Govt. with taxpayer money?

Well, it would be the tax payers that would assume the cost. This would be no different than what it is now, but would be replacing allot of the established curriculum needs and simplifying it into less components that can be used throughout the child’s education.

JESSIE

what kind of incentives will you give for kids who are really behind in their education by the time they reach middle school? how will you equal the playing field for all the students so that the kids who are behind are motivated to participate?

The system of incentives would be no different than that of the other students, in that they would be based on the child’s interests and aspirations. The burden getting the student back up to speed would fall on the teacher and parent, but the incentive should outweigh the intensive nature of their progress.

ASHLEY

would this tool be used outside of the classroom as well? would kids still have the ability to interact after class, or  ask the teacher a homework question on the weekend?

also, why did you guys decide on 6th grade?

The system will focus just as much on outside the classroom if not more. Since a student will spend more time out of school than they will in, there should be an emphasis on what the child takes with them. There will be a focus on what the child is taking interest in as well as networking between other students and the relationship between child and mentor/parent. As for communicating with the teacher over the weekends, this would be a touchy issue. We’ll have to handle this delicately since the parents may not want that level of communication between student and teacher outside of the classroom. Also the teacher may not want to be contacted over the weekend, so the incentive would have to be very strong and very focused.

We started at 6th grade because that is statistically the drop off rate for student-parent involvement. Plus it will give us enough time to learn the student’s learning style and goals.

JESSI

Is it wise for parents to be able to see all correspondences between students and teachers? what about the potential for abuse?

In this day and age I’d worry more about the parent not being able to see interactions between the teacher and student. I think it allows for a level of accountability that might not be there today. Doing this in a way that does not threaten the student or doesn’t narrow the child’s curriculum is the challenge. I could see the scenario where the parent could be getting too involved in what they don’t want their child to learn, but this would require the parent to be psychologically sound.

KEATON

Can there be a way for schools at the administrative level or state level to "take the macro pulse" if you will, of a given school? can this data be transparent to all students, teachers, parents of any school?

We’re proposing that the information on where the student’s learning styles are being successfully provided for, would be open to the state, schools, teachers, and parents. This would instill a sense of pride for the parents and teachers (and perhaps students), as well as giving an instructed push to the other schools, in order to better themselves.

VA Week Four Discussion

Graphic Authorship

What are the benefits of group authorship as apposed to singular authorship or objective authorship? What resources keep this in check?

Are there ways to claim authorship or convince authorship in a client/designer relationship?

Designer As Producer

What are some things to consider when vying for sustainable products in a primarily large market dominated field? 

What are some convincing methods of promoting sustainable design?

Design with Intent

Where does the idea of invisible design align with the receptivity gradient?

Does the receptivity gradient apply to the idea of invisible design when it is most successfully integrated into a community?

VA Week Two Discussion

On the topic of Propaganda and Protest Graphics

- It seams that the most potent messages in the history of graphic design, are ones coming from stance in troubled or controversial periods. Are there many causes that do not call for a stirring of attitudes based out of socially agitating circumstances? If so is it proper to synthesize such an attitude within design, and how can this be done successfully?

On the topic of Dissent

- For the sake of social incentives, is it of more importance to solve the issues of fairness or of man's propensity towards power?

- Is religion, fallen prey to corruption and greed, inherently wrong or something not to believe?

On the topic of The Black Panther

- Can a message/campaign really be successful without the strong backing of a movement or community, why or why not?

Community?

Community Psychology (as I understood it, because the reading I found to be needlessly complex): Understanding what your needs and goals are, locating a group with a sense of security and boundaries in which you can comfortably invest in, having the push and pull to influence a community to achieve common goals, feeling an active and proactive sense of conformity through common experiences and uniformity through symbols, sharing in the benefits of productivity and common values, and the bond formed when a community shares many high quality and successful experiences.

I have a hard time pinpointing a specific community in which I find myself belonging to. If I had to pick one I would have to say it would be the school community. This may be due to not only the quality of common goal and interactions but to the frequency. I believe that when the quantity outweighs the quality the other factors of community take over for me. If I feel that the boundaries and goals actually align with my own then I will feel comfortable and secure. Since, for various reasons, this is not often the case, I often will rely on finding the right balance of influence in order to realign myself to the community, or viceversa. I find that without shared emotional connection the quality of interaction goes way down, at least personally. I suppose that would align myself more with the first formula mentioned in the reading. What you're bringing to the group in terms of fulfillment of needs is an important one for me. When belonging to a certain group making sure that I'm fulfilling the needs/accomplishments/values is important to me. It fullfils a personal need as well as a need of the community. The less of this I do the more I begin to feel self excommunicated from a group. Of course I've also been called a pushover/tool for this very reason so there are negative consequences.

EDUMACATION!

The history of Technology in Education.
This video represents less of a current shift in education and technology, and more of an evolution of such things over a very long period of time. For most of the video there is an emphasis on the change in technology with less of a change in the education itself. Formats of learning were determined and limited by the technology of each period. The problem is when the technology moves on to include other modes of learning, such as auditory and early video. While these begin to open up new opportunities for some people, the style of teaching remains the same and does not utilize them.

The readings on the different theories of learning styles make a clear call for the need of new teaching inovations. And with the technological advances tapping into the way we exist in our own worlds and intake/retain information in new ways, it's foolish for us to not utilize them in the best way possible so as to unlock everyone's potential.

I'm told by the nifty test we all took, that I'm a type three learner. Upon further meditation on the list of attributes I can agree with this assessment. Though I did do it wrong the first time and thought I was a type 3 for a while.