Focus on Learning or Experience?

I have certainly been aware, while out in the business world, that how the environment is designed has some bearing on how I feel there, but it has been in a vague, indirect way. I think I am less cognizant of it when the surroundings are more neutral. When a building is blatantly artistic in it's design so as to be beautiful or so badly done it's just plain ugly, I notice it more. I think maybe the most effective design is the one that is designed to effect you without you noticing it.

Good education is like that, too. When you create an environment that is safe and fun, with lessons and activities that engage students, and meaningful connections to the real world, students learn because they are not focused on the "learning", but rather on the experience. Especially as kids get older, they become programmed to think that school is boring or not fun. When we create an atmosphere in which they are truly enjoying themselves, these are the things they remember and take with them as positive and significant.

Empty canvas?

Natalie comments on her blog entry "Bridges - Photography and Education", while making a metaphorical comparison between forms of art and education, saying, "The canvas is empty and it's the teacher's and her students' mission or calling to create something just as an artist would." I like your thinking, Natalie. I like the image of an empty canvas waiting to be filled, the child's mind and heart. I can see the artist's pallet, the many colors as yet unmingled, the teacher's vast knowledge and experience. I can see the brush poised above the canvas, the teacher's love as she pours her heart into what she does. However, it has been my experience that the "canvas" is almost never empty. Children, including preschool and kindergartners, and especially middle school and high school students, show up in our classrooms with a plethora of prior circumstances, some good and some bad, that effect, in a variety of ways, their ability or inability to learn (and in some cases to simply function). If the "canvas" were truly empty, we would have no need to consider how to make the educational process more compelling.

We would simply paint. The canvas would simply become painted.

But it is not simple. Because children come to us with a set of expectations already installed and each child has a different set, it is in fact extremely complex. We must somehow meet the needs of them all, whoever they are, wherever they have come from, and whatever abilities they may or may not have. Perhaps we need to be looking for ways to work with a canvas that has already been painted, ways to make it better and more beautiful, regardless of it's appearance when it arrives.

Utility or Home?

My first reaction to the Architecture and Interior Design Module is that the notion that a house must appeal to our physical and physiological senses before it can feel like home is a far-reaching attempt by Suzanka to sell houses. I think she is a brilliant woman with remarkable insight and I do not discount her theories. I do beg to differ that a house with less asthetic appeal only functions in it's utility and cannot feel like home. With respect to creating compelling experiences in Education, what comes to mind almost immediately is that school bulidings are built almost exclusively for their utility. Giving credence to Suzanka's ideas, school buildings are some of the coldest, least inviting places I have ever been. They are made of brick, having dropped ceilings, generally they are poorly lit, and they are filled with ugly, uncomfortable "furniture". I have been in classrooms where teachers have made clear attempts (and sometimes successful, I might add) at making their rooms more inviting, but there is only so much you can do with a brick cube illuminated by overhead florescent lights. In light of Suzanka's theories, perhaps we would do well to consider school building design that takes asthetics into consideration so that our students might have every possible advantage.

What Makes Us Tick

I mention in the "Director's Comments" at the end of my Film Project that students never really learn until they are engaged and they never really listen until they are compelled to hear. I would like to make an attempt to connect these comments with the comments made in my previous blog posting about making an emotional impact and tugging at the heart. We engage students by presenting lessons in a manner that interests them. Much depends on the means of delivery, such as humor or playacting, or the use of technology, or getting them out of their seats and involoving them in the process. But we must engage them in the learning process by making it somehow meaningful to them. Film directors create compelling experiences through understanding what motivates and inspires their audience. It is our task as educators, if we wish to create compelling experiences in the educational setting, to understand what makes our students tick.

Brain Storms

The first critical issue of creating any project is arriving at a topic. I have sometimes been frustrated with students working on writing projects, when they sit at their desk with a blank piece of paper and claim, "I don't know what to write". I have a new empathy for them. Brainstormimg for this "film" project has seemed a bit more like Brain Storms than brainstorming. If I knew I had more time, better skills, and more sophisticated equipment, I might succeed at conjuring up a few more and more complex ideas. As it is, I feel the limitations bearing down on me. I have done a few music recording projects in the past, projects that took months, thousands of dollars of musical instruments and recording equipment, and considerable talent and skill to complete to my satisfaction. I do continue to remind myself that this is not a film class, but an educational psychology class. My focus must remain on the elements of the project that will make it a compelling experience for others, tugging at the heart, eliciting an emotional response....

Emotional Punch-lines

Here are some initial points to consider, things I gleaned from the assigned readings in the current module on the Nature and Design of Compelling Experiences in Film and Televsion:

1. you need an emotional punch-line
2. what does this person (people) care about? (know your audience)
3. research the topic
4. silence can create emotional impact
5. planning is critical

The Compelling Experience of Photography

I am attempting to discover how the study of what makes photographs compelling can be applied to teaching. In our study of photography, we examined elements of a good photograph, the elements of composition: pattern, symmetry, texture, depth of field, and lines, as well as subject placement, framing, balance, and lighting. What can these things possibly have to do with education? If anything, these composition elements may be compared to effective tools of classroom magagement. A well ordered classroom with clearly defined expectations creates a safe environment in which learning may be facilitated, but does not necessarily translate into compelling experiences. The element of a photograph that is truly compelling is not it's technical aspects (although, as we have seen, these certainly do contribute), but it's emotional quality. Does it have significance to me, as the viewer? Can I relate to the subject, is the image moving, does it call for an emotional response? This is how we make education compelling: create learning experiences that are somehow meaningful, that students can relate to, that stir emotion. Not specific or practical enough, I know. I hope to clarify in future posts....