Week 5 Origination

Reading Quiz - John Maeda, Laws of Simplicity: Law 4 – Learn

Describe the relationship between teaching and learning according to Maeda?

Experience side of learning. Putting yourself as a student. Learning occurs if your passionate about it.

Gives heap of homework.

Describe the importance of the use of metaphors in learning, why would you use them, how, give an example?

Having a common experience upon which to map your own.

Being familiar with a concept and able to relate it to yourself.

A symbolic comparison.

Metaphors serve to relate-translate a key concept.

Examples:

·        As easy as a piece of cake.

·        he teenage boy's stomach was a bottomless pit.

·        Her mind is a sponge that absorbs all details.

·        The inside of the car was a refrigerator.

‘metaphors use knowledge that the learner already has of the surrounding world to illustrate some property of the unfamiliar topic. Thus learning takes place by building on that previously held knowledge’
(reference: http://theteachingtomtom.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/the-use-of-metaphors-in-teaching-and-learning/)

This  You tube video clip defines a metaphor as comparing two things without using the words like or as. The two things are usually pretty dissimilar.

I feel that care needs to be taken with using too many metaphors or hard to decipher metaphors, as this could distract from the simple meaning of the subject!

BRAIN - what does the acronym stand for – why is it important?

Basics – are the beginning. Assume the position of the first time learner.

Repeat yourself often – Repetition works – its easier to remember if it is said over and over again. Hearing, seeing, doing.

Avoid creating desperation. Don’t create anxiety of the overwhelming aspects of the new. A gentle, inspired start is the best way to draw students or even a new customer, into the immersive process of learning.

Inspire with examples. Strong belief in someone else, helps to fuel belief in yourself and gives you direction.

Never forget to repeat yourself.

Describe a situation where you have been required to teach someone a skill. How could you apply the BRAIN principle to it?

The BRAIN principle can be used when teaching a child to tie shoe laces. Basics, show a child sitting with them side by side, or sit them between your legs so she can see you tie your shoes from the same angle.  Repetition can be used by singing a song or rhyming the lesson.  Avoid creating desperation by being gentle and not showing any impatience. Inspire with examples of yourself or another family member tying laces.

 

Task 03 Exhibition

Queenie and I presented our exhibition project, A childrens book about a teddy bear (Little Brownie) and his adventures, (A4 size). Queenie has done some pencil drawings.  Mark mentioned pencil drawing may look a little washed out.  Perhaps we can just draw an outline, scan in to Illustrator and add colour. It was mentioned that Teddy Bear stories have been done a lot. Perhaps we could give it a bit of a Darwin flavor to it.

Queenie and I are getting together this weekend to try and nut out the story.

Separately I also showed a page of another childrens book I would like to exhibit – Captain Ron goes to sea. In a previous unit for certificate (a few years ago), I did some concept drawings, which I would like to fine tune and see it come to print.  I have scanned the images and traced them with the pen tool in Illustrator (hours and hours of work) and added some colour. Paul said there are easier ways and mentioned a tutorial. I’ve tried all the tracing options in illustrator, never really found the right results.  I’ve emailed Paul to find out more about this tutorial