I feel like I have been saying (still with uncertainty) for some time now that maybe jumping directly to college right after high school may not be the answer. How many times have you heard about students whom go directly to college, get their degree, and find a job in an unrelated field. I hear this all the time.
In Sir Ken Robinson’s book “The Element“, he talks about how our education system is set up to farm students in to the ‘factory’ and out to college, like an assembly line process. He also talks about how finding your passion may take time, and in almost every case, students have no idea what they want to do for the rest of their lives at 17 years old. Maybe we need a step in between high school and college, like an apprenticeship or internship discovery program.
Last night I was at an alumni event at Lesley University. I am both and Alum and teach at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. Great networking event! There was a woman who spoke about her story towards her career, and how some folks at Lesley University really helped her along the way. Her story was not so dissimilar to my own, but she said something interesting that got my “college to early” bug going. She mentioned how she found her passion after getting her bachelors degree, and that students should not necessarily worry about finding a job in the undergraduate field. The notion of “Get your degree, and then figure it out”. Hmmm… It’s like the only reason we go to college is to get to Grad School. As a design teacher in a BFA program, those skills students are learning are critical. Should my students just get their degree, and look for their next level schooling, while ignoring what they did before? Is this bachelors degree idea not anything more than a huge scam to 17/18 year old students???! We can’t let this happen.
A new article from Good Magazine also backs up this point. You’re not better off without a degree, but without some thought, focus, play and discovery of the world, jumping to college may not be the right answer after high school. It’s getting harder and harder to convince students the hefty price tag of college is worth it in the end. Interesting World. Here is the Good Magazine article - http://www.good.is/post/could-apprenticeships-replace-the-college-degree/
In a few weeks, “A Better World by Design” conference will be held for the 2011 year. This year I, and some close colleagues at GoodGood Design, have been invited to team-facilitate two workshops at the event. Our mutual designer buddies at ProjectM have invited us for workshops on Thinking Wrong (a abstract critical thinking and brainstorming exercise/method) and Rapid Prototyping (make, play – an extension of Thinking Wrong).
The two workshops have participants using design strategies and processes to remove preconceived linear notions about problems, and replace them with systematic, and dynamic approaches that will most certainly help yield a wider range of solutions.
Read More:
Rapid Prototyping // Think Wrong
We hope to see you at the conference on Sept 30 – Oct 2, 2011!
This summer, I have had the great opportunity to teach high school students design, as part of a college Young Artists Residency program at the Art Institute of Boston @ Lesley University. Students of my Graphic Design Techniques course collaborated with students from another graphic design course, and a fashion design course, to create branded fashion design look books.
The course only met seven times during the summer session, and students worked approximately 10 hours to design a brand, clothing designs and layouts for the books. Students had about 45 minutes of total time training on two pieces of software to aide in their quest, and I am confident in saying they may know more of the tools than my undergraduate students. I am totally blown away by the ability of the high school students to learn, adapt and improvise when given total autonomy over creative direction.
There were also some interesting observations from the educator point of view. First, if this is an example of the capacity of a group of 15-18 year old students to work, then I most certainly must re-evaluate my undergraduate courses to make sure the same capacity and benchmark are attainable and appropriate. Secondly revolves around the concept of autonomy. In Dan Pink’s TED talk on “The Surprising Science of Motivation” , he talks about the rewarding effects of giving employees (or in this case students), levels of autonomy over their work, time and output. High school students especially come from an environment of low autonomy, and most since primary school, have never had a chance to make determinations as to what is valuable to them. Why do you think students love hands on class projects so much over lecture and more traditional approaches?
Humans are social by nature. We need to move and operate within systems and networks to feel fulfilled and valued. While this semester had planned assignments, some solo and some in groups, the power of this natural social behavior may have only been brushed upon. Why try to work in groups, when we can just work in groups? Once the collaboration project started, I immediately encouraged my students to consider themselves a working design studio, rather than students in a class. Now, it would be silly of me to think just be saying you’re a ‘working design studio’, that students believe me totally. However, by giving students credit for actually having ideas, and trust to produce them well, students open up just a bit more to allow creative juices out, and confidence in. Those two things make for a killer creative combination.
Look Books:
I was interviewed recently for a magazine feature about a course I designed and teach called “Introduction to iPad and iPhone Development”. A writer came to my class one evening and spoke with some of my students about the course, and the apps they had been working on as part of their capstone project. They were thrilled to chat about their development process and the things they have been learning throughout the course.
In this course, students learn how apps are conceived from idea generation to simulation of actual application code and logic. Basic information architecture, graphic design and programming principles are covered. I believe that more and more institutions will be offering these types of courses every semester, and with the cost of this course for a full time, full tuition student being about $450, how can you go wrong!! – Course Site (Open Source)
The article can be found in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of the BHCC Magazine. – PDF Downlaod
I had the pleasure to attend the 2011 Design Senior Exhibition at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. There I found great work and a great turnout. Highlights for me include some extremely nice branding and poster based graphic design work from Stephanie Young, and two iPad apps developed by Vinny Bucchino. Not to mention a poster about ‘Smell o’ Vision’ from Kristen Hale that you could actually ‘scratch and sniff’.
Overall, the work was great, and in a great presentation. Success!
I am thrilled to announce the launch of a new project I have been working on for the last 9 months. I am working as a Senior Designer/Developer for SENSATE Journal, a brand new academic journal based out of Harvard and MIT. Fellow designer Ben Gaydos (GoodGood Design) and I have been working hard to provide the most efficient and effective solutions to help bring this new academic journal to life.
Here is the official release:
Sensate is an online, media-based journal for the creation, presentation, and critique of innovative projects in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Our aim is to build on the current groundswell of pioneering activities in the digital humanities, scholarly publishing, and innovative media practice to integrate new modes of scholarship into the cognitive life of the academy and beyond.
Sensate aims to foster new forms of scholarship that expand the traditional paradigm of academic discourse and open new possibilities for scholarship and artistic creation. Fundamental to this expansion is reimagining what constitutes a ‘piece’ of scholarship or art. Work featured in Sensate might take the form of audiovisual ethnographic research, multimedia mash-ups, experiments in media archaeology, participatory media projects, or digitized collections of archival media, artifacts, maps, or objects. By highlighting the processes of media and knowledge production, we hope to foster emergent and generative scholarship.
We hope that you will find many ways to engage with not only the content, but the ever-expanding network of Sensate collaborators. We welcome any feedback, provocations, and invitations for collaboration. Please contact us at: info@sensatejournal.com.
Sensate is free and open-access. Please visit the site at: http://www.sensatejournal.com/.
This assignment has students create a real-life object intended for human interaction. They have one week to complete a prototype and presentation. The goal of this assignment is to have students break from using their laptops and Adobe software suite, and exercise their resourcefulness muscle.
Students created a variety of items from disposable trash cans, to artists lamps, to an interactive game to get kids to floss regularly. Many students shared elements of their process, and frequently, were forced to “think on their feet” and ask a friend for help.
Course: Freshman Semiar @ Bunker Hill Community College.
Speical thanks to Kate Castelli from the AIB Illustration Department for working with our BHCC students.
OUR DESIGN…
Our Design - The Ideas, Courses and Projects of Designer, Developer and Teacher Matthew White - Boston Massachusetts
