Month: June 2019

This session felt like more of a round up of everything, making sure we all knew what we needed to do for final submission and helping us get our heads around workflow. These sessions are SO important. We have ‘make the grade’ sessions with our students where I show examples of past work under each of the criteria they need to hand in so they are fully aware and can ask any questions if they are unsure. It curbs the 100s of emails a few days before hand in where students are panicking. I came to the session worried about the presentation, unable to use workflow, unsure what to write for my three essays and all worries and questions were dispelled and answered in this session. I came away with a workflow page, an idea for my presentation and felt able to write my three essays.

Iestyn also did the ‘speed dating’ exercise with us. This is something he recommended my students to do and I did not exercise my class as well as he did. The google timer was a great tool to use, I used my phone and it distracted me from listening to what the students were saying. He made us just switch partners as we wished, I made students stand in a line and got them to rotate. My way felt stiffer and the students felt insecure about talking, Iestyns ‘cocktail party’ manner was much less formal and more relaxed which is a much better option. I will be taking on these small changes into next year with my students.

Iestyn also had on a flipboard a timed plan of the whole session which allowed us to see what was coming up, again something I will take on board as students who sometimes work quicker or have to leave earlier from class can refer to the plan without having to ask lots of questions.

We did an ‘information exchange’ task from our electives. I haven’t done an elective but picked an article to discuss. Again, BRILLIANT idea! This is something I could get my students to do with their project ideas so they aren’t just waiting their turn to discuss their projects. Also by asking us to write down some questions prior to class it helped the groups instigate discussion.

From Alice: I liked the activity at the start, to get us thinking about the object. I really liked that you didn’t tell us why you were asking so that the replies we gave you were real and not influenced by you. I thought you spoke passionately and with real invested interest about the subject which made it more interesting and engaging to listen to you. I liked that you included some humour in your presentation. You made me think about aspects of bag design I had not considered before. The only suggestion I might make is that all the interactive part was at the start, then it was you talking – maybe you could try and build in some more interactive elements throughout? 

My response: I think the idea of adding more interactive elements is a good idea and actually I wanted to include other elements into the session which, because of the limitations of time, I couldn’t. I wanted to talk more about details that students could add to a tote by showing examples and also show different constructions so they could see by changing the construction process it can create a different look. I also wanted them to look at different materials – stiffer and floppy materials and play around with sizes, not only of the bags but of the details too. To complete the session, I would have wanted to give the students a concept, colour and consumer board and get them to draw and design different totes to be presented to the class. This session would expand their design ideas by not disregarding designs because they are considered ‘basic’, practise their drawing skills, expand their ideas in terms of details, reinforce their knowledge of constructions and make sure they explore all aspects of design to fit a colour, concept and consumer.

From Naomi:Artefact presented on the table: A Tote Bag

Selina: What is this?…take your time to touch, think and write down what you think about this item.

My answer: Cotton tight-weave Tote Bag, with BBC JAM sessions print on the bag in blue. Is it a corporate promotion merchandise? Is it a momentum for you?…for a session you went to that was significant for you in some way?

Selina proceeded to unravel the (relatively simple) history of the Tote bag….from first development of an ‘ice bag’ in 1944 as the very first documented Tote. 

She then brings Tote historical commentary up to date to recent high impact Tote bags seen on catwalk for Balenciage (pseudo IKEA  bag) and Louis Vuitton (laundry bag).

Demonstrates how iconic the most basic bag is from utility to catwalk. Never to be underestimated. We ALL live with a Tote, or many totes – especially since plastic bag expulsion. She is right, of course….the Tote IS an artefact!

I enjoyed this session because although it was informal and relaxed in both tone of delivery and in subject matter. The artefact is familiar to ALL….Universal! 

Selina offered a historical overview that included practical function, cultural function and the contemporary iconic role this item now carries and does it well. Made me think of slogan TShirts, and badge-brooches…..political voice….a practical bag that behaves as a democratic platform for decoration, group identity and/or political voice. 

I like that I now know when the Tote was introduced and why. A good story.

Selina quote: ‘Never under estimate a Tote!’ 

Method of teaching delivery:Interactive, Deductive. Delivered a prepared Powerpoint presentation (or a short PDF), with images to illustrate the most historical and the most contemporary iconic Totes as mentioned. This was engaging, because the examples are familiar, and have been polemic. Makes me smile.

My response: In both Alice and Naomi’s feedback, a sense of humour/ light heartedness was mentioned. I am pleased about this as I think the students seem to learn/ enjoy classes more when there is some ‘fun’ involved. Students also feel freer to make mistakes and explore their ideas even if to them they don’t make sense. As Naomi is in a similar field I am glad she enjoyed the session and understood my aim with the session.

Give 2mins to look at the tote and we can write down thoughts  

The amount of times a student has designed a tote and said ‘but I can’t make this, it is too simple’ I always say it’s about the details and what you are adding to the bag. Do not underestimate the tote! 

So let’s discover a bit more about the tote. 

The word tote means to bear or ‘to carry’ can be traced back to the 17^th century but really made impact in the 1940s. In 1944 the Maine based outdoors store L.L.Bean introduced it’s ‘ice bag’ made from canvas which was as it’s title suggests, a bag made to carry ice and was popular because of it’s versitility and fnctionality. 

Their famous Boat Bag was based on the icebag design and over the years they have changed the size, length of the handle, materials and finishes. 

The tote bag is designed across all markets. Let us look at luxury brand Balenciaga’s designer version of the ikea bag in 2017 for £1600. When released Ikea quickly issued a response and took a light hearted swipe at the fashion industry with this ad. Demna Gvasalia the designer decided to channel this “perfect example of ready-made” into a leather luxury bag. Speaking to WWD, Gvasalia added that the Balenciaga bag’s price skyrocketed because of the change in logo and the fact that the tote was made “beautifully out of leather.” This obviously has been done before for example Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton

But it is not only humble totes that have been transformed into luxury items, luxury brands have designed their own versions of the tote, creating their own iconic bags. Let’s go back to Louis Vuitton and see their ‘Neverfull bag’ Even done collaborations with Yayoi Kusama and stephen sprouse to keep their iconic design current and targeting a range of different consumers 

How can we ever forget Anya Hindmarch’s tote – I’m not a plastic bag which shot her brand and name to fame. Anya Hindmarch created the cloth bags for the organisation We Are What We Do to support its campaign against carrier bags. For the small price of £5.  

Nowadays we have to pay for single use plastic bags – light weight, cheap, tote bags are on the rise to carry our shopping bag from the supermarket. Cotton bags with any print you can imagine on it. 

So to conclude, looking at all these totes, each one we have seen today are different, have different customers, made from different materials, different closures, handles, sizes, constructions, piping, binding to name a few 

So if you are designing a tote, don’t think it is simple or common. It’s so much more than that and I will now say again as I say to my students “Do not underestimate the tote!”

The above is what I prepared to chat about – I just used this as a prompt but had practiced my teaching session a few times to make sure I was within the 10minute time limit and knew what I was talking about. There was a session when I came back from maternity leave where I had to cover a session I knew very little about ‘Eurocentric’ and had no time to prepare – it was obvious I was reading from a sheet and I could see the students were a bit dubious of what I was talking about. I NEVER want to be in that situation again so if I need to, I will always prepare beforehand. The students can SMELL fear and will lose confidence in you quickly if you are not prepared! Thankfully this was the only situation like this I’ve been in and the students soon forgot how I conducted that class.

I really enjoyed this microteaching session and it is something I think I will expand on for my students in the future. Unfortunately or fortunately, the students have finished now for the year so it is a class I will prepare for over the summer for the next second year students.

Just before our session with Lindsay on the 5th June, Naomi, Alice and I managed to get together to do our microteaching session. Alice went first and my review of her session is below:

Alice’s microteaching aim was to use the object to guide the us through the methods and possibilities of using the online library services. It was great how, instead of just talking us through the process she engaged with us and led us through it all making us type words into the search engine. This made the process much more memorable. I have now actually used the ‘search articles plus’ to help source an article for the next PGCert session! I also found her object, the programme for ‘Hedda Gabler’ interesting as I was unsure if the library would actually have any information on the play. However, to my surprise a number of books and articles came up. Alice spoke calmly and slowly enough for us to follow her instructions and I felt directed us through her 10minute teaching in a fluid manner. 

I went next and I will explain that in another post. We didn’t have time for Naomi’s so did hers in the break and my review of her micro teaching is below:

Naomi’s microteaching aim was to open our eyes to what an artefact is. It was very interesting how she started by getting us to turn away from the object as she set it up. The initial sounds sparked my interest from the beginning, and I think is a fantastic way to engage students at the start of a session. I find in my teaching I focus on mostly visuals, so to have the first introductions of an object with its sound is something I will think about in the future. We were then asked to close our eyes and just feel the object. It was very interesting how Alice and I both perceived the object differently. Again, using our other senses means you interpret things in a different way. It engages your imagination, which again is something I would like to explore with my students. Once we were allowed to look at it, Naomi explained where this piece had come from and explained the materials and their history. This changed my perspective of the piece. It was interesting how in the microteaching, Naomi led us through many emotions and thoughts of the object by using different senses and slowly revealing information about the object. The conclusion was left to think about what is an artefact. I liked how it was left to almost take away what we had learnt from the session and encourage discussions and further research. Naomi was clear and spoke with feeling for the object and the topic. She was engaging using different methods of experiencing the object and the session came across well planned. 

It was a shame I missed the main microteaching session, but for personal reasons I couldn’t attend, but I would have liked to see what everyone did as just between the three of us we all conducted such different sessions. Alice led us through a sample of her teaching session where we followed her instructions and learnt how to use the library’s facilities, I wanted to use the object to help expand the mind as a designer and not disregard ‘simple’ designs and Naomi made us look at an artefact/ sculpture in a new light and question ‘What is an artefact?’

My thoughts before the session:

Ethics of care in teaching and own experience. We have amazing counsellors and people to help students through issues. We see students for personal tutorials to check they are okay. We create the thick experience for students to be able to come and talk to us when they need to without feeling there is a tutor/ student divide. 

Criticisms from the session:

Maintains sexist stereotypes?  

Compromises care for the self?  

Permits ‘groupism’ and unfair treatment? 

-Caring for and caring about – empathy and compassion 

-gendered. White centric/ western centric 

-who cares for the carer? 

-ramifications on feedback and assessment 

• The risk of helping one out why you are not helping another. Going against rules/ institutional policies. Unfair advantages – parity? 

These criticisms of having a caring institution were something I haven’t thought of before. I never before really saw the negative side of it but hearing everyone elses criticisms of the ‘ethics of care’ it did make me think. I always saw it as such a positive thing to enhance teaching and learning, but I can see how it can create disparity between the students. There are definitely some students I have more contact with and so I understand their projects and them as designers more. I’m sure subconsciously there will be biases towards the students I know better – wanting them to do well, get better grades etc. I think it’s impossible not to be this way, but that is why we have second markers and criteria to follow- there have definitely been situations where I thought a student was going to be an A and after looking at the work it became a B+ or something and vice versa.

Can the university be a caring institution? 

The answer to this I always thought of as yes, but it’s the balance – this is something I might want to explore further. Obviously it can be – this last year we have had changes in our teaching staff and one of the previous members of our team were incredible – I was extremely sad to see her go. She not only educated the students but would make the effort to spend some time just walking around our floor to speak to students. While the uni was recruiting there was a temporary replacement who did not make that same effort with the students. The students throughout all year groups were unhappy and disappointed, constantly remembering our old member of staff, and it was the care she gave to the students that reassured them in their studies and gave them the confidence in the course and themselves as designers.

Lindsay highlighted the change in name – Contextual studies to include yourself in the ideas whereas before was cultural and historical studies which students couldn’t relate to.

STUDENT STORIES 

Dilesh – architecture does it allow for community, teritorial in students workspace, we offer opportunities for collaboration but students still don’t take it up, grass is greener e.g GL looking at CSM 

Kimmy – doesn’t see the value in the tutor. Maybe students didn’t feel cared for. Value for money? Pressure. Performance. What is a useful structure for a student – we structure students days around us and just tell them it will be good for them. Lack of flexibility 

Negative capability – being able to exist in a space of not knowing 

Where are the spaces for these kind of exchanges (e.g with Kimmy and Dilesh)? What will you take from this? 

Student evaluation doesn’t end with student feedback but starts with student feedback. 

Consider real time feedback – CATS Angelo and Cross (80’s technique) 

Naomi and I work in the same building, on the same floor, but she teaches MA Fashion Artefact and I teach on the BA Bags and Accessories degree so there no cross over between our students or our teaching. It was interesting going into the MA studio to see what they do and if it was any different to what we do on the BA. Listening to the one on one tutorials, it seems the MA students are more focused and, obviously, their projects are more detailed than the BA students. Otherwise, the formative feedback sessions were very similar, tutors giving students ideas, questioning choices and helping direct them to the next stages. There are also two tutors on the MA course who seem to know all their students projects which is great as each tutor will offer different advice. It would be great if there was that variety of input for the BA students but I guess with budgets etc it’s not feasible. Actually saying that, the second years have had this from me and the new course leader, which has led to students to complain about conflicting advice. Can you win? We have now been trying to reinforce into our students that you can take on our advice or leave it, it’s their choice. It is for the students to take control of their projects and reason through ideas and questions and make their own judgments. In the second year we also only have industry projects, so usually industry partners come into the uni to see the students for a mid point crit. Industry partners usually only have half a day so it’s not easy to give in depth feedback and sometimes students get disappointed when they don’t hear, “Well you should put this in the design” or something similar. Again I think this goes back to students owning their ideas and designs and challenging us as tutors, rather than just thinking we have all the answers.

Anyway, going back to observing Naomi, I did learn a few things that I will take on board – such as writing down notes (feedback sheets) for the students in certain sessions. Again, I will repeat, it was also great to see how similar our feedback sessions were. We don’t get trained to be tutors and we just do what we think is right so by seeing tutors do similar techniques it affirms my teaching skills.

Naomi came into my very crazy session to observe me. I had already prepared the students that this would be happening but they were distracted anyway by their projects which was a short 5 week project meaning there was high energy and quick decisions to be made in a short space of time. I had a lot on my mind at the time with personal issues so after I was afraid that I might have come across unprofessional or unsure as I was distracted, however, after reading my feedback she was very positive and it made me realise that teaching is not something I have to force. Obviously, there is always room for improvement and I’m by no means perfect but, even with big personal issues I can still do my job to a capable level. It is definitely intimidating having a fellow colleague observe you but from the feedback given, it really highlighted to me things I could improve on that I didn’t realise. I do think this should be part of tutors development in the future once or twice a year. This would make tutors forward think and adapt classes/ change aspects of our teaching style where needed as sometimes you cannot see where changes need to be made in yourself.

I Have had this in my drafts for a while as I have been pondering the Bakhurst article and the student experience.

THIN experience – what a university can measure, what they can provide evidence for (feedback, recognition, community, engagement, employability, creative curricula)

The THICK experience is what Bakhurst talks about, the experience you cannot quantify (fullfilling, enriching, inspiring, affirming, personal and authentic)

The thick experience is such a vital part of the learning experience. Now understanding the terminology, especially the personal aspect, I almost feel like it validates all those times I have spent some of the classroom time just talking to students about their lives, jobs and interests. It helps me understand them as a student and what their struggles and aims are. I also share things that are happening in my life whcih makes me personable and someone they feel able to talk to. It takes me back to the first session with Iestyn where we all had to talk a bit about ourselves- it made Iestyn, not a scary tutor, but someone we could relate to.