How weekly exercises help the process of learning.

Never in a million years did I imagine myself get into educator mode. Much of it all culminated when I was in graduate school making teaching tools and loving it. As a freelancer, I had in the past researched and written for a children's video game. The idea of creating options along the path of the user came from there. I perfected my skills when I worked as lead designer for a global web redesign project in my past life.

Learning is cumulative. We all learn on the basis of something. As infants, we hear our parents speak and pick up from there. Mannerisms, habits and so are formed the same way. We base it on something. I find analogies to be a very useful tool in the classroom during lectures for the same reason.

A new concept can be communicated effectively if it is based on the reality of that particular student group. The reality of each batch of students changes because the environment they consume changes constantly. I needed to find a constant that can be changed yet maintained across classes, course levels and expertise. Being relevant is ever so important.

Weekly exercises first appeared in my classes when I wrote a graduate web design course for SCAD's Elearning program. I needed students to check in each week with peripheral concepts besides the main content being discussed. The success of these weekly exercises confirmed my belief — "a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down". Small doses of kind-of-relevant exploration brought students closer to their creative solutions.

In many of my classes, students are given a task each week. The tasks vary from watching a particular video and writing a summary of 500 words to going to a restaurant pretending to be your target audience and placing an order and writing about the experience. The weekly exercises change based on the project the class is working on or the concepts they need to have clarified before the end of the quarter. They then come into the classroom and share their weekly exercise with their peers.

Besides the learning that takes place while researching the exercise, there are other benefits. The journey they take together brings them closer in the classroom.Team dynamics improve. Ability to read a variety of sources increases. Open mindedness might occur in some. Sometimes, if the weekly isn't particularly exciting, the collective dissatisfaction of the exercise does wonders too. The teacher as a common enemy is a wondrous unifying force.

All in all, weekly exercises work. Most times, students don't realize it, but the light bulbs turn on during one of those moments when you think you cannot take on any more homework. And some of those light bulbs shine all the way through many successful careers.

Games in the classroom

The game was "Dumb charades" or at least that's what I grew up knowing it as since you weren't allowed to speak. Just act out your clues.

This was in the Creative Concepting class for juniors in the Advertising major program (BFA)

Objective:

1. Team building
2. Awareness of different cognition and learning styles amongst possible teammates
3. Definition of leadership qualities
4. Definition of boundary pushers
5. Figuring out the pop culture knowledge of the class. And hence the age/generation of the students
6. Agile thinking capability of various students.

Process: The class was "Creative Concepting". The premise of the class was exposing students to various (mostly visual) means of arriving at a concept for a given problem. The tactics across the course include storyboards, image only, text only, combinational campaign. The class also taught methods for research, content gathering, editing and filtering. It touched briefly on demographic study as well. Good habits need to be formed early on in the program.

The students were given the rules on how to play. Movies they could select. There needed to be a consensus of staying with national or international movies. The outspoken ones spoke and were heard. Teams were split with a random note picking exercise.

They forgot their inhibitions and began discussion, agreeing and disagreeing on movies they would give their opponents. They figured out the weak links in the opposite teams and changed movies based on who would act out next. They were frustrated when their team members were unaware of certain movies which according to them were cult movies. Their enthusiastically shared this and more knowledge. Some of the students picked movies that were very difficult to act out. Some students who were fantastic in their production of work were completely stumped at the “impromptu take it by the horns attitude” that the game requires you to have. If someone doesn’t get your clues, switching to quite an opposite technique to make it work doesn’t come very easily to all. And yet, these are all things that they needed to be fluid in to make the most of the creative concepting class.

This proved to be a successful game in many ways. The class functioned much more positively from then on. Presentations were a lot more interactive. Constructive criticism was very constructive. Who knew that playing a game in class would lead to gold!

Self obsession — the curse of insulated environments By Gauri Misra-Deshpande

Growing up in a society gives you little sense of its true quality — good or bad, until you experience another. And if you are fortunate or not, you stay long enough to compare the two worlds. Much of the evil in one is replaced by much of some other evil in the other. "It's all relative" becomes the truth to every single aspect of your daily routine. If you are lucky, there might be some similarities.

Books are an amazing tool for time travel and learning. Films across genres allow you to dive into unknown parts of the world and people around us as well. Other than that, it is digital/ social content that is your entryway to current happenings.

When I am connected today to anything I want to be connected to, I find myself overwhelmed at times. I can pull up information online about anything I want- from the next object of desire to the harsh reality of life in a remote region of the planet. From celebrity update to an article on socio-cultural shifts in markets with weather and political conditions  in turmoil. Sometimes, being eternally connected with my set of chosen friends and their social group can be exhaustive until I hit the "I don't care" icon in my head and switch paths. In this mishmash of opinion pieces, podcasts, updated blog posts, online groups, tweeted info graphics and buzzfed top 10 lists or youtube channels, I find myself losing control of my own thoughts sometimes.

Finally, that which is true is what I inhale, touch and see.

But this is me, an adult, a parent, an educator.

As an adult, I can drive myself around, über myself anywhere and pretty much consume whatever media I want if I don't want to travel physically. This is something that can be taken for granted by those in my category very easily. We assume life is what we choose outside of the surprise alternator repair on your dependable car or the termite damage from the past recently discovered at the foundation of your home. We get surprised but we are equipped to handle them in any way we choose.

It is a different story for young adults. The ones that cannot yet drive. Or those that stay in the control of parents/ caretakers most waking hours. This world must be a different experience altogether for them. If everyday life is insulated and restricted to the limited circles such as school/ neighborhood friends/ extra curricular activity friends - their only connection to anything else in the world is mostly digital. If you aren't accustomed to dealing with unexpected people or situations, how do you figure life out? How do you feel in control? If stranger anxiety is developed to be very very prominent (which is unfortunately necessary to an extent) they aren’t given an opportunity to figure out the creepy from the normal. If there is no safe avenue to make mistakes, how do they develop their own personal personality radars? Much of their environment isn’t in their control.

When most things around you aren’t a construct of your imagination, you begin to feel the need to control something–anything.

So then you do what it takes to control the things that you can. Does food become one of those? Do your personal hygiene and decoration be one of those? Would your relationships be one of those elements that you can control? If much time is spent insulated, does it make a young adult more self-focused?

A window that allows them to look at  people their age in their everyday would help open their eyes to the differences in their world and the one outside the window. One that would allow them a different perspective and possibly an appreciation of what they do have or an inspiration to acquire what they don't.

Encouraging Entrepreneurship

An entrepreneur is an individual that chooses to pursue the one idea that he is passionate about. It is a mindset I have been told often is one that you either have or don't. As I taught Alternative Media in Advertising, I decided to give students a chance to try it. The class had mostly undergrads, most about to graduate. The project was to create a crowd sourcing video for a new project/ idea. The challenge was to develop the idea for 5 weeks and then develop a prototype for the product and the video for the next 5 weeks. Students met with Mark Weinberg of uruut.com at the Atlanta Tech Village to talk about his journey as an entrepreneur. The students explored various concepts from market need, audience profile (demographic, psycho graphic and techno graphic). They also realized through the process the skill set needed for an entrepreneur and whether or not their team possessed it. Overall, the project was very successful. Jeff Hillimire of Dragon Army and Jed Simmons from Youtube attended the presentation.

The result was 2 original ideas:

1. Sterlings: An alcoholic frozen beverage. See the video here: http://youtu.b/6bcmDuj2QfE
2. Kanvas: A system and service that makes it easy to bring art in your home with digital frames and a database of art from all over the world. See the video here: http://youtu.be/aDNy73YfUg8

Being foreign and being an educator...

I always expect students to read, not just material related to their subject of choice but so much more. Growing your technical know-how is key but understanding the place you hope to occupy in the bigger community/ profession is primarily key. During my early days of teaching, I'd ask students if they heard this bit in the news and I would get vague sparse responses. The few interested/ hungry and eager ones would share random stories. The others didn't read or didn't think their opinion mattered. Now, I make it a class requirement.
I make it a point to ask students to share what they read in the news. And encourage it to be off the subject we are studying. This usually brings everyone into the present. They share their discoveries and form a stronger idea of their personal world and relationships with their peers. Avenues like the TED talks give us plenty of such opportunities. Just because it is a typography class, it doesn't hold us back from discussing the Ebola virus and its spread and the work being done to prevent it in our neighbourhood at the CDC. We go on to talk on about education of aid workers in countries where poverty prevents literacy and how a possibility could be visual aids for crossing the language barrier. We easily slide right into our subject matter of visual communication and the key role of typography. It helps that I did not grow up in the same country as most of my class. It keeps me open to learning from them about the subtle cultural nuggets that only a native can pass on. And they learn to keep an open mind that often gets told recipes for a homemade herbal tea to keep them from getting sick as the weather changes. It is this exchange that brings us to common ground and then the learning actually begins.
I enjoy teaching for this reason. I get to learn. From the current music styles to the way the younger market communicates with their peers — I hear about it all. I don't always agree with it and there is often a debate where we go back and forth on the merits of hand-drawn sketches but that's what keeps the class alert and involved. We respect each others' opinions and hopefully somewhere in there, they learn about the basics of typography, how you always let a grid guide you and why kerning matters.

Website for an Art Education Resource site

This project is one that brings different results with each batch of students. And I like to create projects that develop skills beyond the course syllabus. That includes personal skills such as research, team player qualities and self-initiation. Students tend to view the web beyond a consumer's point of view after they have worked on this extensive project.

Objective: Create a resource website for high school students researching various artists/movements/time periods. During the process, learning extra tidbits yourself. Appreciate the work put into creating deep knowledge based websites. Consider workflow within a team environment.

Class: The class was Digital Studio I (graduate web design class focused on information architecture, usability and accessibility principles).

The Website: The class worked as a team of three designers that worked individually upto a certain point and then came together to fuse the more successful concepts to create the single working prototype. The client was extremely overjoyed with the results and the students gained excellent experience as a result of the project and the class. The brief presentation can be viewed in this .pdf.

The Website:The class worked as individuals towards personal enlightenment about global warming. One observation I make of a lot of students is that they have a lot of information at hand but less knowledge and hence the hesitance to discuss a subject intelligently. The students researched the subject matter as it appealed to each of them individually. They then thought about who the audience for the their website was and researched sites targeting that audience. It was upto them to decide what the website would do.

" Aah Haans" Moments of learning

• Review of media across the world.
• How does global warming affect each person
• How can I make a change to affect the world
• understand the demographic and cater to their needs
• Sitemaps, wireframes, sequence charts...
• Cascading Style Sheets—slow miracles.

Social Awareness: Global warming

Objective: Create a website to express your views on the then very prevalent discussion on global warming versus climate change. Students were to research the topic across geographic boundaries, compare facts and what they found in the media including blogs, newspapers, forums/. discussions, other social avenues for the discussion.

Class: The class was Web Design (undergraduate web design class focused on teaching students how the software works and the correct workflow).

The Website: The class worked as individuals towards personal enlightenment about global warming. One observation I make of a lot of students is that they have a lot of information at hand but less knowledge and hence the hesitance to discuss a subject intelligently. The students researched the subject matter as it appealed to each of them individually. They then thought about who the audience for the their website was and researched sites targeting that audience. It was upto them to decide what the website would do.

"Aah Haan" Moments of learning

• Review of media across the world.
• How does global warming affect each person
• How can I make a change to affect the world
• understand the demographic and cater to their needs
• Sitemaps, wireframes, sequence charts...
• Cascading Style Sheets—slow miracles.

Zoo Atlanta Website Redesign

Zoo Atlanta is a very strong physical presence in Georgia. It is a big part of family time during weekends and holidays. Their research program is very strong. The facility is beautifully maintained and provides an educational environment for families of Georgia. However the same was not true of their website. It did not convey all that the Zoo stood for. And that was the challenge for my students.
Objective: Convey everything that the Zoo has to offer to the community in an interface that communicated trust and assured them that the Zoo is one of the better choices amongst other attractions in the city of Atlanta. Based on research, propose a redesign for the Zoo Atlanta website and create a working prototype to convey design decisions.

Class: The class was Digital Studio I (graduate web design class focused on information architecture, usability and accessibility principles).

The Website: The class worked as a team of three designers that worked individually upto a certain point and then came together to fuse the more successful concepts to create the single working prototype. The client was extremely overjoyed with the results and the students gained excellent experience as a result of the project and the class.

"Aah Haan" Moments of learning

• Visit to the Zoo.
• Sitemaps, wireframes, sequence charts...
• Panda cam = revenue generation?
• Cascading Style Sheets—slow miracles.

Wine Label Design–French wine–Japanese consumer

The setting was picturesque. I was in Lacoste, France. SCAD LAcoste is located in a 200 person village. Ideal for painters and photographers. Not so perfect for control freaks that like to control every em and pixel with their Mac book Pros (graphic designers). But the learning was also of a different kind given the environment. Traveling and making do with the resources to produce the best work. With one Mac lab to be shared with all classes and no art store with easy access.

Objective: The class was to use their skills of thinking outside the box and design a wine label for "Muscat Rose" wine that was to be marketed to the Japanese market . This was to be done for a local winery Chateaux Pesquei in Moirmoron, France. The wine was made with Muscat grapes

Class: The class was Graphic Design for Alternative Media. The challenge was for the students to understand the process of wine-making. Understand the minor details of information that is required on a wine label. Get a sense of the Japanese market and create a label that met all these needs.

The Winning Label: The client was beyond impressed considering that the class was conducted in the Lacoste campus of the school. The campus is located in the beautiful Provence with limited resources. The results included everything from a Barbecue event, high-school competition, youTube channel and guerrilla marketing

"Aah Haan" Moments of learning

• Tour of the authentic French winery.
• Research = tasting different kinds of wines.
• "So legs of a wine define how sweet it really is??"
• Japanese market research.
• Working with limited technology/ material.

Welcome

It has been 8 years now since I entered my first class that Winter day in a classroom in pretty Savannah, GA. I had 20 students watching my every move. I was all prepared with the syllabus to share, the information about the class, introduction phrases, a couple emergency ice-breakers and my lecture and assignments for the day. I began the lecture with fair ease. And then I was done. And it had only been 30 minutes. What do I do with the next 120 minutes?

It has been a long journey since. Mostly of my own education. I learn everyday from my students. As I teach in a culture I did not grow up in but adapted to instead, I get to know so many new things every day. Right from, the favorite cartoons, to life in high school, what certain slang means, how it is to grow up in the suburbs, how certain phrases may mean different things just with a change in tone. How much could I stretch my authority, how differently it is viewed by different students. And to make life more interesting, how I become the referee when diverse groups interact. These could be differences in gender, nationality, culture, regions of the same country, different social backgrounds and ethnicity to name a few.

And within all this where does learning design or communication or technology fit it?

When I signed up for the job, I thought I was going to talk about the principles of design, typography, hierarchy. I was going to teach how a software works and how you use it to convey your ideas in a refined fashion. I was going to help them develop strategies and apply them towards conveying ideas.

There has been all that but there has been so much more. And that's what this blog is about.

The JCB experience

The idea of presenting day in and day out to your peers and to your professor loses its charm after a while. Students tend to become complacent with the efforts involved. Not always and certainly not all of them. There is still that shining layer of students that excel no matter what. I do find tho' that working with a "real" project and a "real" client when in academics provides the much needed reality check of life after school.

Objective: The task was to promote JCB as a leading manufacturer of back-hoes to the North American market. They have truly a wonderful product that has a strong recognition in Asia and Europe. However Caterpillar is a strong competitor here. The students were mostly from NA and understood the tradition of a Cat and the nostalgia around a John Deere. The challenge was to think of innovative ways to create a strong brand presence for JCB in North America.

Class: The class was Web Advertising. So the students had to understand what it means to advertising in the increasingly popular media that doesn't need material to be solely printed and they have figure out a way to meet the needs of the current consumer base using alternative media. Essentially low investment and high returns or high visibility in the long-run.
The Campaign
The class was set up in teams of two and they competed for the project that the client would consider implementing. 5 well rounded campaigns were presented to the client. And they were beyond impressed. The results included everything from a Barbecue event, high-school competition, youTube channel and guerrilla marketing. Some of the pieces can be seen in this .pdf.

"Aah Haan" Moments of learning

• What does a back hoe do exactly?
• Hispanics the growing market for construction equipment?
• "Everyone in the world does not know what Facebook is"
• Guerrilla Advertising and what it really means.
• Buyer and Consumer can be two different people

Flashback...thanks to Doyaa

I became a statistic yesterday when my daughter saw (Doyaa) Dora packaged yoghurt cups in the dairy aisle and wanted to get them. She hasn't been a very good/ willing eater most times so I succumbed without the usual distract and disappear tactics. She got home and willingly ate most of the yogurt and I kept eying the pro-biotic, low sugar and extremely tasty option that I stock up for her. Made me realize how I wanted her to eat what I thought was good for her. And how the media has succeeded in making her consume with the help of a cartoon character. Damn, us advertising professionals are good at what we do!

Growing up I didn't have a picture of Dora on my yogurt nor the cow from the organic pro-biotic yogurt. There was no cup for that matter. Just yogurt made at home in a ceramic pot that would be served on my plate to be enjoyed with rice, sugar, salt or just plain.

I remember my mother, grandmothers and aunts setting the yogurt at night to be ready for the family the next morning. I especially remember how my grandmother said you always need to stir the existing yogurt into the milk exactly 20 times and then cover it and let it sit overnight. I watched her do this a gazillion times. Then, I moved to the land of options.

Currently, I have been working with my web design students on a website for global warming and sustainability. There are varying opinions and arguments each day about what is right and what is not. I have an enthusiastic group that does not shy of opinions. Bottled water or tap water, consumption, waste, ignorance, status, well...that's what my mother used to do when we were little....and many more emotions get a chance to talk during class critiques. I soon realized that if you didn't grow up with knowing that life can be lived any differently, you wouldn't know better. Your ideas of life in general and recycling specifically would be very different.

I hope this blogpost gathers varying viewpoints. Where we can see how each of us grew up with certain ideas. And in retrospect, what did that lifestyle teach us or not about sustainability and recycling.