Design learning goes online: The role of ICT in Architecture Education
•Download as PPS, PDF•
2 likes•1,218 views
This document discusses the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in architecture education. It explores how ICT can support different learning theories, including behaviorist, constructivist, situated, collaborative, and informal/lifelong learning. Examples are provided of studies using ICT to scaffold design reasoning, support online conceptual design learning, promote learning through social interaction and collaboration, and expand learning beyond the classroom. The document advocates for blended learning approaches that combine online and traditional learning methods.
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (18)
Similar to Design learning goes online: The role of ICT in Architecture Education
Similar to Design learning goes online: The role of ICT in Architecture Education (20)
More from STADIO Higher Education
More from STADIO Higher Education (20)
Design learning goes online: The role of ICT in Architecture Education
- 1. Design learning goes online: the role of ICT in architecture education architectural education symposium at wits 24 january 2014 Jolanda Morkel Senior lecturer, Architectural Technology, Faculty of Informatics and Design, Cape Peninsula University of Technology CPUT part-time coordinator, OpenArchitecture
- 2. practice students time place campus community office online ubiquitous anywhere anytime non-traditional, diverse specialization, diversification, transformation challenges facing studio tradition
- 3. behaviourist: change in actions constructivist: construct new ideas based on existing knowledge situated: authentic context and culture collaborative: social interaction informal and lifelong: outside dedicated learning spaces how might ict support design learning [Naismith, Lonsdale, Vavoula and Sharples 2004]
- 4. behaviourist learning to promote learning as a change in learners’ actions [Skinner, Bandura etc.] This Masters’ study experiment was conducted in the second year studio of the National Diploma programme at CPUT. It explores how the cognician software scaffolds students’ design reasoning in the design of a Pop up shop for the Wuppertal community. Scaffolding for the Architecture Design Critique: A case of using a cognitive tool (Cognician) to scaffold reflection and articulation in students’ design reasoning. L Hitge Masters thesis in ICT in Education at UCT (in process) Pasted from http://givrum.nu/om/
- 5. constructivist learning to allow learners to actively construct new ideas based on existing knowledge [Dewey, Kolb, Piaget etc.] The aim of this research is to understand how conceptual architectural design learning is mediated online, through online interactions, by means of reflection, peer to peer engagements and between student and tutor. First Architectural/ spatial design MOOC "ThinkTank" is a collaborative online learning course:Leuphana Digital School’s first open online course ‘ThinkTank – Ideal City of the 21st Century’. J Morkel – observer status Leuphana Digital School
- 6. situated learning to promote learning within an authentic context and culture [Herrington 2009, Collins et al 1992, Dennen 2004, Kuhn 2001; Kvan 2001] The paper draws on the seven methods of the cognitive apprenticeship model to investigate, through design-based research, which Cognitive Apprenticeship strategies a redesigned second year undergraduate architecture programme promoted. Cognitive apprenticeship and work integrated learning: design-based research for improving an undergraduate program in architectural technology. Morkel, Ivala, Gachago (unpublished)
- 7. to facilitate learning through social interaction [Maher and Simoff 2000; Gül, Wang & Cagdas 2012, Kvan 2001] collaborative learning Digging into the linkograph and pulling it apart: An exploration of architectural design moves in a Skype conversation Pauwels, Morkel, De Bod (unpublished) Analysing a design learning conversation via Skype through linkography against a theoretical background of abductive, deductive and inductive reasoning.
- 8. informal & lifelong learning to support learning outside a dedicated learning environment [Dewey 1933, Lave & Wenger 1991, Smith 1988, Eraut 2000] Exploring the use of facebook to support the face to face studio and expand learning beyond time and place dimension. 24% was about communication control “I just read… that we need to have R25 entry fee into Kirstenbosch. I would like to know why the department cannot cover that cost. Are these site visits not prt of our course…??” 5% was about communication technology “Hi there! Please look under info tag for updated online portfolio list…” 29% was about social communication “Tchaikovsky playing, ArchiCAD kicking, caffeine ingesting, mildly amusing evening. How you guys doing? Ing ing ing” 42 % was about design communication “You guys HAVE to check this out. Amazing visual method of explaining the development of design, although quite a mission to do it… But awesome, nonetheless.” Architectural design learning through online conversation: a case for the use of facebook. Morkel 2011
- 9. Blended learning “Learning that uses multiple strategies, methods and delivery systems”. The Node Learning Technologies Network, 2003 “Learning methods that combine e-learning with other forms of flexible learning and more traditional forms of learning.” Flexible Learning Advisory Group, 2004
- 10. course outcomes assessment method & criteria learning activities, projects, assignments outputs, artefacts evidence portfolio building course materials/ resources
- 11. behaviourist office- basedconstructivist situated collaborative informal & lifelong on- campus ‘block release’ on l i n e o n l i n e o n l i n e on l i n e 2 year part-time BTech Architectural Technology (Applied Design) offering through CPUT and OA, starting in 2014
Editor's Notes
- Good afternoon. The paper that I present here today, represents a body of work done towards my DTech studies and has informed the learning design of a CPUT part-time BTech programme to be offered in collaboration with OpenArchitecture this year. OA has been set up as a SAIA transformation initiative. Professor Lone Poulsen, who is the OA programme Director, is here in the audience today and we would like to invite you share your thoughts with us after the presentation or at any later stage. The paper looks at the role of Information and Communication Technologies in architectural education, specifically design learning that traditionally happens in the studio.
- Since the late 19th Century project-based learning has been central to the pedagogy of architectural education when the primary training for architects shifted from practice where the student would be apprenticed to the architect, to HE establishments (Cuff 1998). This education practice has remained mostly unchanged for the last hundred years. However, changes in architectural practice, the nature of the student body, demands on resources such as time and space, as well as major developments in how we interact, communicate and function in the 21st Century, demand a critical relook at traditional studio teaching and learning strategies.
- The emergence of information and communication technologies presents interesting opportunities for design collaboration that were not available before. They are often referred to as “disruptive” technologies but where disruption is used in a positive sense. In design education, these technologies have formed new design platforms for interactive and engaged learning as part of a blended programme or where students are situated in remote locations. I am using a framework formulated by Naismith, Lonsdale, Vavoula and Sharples for understanding mobile learning, to present the main threads in the literature and then illustrate each one with a relevant project or related research. Students learn through various interactions mediated through drawing, speech and gestures, in a process known as the critique or crit (Lymer 2010). So I will look at how ict might support design learning through behaviourist, constructivist, situated, collaborative and informal lifelong learning strategies.
- Behaviorist learning associated with the work of Skinner, Bendura and others, promotes learning to affect a change in the learners actions. It would typically be those repetitive actions that eventually become second nature and get applied intuitively. In our 2nd year studio last year, we engaged in a project that is currently being written up by Liza Hitge as a masters thesis in ICT in Education at UCT. Students used an app called Cognician, on tablets, their own laptops or desktops in the computer labs on campus, to support them in preparing for the first crit of a project to design a pop up shop in a rural Western Cape village. The app presented students with a range of so called ‘cogs’ or learning conversations related to the context, function and technology aspects of the project brief. In a chat format, it simulates asynchronous communication with an expert, using a questioning strategy to guide thinking. It provides just in time content through an interface that is similar to that of social learning sites that the students are familiar with. The students spent on average a total of 8 hours interrogating the brief in this way. For 40 students it equated 320 hours of tutoring which would never have been attainable in a face to face format.
- Constructivist learning allows learners to actively construct new ideas based on existing knowledge as evident in the work of Dewey, Kolb and Piaget. This mode of learning is associated with project-based and enquiry-based education, that is studio-based learning. Not an intervention at CPUT, but in this case one interesting such experiment, was the first architecture MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) presented by the Leuphana Digital School. The ThinkTank Ideal City of the 21st Century collaborative online course ran over 4 months from April to August last year. Students from all over the world collaborated in teams of 3 to 5 to formulate conceptual proposals guided by online tutors and supported by uploaded multi media (video and text) resources to provide the basic theory for application in the projects.
- Situated learning promotes learning within an authentic context and culture. Since the shift of learning context occurred, the principles of architecture are now taught in lecture theatres by academics, rather than by masters in the office, and those principles are applied by students in the design of theoretical projects in the design studio rather than to real projects in the drawing office. However, we are seeing a shift to learning to multiple sites of practice in a blended offering, including the community (in service learning or design build projects), the workplace (through mentorships), intensive on-campus workshops (breaking away from the rigid and fragmenting timetable) to support studio learning. In the 2nd year National Diploma programme in 2010 we redesigned the offering to include multiple sites of learning linked by a range of online platforms and activities, including blogging, facebook, podcasting and digital portfolios. This work is being written up with my colleagues Gachago and Ivala in the teaching and learning unit at CPUT.
- Collaborative learning facilitates learning through social interaction. In the same 2nd year group that I referred to earlier, text-based skype crits were introduced to support the face to face studio. The design project was to design a community hub using gumpoles and marine ply. These were used together with graphics shared by blogging, to avoid synchronous video and audio to limit bandwidth demands. My colleagues at the University of Amsterdam, Pauwels and De Bod, and I used Goldschmid’s linkography as discourse analysis tool to better understand how these Skype interactions supported design learning in the studio. We find that the text-based modality is adding an interesting learning dimension, especially for the conceptualisation stage of design.
- Informal and lifelong learning supports anywhere anytime ubiquitous learning outside a dedicated learning environment, such as the use of social media. Based on the same 2nd year group, I have investigated the use of facebook both an asynchronous, and in some cases a synchronous tool to support learning. he facebook utterances were categorized in four categories according to Gabriel and Maher’s (1999) conversational framework, i.e. communication control, communication technology, social communication and design communication. In analyzing 511 asynchronous consecutive utterances between 6 August and 23 October 2010, it was found that the categories were represented as follows: 24% communication control, 5% communication technology, 29% social communication and 42% design communication. The design communication component was found to be surprisingly high. Furthermore it was found that most students view it as a non-threatening informal way to build vocabulary, engage with lecturers and their peers, and acculturate into the profession. Interactions on social media would be equated to those unplanned, accidental engagements in the passage or on the way to studio.
- The role of ICT is seen as part of a blended learning offering. There are many definitions for the term “blended learning, also known as “hybrid” or “mixed-mode” learning. The Node Learning Technologies Network (2003) defines Blended Learning as learning that uses “multiple strategies, methods and delivery systems”. Good educators have always used a mix of strategies, methods and media to reach their objectives – that’s not new. What is new is that today’s internet-based tools can facilitate communication, interaction, and collaborative learning in ways that were not possible before. It is on this basis that the OpenArchitecture programmes have been conceptualised, as learning happening in the office, online and on campus in block release intensive workshop style sessions.
- The course outcomes will be directly aligned with the approved and accredited fulltime programmes at the respective collaborating Architectural Learning Sites, but the learning activities and material will be designed to support learning in a range of learning modes and spaces.
- Learning in theory and studio subjects is structured around assignments and projects, with resources provided and face to face and online interactions, designed for synchronous and asynchronous learning conversations. Rather than attempting to duplicate face to face learning online, computer-mediated strategies will support office-based mentorship and face to face group interactions. Drawing on the body of knowledge and a range of pilot study investigations, the learning design aims to support behaviourist, constructivist, situated, collaborative and informal lifelong learning strategies.