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Using iPads as a dynamic learning tool to develop skills in graphic communication and enhance spatial awareness Bartlett School of Planning, UCL Dr Elisabete Cidre ([email protected] )

Using iPads as a dynamic learning tool to develop skills in graphic communication and enhance spatial awareness

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Abstract This paper will present interim reflections on an ongoing pilot educational project being undertaken with the 2013-2014 new undergraduate cohort of Planning students in the three existing programmes at the Bartlett School of Planning (BSP) in University College London (UCL): Urban Planning, Design and Management (UPDM), Planning and Real Estate (PRE) and Urban Studies (US). The main purpose of this project is to enhance the University-level agenda for key transferable skill development (academic; self-management; inter-personal, but most importantly, communication) via active production of design (e-)artefacts of paramount value for employability in the Built Environment – the (i-)portfolio. It also aims to contribute to wider pedagogical and theoretical debates on the nature and value of the use of technology in Built Environment higher education. The project is developed in two stages, over the academic year. During terms 1 and 2 (October-December and January-March), the project will pilot the use of iPads as a dynamic learning tool in graphic communication, and will explore the potential of technology-enabled features and utilities to improve student engagement and foster individual learning. In terms 2 and 3 (April - June) the project will pilot the use of iBooks as a dynamic learning resource in phenomenological pedagogy, with the aim of building on the capacity for our graduates to become ‘reflective practitioners’. It will do so by promoting the co-development of i-portfolios as design (e-)artefacts that enable and reinforce the values of self-regulated and flexible learning and ongoing personal/career development.

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Page 1: Using iPads as a dynamic learning tool  to develop skills in graphic communication and enhance spatial awareness

Using iPads as a dynamic learning tool to develop skills in graphic communication and enhance spatial awareness

IHE 2014

20th March 2014, Paphos

Bartlett School of Planning, UCL

Dr Elisabete Cidre ([email protected])

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Project AIMS to:

• enhance UCL’s agenda for key transferable skills development

mainly (visual) communication

via active production of (e-)artefacts, (i-)portfolio

• explore the potential of using iPADs in design studio classes

as a dynamic learning tool in graphic communication

• explore the potential of technology-enabled features and utilities

to improve student engagement and foster individual learning

• contribute to wider pedagogical and theoretical debates

on the nature and value of the use of technology in HE

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Learning through Images/GraphicsFormal (in class)

Studio classes | Once or twice a week Presentations (crits) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Informal (accidental, in site visits and field trips)

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iPAD features and utilities BSc year1 Term1, Graphic Skills

To develop skills in:

Drawing (4s)andPhotoshop (2s)

Combining the use of:sketchbookiPADUrban Skills Portal https://extendstore.ucl.ac.uk/catalog?category=3

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Mixing traditional + technology tools BSc year1 Term1, Graphic Skills

•Sketchbook + iPAD + Urban Skills Portal

•Encouraged formal and informal dialogue

•Infuse collateral learning and the desire to go on learning(Dewey (1938: 49, in Carver and Enfield, 2006: 57)

•The quality of the experience … greater if/when lessons learned impact (positively) on future ones, when a reflective process has taken place (Brockbank and McGill, 2007: 85)

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What students told us: December 2013

•87% response rate

•75% have iPAD (or tablet) OR borrowed iPAD from the School

•Used on weekly basis

•For Graphic Skills AND other coursework,

mainly Making Cities and History of Cities (project-based modules)

•Mostly used for Maps (digimap), Photos, Google (earth), Adobe Ideas,

SketchBook Express, combining and sharing elements and files

•Scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (very useful)

Graphic Skills – 3.5

Studies Overall – 3.5/4.0

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iPAD as dynamic learning tool BSc year1 Term2, week 1

•Field trip to Barcelona

•3 day analysis of urban square

Urban Design module(58 Planning students)

•3 day professional visitor guide

Making Cities module(+ 97 Architecture + 31 Construction and Project management students)

2 groups from PLANNING did iBooks

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Urban Design in the Web

e-resources as environment and as toolMyPortfolio Urban Images group*

Experiential & behavioural qualities category is‘challenging and contentious and more open to subjective interpretation’

* funded by BSP and HEA 2012-13

Urban Design Images Archive

•Web links•Projects and think-tanks

•Still images•6 categories

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Student experience = interaction with activities

Moving Narratives* project is shaped!piloted with BSc year1 2013-14 Urban Design students

•beyond the stillness of photography•images and sound narratives•6 month period / 2 sites (Sloane Square and Greenwich Park)•filmed with iPad 3 attached to CamLink tripod with TheJoyFactory tournez

•aims to enhance the understanding of not only spatial but also phenomenological awareness, ‘shorten[ing] the road to self-experience’ (Findeli, 1990). •as referential of the different uses by different users within the same setting. •to illustrate the influence that intangible elements such as weather changes, sound and smell have on the sensory perception and consequent use of those spaces.

* funded by BSP and UCL ELDG 2013-14

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Experiential & Behavioural Qualities of Space

‘MyPortfolio was really helpful for my project at concept stage’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhj2q8iJzmo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26GzevUN2dY

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Student Outputs

Drawing Project

Photoshop Project

Proposal for Urban Square Project

Comparative Analysis of Squares Project

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What next?

• to encourage undergraduate students to take an active role in the iterative production of (their) design (e-)artefacts

• by producing their own e-portfolio(s)

• their own iBook showcasing their work

• i-portfolio will help building their own employability skills

Dependent on funding:

• Term 3 workshop on ‘how to do your own iBook’

• Term 3 (Summer?) iBook of Experiential&Behavioral Qualities of Space

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Butcher, N. (2011). A basic guide to Open Educational Resources (OER). Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCOBrockbank, A and McGill, I (2007) Facilitating Reflective Learning in Higher Education, 2nd ed Maidenhead, Open University Press.Carver, R and Enfield, R (2006) John Dewey's Philosophy of Education is Alive and Well, in Education and Culture, 22(1): 55-67. Purdue University Press.Cidre, E (2012) Investigating Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) as an Environment for Formal, Informal and Accidental Learning, PGDip: module EDUCGA09, CALT.Cidre, E (2014) ‘Developing good practice: using technology embedded learning methods and e-resources’, in RTPI Education News (January 2014), issue 4, pp.2-3. Dewey, J. (1938) Experience and Education. New York: the Macmillan Company.Ellis et al (2008) The future of the Planning Academy, a scoping report. RTPI.Findeli, A. (1990). Moholy-Nagy’s design pedagogy in Chicago (1937-46). In Design Issues 7 (1): 4-19.Huw, T (2011) Reflecting on reflection … as a basis for better focused teaching and learning, Cardiff, CEBE. McLafferty, S. (2003). 'Conducting Questionnaire Surveys' in Valentine G (ed) Key Methods in Geography, London: Sage. Moon, J (1999) Reflection in Learning and Professional Development . London, Kogan PageShaffer, D. W. (2007). Learning in design. In: Lesh, R. A., Kaput, J. J. & Hamilton, E. (Eds.). Foundations for the future in mathematics education. Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp.99-126. Savery, J. and Duffy, T. (1996). Problem based learning: an instructional model and its constructivist framework. In Constructivist learning environments, Wilson, B. G. (Ed.), chapter 11. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology.Schön, D (1983) The Reflective Practitioner. How Professionals Think in Action. New York, Basic BooksSletto, B (2010) Educating Reflective Practitioners : Learning to Embrace the Unexpected through Service Learning, in Journal of Planning Education and Research 29(4), 403-415.

THANK YOU!

Some references that helped the journey