Whats the deal with being human design documentation

What's the Deal with Being Human – the Rock Video

Design Documentation forWhat's the Deal with Being Human – the Rock Video.

ILT 6710Chris Thomas

29 November 2009

Introduction

This presentation, 'What's the Deal with Being Human- the Rock Video' is an

element in online course in Foundational Cognitive Skills for Teenagers.

The goal of this course is to teach students ages 13-17 methodologies for

consciously taking control of one’s own learning and life experience. This first

step, the development of increased self-awareness and self-empowerment, is

critical to increased cognition. In subsequent presentations, students will

examine their own skills and learning interests, analyzing and assessing those

areas that may need development and/or those that show the most potential

for success.

The audience

The audience for the presentation is adolescents, both middle school and high

school students. This is currently aimed at those students in the Boulder

Valley School District, a generally homogenous group. There are, however,

large socio-economic disparities that have an effect on self-esteem. There is

also a substantial Hispanic population and the goal would be to develop this

same sort of program in Spanish, with culturally-appropriate visual

adjustments.

Personality Implications

Extroverted/Intuiters/Feelers/Perceivers. Teenagers are predominantly still

generalists because of their lack of both life and academic experience, but


they are also still at the “ME” stage of development, meaning that they are

very involved in self-discovery. They're working on assembling the over all

‘Big Picture.’ Their personality types (a la Briggs-Meyers) are, for the most

part, still in the formative stages, with notable exceptions. They are, at this

point in their lives, taking most of their identity cues from their adolescent

culture which is a catalyst for struggle between the as yet ambiguous ‘self’

and old and new influences from family and the exterior world.

Any instructional programs will be more successful if presented within their

‘teen’ context utilizing music, visuals, games and any other cultural elements

to keep their attention. Any activity that was too transparent could derail the

process. The entertainment value has to appear to be higher than the

informational value. Of all the versions of this material, I think that this

comes closets to doing that.

Presentation Implications. Teaching adolescents is a slippery slope

compared to teaching corporate adults; one miss-step and you may loose

your audience for good, whereas, most adult audiences will give you another

chance. The trick with teens is to keep them entertained. They probably

won't be interested in a hand-out prior to the presentation, but they may well

be interested in accessing the presentation on their own again.

The key is to present a reason to be interested upfront. This could take the

form of a strong emotional hook, something funny or irreverent, coupled with

strong culturally-appropriate color, design and music.

Our stakeholder is our student. In this course and with this initial

presentation, they are being challenged and, in fact, given permission to

think about themselves and discover new perspectives about themselves.

This course allows them to understand that their lives really are all about

them and that they can have some control.


Teenage Cognitive Skills. Cognitive science tells us that the teenage

frontal lobe is not fully developed, and won't be, for another five to ten years.

And, there are new surges of affiliative hormones that cause issues with peer

interaction. It is not entirely clear; therefore, the exact extent to which

higher level thought processes can be stimulated.

The concept of internal vs. external locus of control is perhaps one of the

first, most pivotal steps in maturation and cognitive development. This first

piece is directed at starting to analyze personal responsibility and the

excitement of having the freedom to create one's future. Below, the From-

To, Think-Do Matrix, defines the first baby-steps at this discovery process.

From-to /Think-Do Matrix

This video version starts to address some of these areas. This presentation is

foundational, therefore, further progressive levels aren't discussed here. In

the “Think” category, the goal is to progress from Feeling invisible,

unimportant to feeling a greater sense of self, of identity. Middle and high

school students often feel unempowered, victimized by an impersonal

system, and confused and frustrated. The goal is to help them gain an

understanding of how one can begin to take control and begin to address the

responsibility one has in creating one’s life. Hopefully, it will take them from

being self-conscious and self-judging to appreciating themselves, their own

thoughts and interests more.

Under the “Do” category, the journey from passivity, non-participatory

behavior to beginning to show an interest in some subject matter, in self

expression, in thinking more about oneself and creating a life that includes

education as a goal, or includes dreams and the thought that they can create

a plan for achieving them, is the empowerment we're hoping to develop.


Audience Problem Adolescents are difficult to engage and keep interested. This is a young,

teen-aged audience. Finding ways of capturing and sustaining their attention

is the first learning hurdle. They seem to 'forage' rather than learn in a linear

fashion, and they require that the information be straight forward and clear.

They don't have time for undue searching.

They require programs with a high entertainment factor. They also have

state-of-the-art visual sensibilities. Instructional programs need to be

presented within their ‘teen’ context utilizing music, visuals, games and any

other cultural elements to keep their attention. Any activity that was too

transparent could derail the process. The entertainment value has to appear

to be higher than the informational value.

Additionally; the concept of completion is an issue with kids. A great deal of

getting them to stay the course has to do with the entertainment value, but

much of it also has to come from a compelling topic. Most kids will find “ME”

to be as compelling a topic as comes along, but to pull them through

information that may cause them to become a little uncomfortable may be a

challenge. The solution is to design internal occurrences that re-hook the

student throughout the piece. In the scope of a full course, activities can

certainly help move the student through to the end.

Spectrum of Solution Contributions

The problem is that none of us are ever taught how to be adults. Teenagers feel

like they’re playing a game where the rules keep changing and nobody is telling

them. It’s confusing, frustrating, dis-empowering and alienating. No one has ever

been taught how to be an adult; how to understand life from a non-childish


perspective; how to understand one’s own thoughts and feelings; how to think

about how one learns or even what one likes to learn. No one was ever taught

how to think about their thinking, the reasons they think the way they do or how

to change their thinking to achieve a goal.

Today’s students no longer have the time to fumble around trying to figure out

how to grow up. There’s too much to learn and competition is too intense. We

have to quit wasting their time and teach them cognitive skills that will aid them

in learning, growing and maturing. They need to be taught how to understand

what it means to be human, how extraordinary their innate abilities are, how

exciting, their individuality, how to appreciate their talents and interests and how

to explore and direct their learning paths. They need to understand that

decisions are just choices and that they can evaluate the consequences and

responsibilities of each of those choices in making their decisions. They need to

be taught how to use their minds and have confidence in their own thoughts.

Because this course is about human growth, there is no final solution. The interim

solution is to help the student understand and appreciate the qualities and

attributes of the human brain/mind, the physical body and the possibilities they

present. The student should learn methods of observing his own mind,

appreciating his own feelings, determining his interests and establishing his focus.

The ongoing gauge of success, therefore; is the student's ability to extrapolate

his learning/analysis process into other areas of endeavor. Additionally, and

perhaps of greater importance, is the creative application of these abilities to

observe, analyze, develop solutions and set goals; that is, realizing that these

simple processes are foundational. And, of course, most important of all—when to

throw them all out and launch into a more instinctive approach.

Solution Evaluation

A culturally-relevant presentation like the Rock Video enhances the


personalization of the program. Since the assessment criteria is individualized, I

have adapted the options to reflect levels of evaluation.

Accomplishment 1 Discovering the expansive qualities of human

physiology

Accomplishment 2 Understanding how the mind/brain and the observer

effect.

Accomplishment 3 Utilizing mindfulness to change attitude and effect

outcome

Accomplishment 4 Developing an understanding of compassion and

human perspective

The video focuses on discovering the expansive qualities of human physiology ,

understanding how the mind/brain works and what the observer effect tells us.

We utilizing mindfulness to change attitude and effect outcome while hopefully,

developing an understanding of compassion and human perspective. Growth in

these areas might present as:

Increased Self expression: Class participation. Non-academic. Activity

participation. Community Participation/activism. Coaching younger students in

self expression.

Learning growth: Understanding Learning style. Developing Methods for

supporting learning style. Extrapolating methods for other life purposes. Adjusting

and re-evaluating learning behavior.

Developing Interests and goals: Discovering one’s interests. Developing goal

structures. Accomplishing and/or adjusting goalsSetting mastery goals.

Increased Creativity: Exploring creative interests. Determining the elements

necessary for creative activity. Practicing and refining creative elements.

Extrapolating creative steps in another academic endeavor.


New Found Academic success: Applying learning style information to

academics. Evaluating what worked and what didn’t- making adjustments.

Determining learning path to graduation. Graduating or advancing successfully.

List of Evidence

1. Brain/sensory system data: Evolve Your Brain, Joe Dispenza

2. Creativity: How to Think Like Leonardo Di Vinci, Michael J. Gelb

3. Conceptualization: Relativity Visualized, Lewis Carroll Epstein

4. Psychology/Spirit: How to See Yourself as You Really Are, His Holiness the

Dalai Lama

5. Consciousness/matter: The Biology of Belief, Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D.

6. Perception and thinking: Visual Thinking, Rudolph Arnheim

7. Social and learning values, What video Games Can Teach Us About

Literacy, James Paul Gee

The Stakeholder

I see two Stakeholders in this scenario: the student, as indicated above, and

society in general.

The student has the most to gain from this presentation and this course. It

could easily change the way he/she perceives their lives. Giving them tools

with which to examine their challenges and make determinations, could

relieve them of levels of stress that have debilitated students for eons. Not

only might they find learning to be more enjoyable (since they will be doing it

non-stop), but it may well make their personal lives and their relationships

less difficult.

Changing the paradigm, the lens through which millions of kids see

themselves and our society, could have an unprecedented effect on both the


local community and the global society. That said, the implementation of this

kind of program could be problematic simply because it diverges from current

thinking in the public school system. Also, this presentation is only a tiny part

of a learning system that needs to focus on individualized learning

opportunities and personal development rather than one-size-fits-all

education.

In truth, there is a wealth of research information that supports such an

approach to cognitive development and its integration into a media-rich

learning environment. All it would take would be some committed, well-

financed group to develop the entire curriculum and offer it as an alternative

public approach; much like Waldorf, only for free.

Design Attributes

The re-design of this program as a rock video had several design

ramifications.

Anecdotes: The most important point is that more work needs to put into

teaching people how to identify their strengths and weaknesses, their interests,

their dreams and use the whole complex of information about themselves to

make academic choices and to grow personally. The idea of greater training in

this area and its affect on cognitive development came to me when my husband

and I were talking about a friend who seemed to go through an inordinate amount

of boyfriends. My husband said, 'It's a shame, her boy-picker's broken.' I thought,

hmmm...wouldn't it be nice if we actually had automatic sensors for these sorts of

things, but since we don't, we should be able to figure out a way for us to have

more information about who we are and what we need.

Sequencing: In truth, I've had a hard time with sequencing with this topic right

from the very beginning. The story in this chapter is about discovering that we


are not our bodies or our minds; that we are something that is in control of both.

This might fit into Booker's 'Rebirth Plot',(Abela, 2008, p70), but without the dark

spell part. That helped me to define the sequence from the physical to the more

etheric. Hopefully, the tension happens in looking for the resolution of 'what' we

are; setting up the questions, then wanting the answer. (Abela 2008, p. 77).

Graphics: The Rock Video version revise specifically tried to utilize full frame

images rather than always having a matched background. I like full screen

images whenever possible and I will find my 'white space' in them. (Duarte, 2008,

p.106). The color palette is still primarily centered around blue. Blue can be a sort

of ephemeral color and the use of the blue star field gave this a more 'out there'

effect. I kept it dark enough that there was enough contrast so that all my visuals

and text would pop. (Duarte, 2008, p.132).

I deliberately used dynamic and/or humorous video clips to enhance relevance to

youthful culture. The point was to leverage openness to the material. Vernallis

has a great deal to say about this. I was tempted to do music-video editing, but I

knew that the resting length on screen had to be long enough to read the screen.

Normally, I find that at least 7 seconds is required to enable reading.

The music supported the experience; that is, the words bring out certain aspects

of the song. (Vernallis, 2004, p. 27) I was fortunate enough to locate several good

sources of video clips to emphasize the dynamic range of a human. One is a

tracking shot of a skateboarder overlaid with text about what's going on in the

body as it moves. It adds excitement and motion into 3D space. This is a huge

topic and I have to cite entire chapters of Vernallis that inspired me; specifically,

however, Chapter 6. (Vernallis, 2004, p.107-136) It was this footage that

convinced me that this piece for active adolescents had to contain motion

footage. (Vernallis, 2004, p. 32-33)

Text: In the Rock video, I use scrolling text occasionally to not only add

dimension but to present an outside, authoritative voice. Mostly, I place text

where it most relates to the image, whenever possible. (Abela, 2008, p. 133) I

like a round, chiseled font that has enough serif to be easily read, but is still


contemporary-looking. (Abela, 2008, p. 102). I also often start slides with a

sentence at the top left to introduce the page and let the eye flow through the

visual and to the rest of the explaining text. (Abela, 2008, p. 134).

Layout: Since each page it's own chunk of information, I designed each page

individually, to stand on its own. Abela talks about reinforcing the information,

and I think that makes more sense than carrying through a stiff format. (Abela,

2008, p. 108). I tried to keep the visual elements down to one per page. This

piece is for teenagers, it must be simple and eye-catching, so I tried to keep it

simple and spacey. I think Garr Reynold's opinion of communicating with large

images made an impression on me. (Duarte, 2008, p. 108.)

Measurement: In an instructional situation, discussions and/or follow-up

activities will let a teacher know if the piece has made its point.

Peer review results: The peer results for the Rock Video liked the introductory

cut of the soccer players. One liked the music for the audience, but the other

didn't like the lyrics. As a result, I went in and edited the verses out. There are

still lyrics that support the visuals and the underlying concept of the video.

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Education

Whats the deal with being human design documentation