Facebook always provokes strong emotions; some people love it, spending their entire lives on there, and others hate it and will not go anywhere near it.
There is an interesting article in today's Guardian which suggests there is a growing body of evidence that social networking can have an isolating effect on people. People are getting more and more drawn into the 'social' media itself and so spending less and less time actually interacting with real people.
I love Facebook and spend quite a bit of time on there, not playing games, just reading the trivia about my friends lives and sharing my own, along with sharing interesting things I have seen or read. To me this feels like real, meaningful exchange, which increases my sense of connection with my friends. So, how come other people end up feeling that they are isolated observers of other people's lives?
I think the answer is to do with tacit knowledge. When I spend 'live' time with my friends I see their facial expressions, hear the nuances in their voices and can gauge their subtle reactions when we talk. After a while we build a tacit understanding of each other that then carries through to our online interactions. I can read between the lines of their posts or understand a whole lot more than was written into a brief text.
Looking back at my model of learning developed in my PhD, I would say that when I get to know somebody I have moved to the 'expert learner' stage where I can observe their online dialogue and understand without needing the 'bridges' provided by face-to-face interaction. So, for me this virtual contact is really meaningful, is often the starting point of conversation when I meet friends, and is a vital point of contact with friends who live far away and I see rarely.
For those who find it isolating, I guess they need more balance in their lives. They need to try to spend as much real time with people as they do virtual time, and to narrow that virtual contact to include many more real friends and to cut out many who are just virtual friends. My personal Facebook rule is that I am only 'friends' with people I know. Some of these are people I don't know well and am never likely to, but it would have been rude to refuse. So, I file them into a category where they do not see the personal things I post and I do not see theirs, they have had the satisfaction of adding me to their list but nothing more.
The same goes for so many things in life - a little in moderation is good for you - but too much of anything usually has negative side affects!
Showing posts with label Transmitting craft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Transmitting craft. Show all posts
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Sunday, 9 May 2010
KeyPiece
KeyPiece was a combined research seminar and public exhibition that brought together ten leading researchers in metalwork and jewellery; Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill who initiated the project, Christoph Zellweger who led the workshops, and participants Lionel Dean, Maria Hanson, Grace Horne, Antje Illner, Drummond Masterton, Sarah O’Hana, Tine de Ruysser and Lucian Taylor.
Gallery event
Starting from the ‘object’, the question of how a ‘keypiece’ can be identified and defined provided the basis for debate between the makers. The works displayed functioned as both a physical reference and a catalyst in the development of the dialogue about the nature of research in the field.
To enable engagement with the public whilst maintaining the seminar situation, the exhibits provided a divide of the gallery space; one half public space, the other workshop setting, with paper covering walls and floor for participants to write and draw. After the workshop finished the whole gallery became accessible to the public, providing greater insight into the exhibited objects.
Multimedia documentation
The event was observed and documented by myself using video and stills and writer/curator Monica Gaspar. I used this record to create an online interactive multimedia resource for distribution within and beyond the professional community. The aim was to provide an engaging, accessible and durable documentation of the event, which will be of interest to practitioners, educators, researchers within the creative practices and beyond.
Gallery event
Starting from the ‘object’, the question of how a ‘keypiece’ can be identified and defined provided the basis for debate between the makers. The works displayed functioned as both a physical reference and a catalyst in the development of the dialogue about the nature of research in the field.
To enable engagement with the public whilst maintaining the seminar situation, the exhibits provided a divide of the gallery space; one half public space, the other workshop setting, with paper covering walls and floor for participants to write and draw. After the workshop finished the whole gallery became accessible to the public, providing greater insight into the exhibited objects.
Multimedia documentation
The event was observed and documented by myself using video and stills and writer/curator Monica Gaspar. I used this record to create an online interactive multimedia resource for distribution within and beyond the professional community. The aim was to provide an engaging, accessible and durable documentation of the event, which will be of interest to practitioners, educators, researchers within the creative practices and beyond.
Monday, 13 July 2009
Vacuum casting
The folding knives research project demonstrated that well motivated independent learners working in physical isolation but supported by an online community could acquire complex new skills and use them in creative ways. This project applied our existing methods of eliciting and representing skills to a process used by undergraduate design students in University workshops and resulted in the production of an online resource and a set of proposals for how such resources could be developed in a more widespread manner.
In the creative disciplines, where learning is often based on practical projects, the craft skills of each discipline are both a crucial prerequisite for successful learning, and a learning problem in themselves. This tends to create a complex situation in which teachers and technicians are supporting both skills learning and intellectual development at the same time. While this can be very productive, pressures on resources can lead to concentration on skills at the expense of advanced thinking.
The vacuum casting process was chosen as a pilot project to test the feasibility of producing multimedia learning resources to enable students to work more independently in the workshops. A series of workshop sessions were arranged to enable a technician with expertise in the process to teach an expert learner, one of the design lecturers.
These were observed and video recorded by myself working in collaboration with the expert learner to generate prototype learning materials. These were developed and tested by two further learners who had no prior knowledge of the process and ultimately made into an online resource which would allow students to preview materials supported by selected video then print out worksheets for use in the workshop.
The online resource developed during this research is available here
This research was carried out with Prof Chris Rust and funded by Shefield Hallam University.
In the creative disciplines, where learning is often based on practical projects, the craft skills of each discipline are both a crucial prerequisite for successful learning, and a learning problem in themselves. This tends to create a complex situation in which teachers and technicians are supporting both skills learning and intellectual development at the same time. While this can be very productive, pressures on resources can lead to concentration on skills at the expense of advanced thinking.
The vacuum casting process was chosen as a pilot project to test the feasibility of producing multimedia learning resources to enable students to work more independently in the workshops. A series of workshop sessions were arranged to enable a technician with expertise in the process to teach an expert learner, one of the design lecturers.
These were observed and video recorded by myself working in collaboration with the expert learner to generate prototype learning materials. These were developed and tested by two further learners who had no prior knowledge of the process and ultimately made into an online resource which would allow students to preview materials supported by selected video then print out worksheets for use in the workshop.
The online resource developed during this research is available here
This research was carried out with Prof Chris Rust and funded by Shefield Hallam University.
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Expert learners
When I started working with craft practitioners, I started with ones I knew. They were all woodworkers because I’m a woodworker myself and by the end of my PhD studies I realised that, whilst what I was doing was successful, I was relying on my own skills to interpret the skills of others. To make my methods more generalisable I needed to work through someone else in an area unfamiliar to myself.
Inspired by some of the learners I had worked with, I realised the probable solution was working with an expert learner; that is one who is self confident, self motivated and already is possession of a useful set of skills relevant to those to be learned. I then gained AHRC funding to work with just such a person; contemporary knife maker and fellow researcher Dr Grace Horne.
We spent two years working with some of the last traditional knife makers in Sheffield, a city once famed for its knife making industries. During this time Grace worked alongside the master craftsmen whilst I video recorded, then we worked together to develop learning materials. Grace undertook experimental making, I designed experimental interpretation, and we worked with a group of enthusiastic amateur makers to develop on online learning resource.
The expert learner can learn with minimal instruction. They have the advantage that they have enough skill to learn through observation without needing 'bridges' as they are operating in the zone circled below:
Our research showed that, as the knowledge was recently acquired and the expert learner was consciously engaged with the elicitation process, she was able to rapidly adapt her understanding of it to improve transmission to the learners. Hence, she was able to develop the bridges needed by the novice learners to start developing their skills:
A key part of this process was the expert learner’s interaction with myself, the
designer and the developing learning resource. Through a process of video recording and summarising events using drawings and flow charts, I was able to assist with articulation of the knowledge and develop interpretation suitable for transmitting the knowledge.
Monday, 6 July 2009
Mind the gap
The skills involved in craft practice involve a large degree of tacit knowledge; the principles governing a skilled practitioner’s actions are often only known through undertaking those actions. This internalised nature of craft knowledge makes it difficult for experts to communicate their knowledge to others, presenting a barrier to transmission.
In addition many practitioners have little or no experience of training others and tend to be defensive about their skills. Possibly this is because they are uncomfortable with not knowing how to explain what they do, and maybe also they worry their explanations will over simplify the complexity of their skill.
My experience of working with numerous expert craft practitioners over the last eight years is that this defensiveness needs approaching sensitively, but can be overcome so such craft skills can be recorded and transmitted. The key concept behind my elicitation and transmission strategy is that of bridges across the knowledge gap, which draws on the theories of Michael Polanyi [1] and Donald Schön [2].
The first stage of craft learning is through observation and imitation. Polanyi described this as a process of indwelling: the novice seeks to dwell in the actions of the expert through observing them and taking action to imitate them. However, at an early stage of learning
it is very difficult for a novice just to observe and imitate successfully [3,4]. According to Polanyi, the difference between the skill of the novice and that of the expert is “a gap to be bridged by an intelligent effort” and Schön similarly referred to “an apparently unbridgeable communication gap” between novice and expert.
This is a drawing I have made to represent the concept; it might look like a graph, but it is not intended to be in any way measurable! The x-axis represents some measure of time and the y-axis some measure of skill. The expert has already achieved a high level of skill and the novice is setting out to become at least as skilled, but initially there is a gap between the two where the novice struggles imitate what they observe the expert undertaking:
Polanyi only views this knowledge gap from the perspective of the expert, explaining “Our message had left something behind that we could not tell, and its reception must rely on it that the person addressed will discover that which we have not been able to communicate”. The onus in his terms is on the novice to understand through intelligent effort. However Schön suggested the solution was in “reciprocal reflection-in-action”, implying that the expert needed to make as much effort as the novice in the process of bridging the gap, observing the novice's attempts at imitation and modifying their instruction until accord is reached.
However, as I mentioned earlier, many expert practitioners are not familiar with training novices and are reluctant to engage in a discursive process; simply correcting 'mistakes' at face value rather than seeing them as the novice's way of trying to understand the problem. This is where I come in. My role is as an intermediary between expert and novice, facilitating reciprocal reflection and recording the bridges that are needed to cross the gap.
It is important to note that these bridges are not tacit knowledge made explicit as is sometimes suggested. They are pieces of explicit knowledge enable the novice to dwell in the tacit knowledge of the expert and build their own tacit knowledge. Some might end up as fundamental to their practice, but many will just be stepping stones on the way to mastery.
In addition many practitioners have little or no experience of training others and tend to be defensive about their skills. Possibly this is because they are uncomfortable with not knowing how to explain what they do, and maybe also they worry their explanations will over simplify the complexity of their skill.
My experience of working with numerous expert craft practitioners over the last eight years is that this defensiveness needs approaching sensitively, but can be overcome so such craft skills can be recorded and transmitted. The key concept behind my elicitation and transmission strategy is that of bridges across the knowledge gap, which draws on the theories of Michael Polanyi [1] and Donald Schön [2].
The first stage of craft learning is through observation and imitation. Polanyi described this as a process of indwelling: the novice seeks to dwell in the actions of the expert through observing them and taking action to imitate them. However, at an early stage of learning
it is very difficult for a novice just to observe and imitate successfully [3,4]. According to Polanyi, the difference between the skill of the novice and that of the expert is “a gap to be bridged by an intelligent effort” and Schön similarly referred to “an apparently unbridgeable communication gap” between novice and expert.
This is a drawing I have made to represent the concept; it might look like a graph, but it is not intended to be in any way measurable! The x-axis represents some measure of time and the y-axis some measure of skill. The expert has already achieved a high level of skill and the novice is setting out to become at least as skilled, but initially there is a gap between the two where the novice struggles imitate what they observe the expert undertaking:
Polanyi only views this knowledge gap from the perspective of the expert, explaining “Our message had left something behind that we could not tell, and its reception must rely on it that the person addressed will discover that which we have not been able to communicate”. The onus in his terms is on the novice to understand through intelligent effort. However Schön suggested the solution was in “reciprocal reflection-in-action”, implying that the expert needed to make as much effort as the novice in the process of bridging the gap, observing the novice's attempts at imitation and modifying their instruction until accord is reached.
However, as I mentioned earlier, many expert practitioners are not familiar with training novices and are reluctant to engage in a discursive process; simply correcting 'mistakes' at face value rather than seeing them as the novice's way of trying to understand the problem. This is where I come in. My role is as an intermediary between expert and novice, facilitating reciprocal reflection and recording the bridges that are needed to cross the gap.
It is important to note that these bridges are not tacit knowledge made explicit as is sometimes suggested. They are pieces of explicit knowledge enable the novice to dwell in the tacit knowledge of the expert and build their own tacit knowledge. Some might end up as fundamental to their practice, but many will just be stepping stones on the way to mastery.
[1] Polanyi M (1966). The tacit dimension. Peter Smith, Gloucester, MA [1983 edition].
[2] Schön D A (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. Jossey-Bass, London.
[3] Wood N (2006). Transmitting craft knowledge: designing interactive media to support tacit skills learning. PhD thesis, Sheffield Hallam University, available here.
[4] Wood N & Horne G (2008). The new journeyman; the role of an expert learner in eliciting and transmitting skilled knowledge. Proceedings of the Design Research Society Conference, Sheffield, available here.
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Learning resources
The framework I have develped for learning resources offers a layered structure to support learners through different phases of learning.
Introductory: a passive, observational phase where the learner gains an overview of what is to be done and is introduced to any key skills or strategies.
Guidance: an active, participatory phase where the learner is guided step by step through the basic process and gains an understanding of any common errors.
Development: repetition is necessary to gain mastery of the skill and this is supported by encouraging the learner to evaluate their outcome, identify and solve problems, and offering them a greater depth of material to explore.
Video remains an important medium but is mostly used in the first and last phases; for contextualising each stage of the process and for more advanced learning where the learner has the ability to form their own interpretation.
In the central phase still images, in particular line drawings, are key to providing the interpretation necessary for learners to engage with the activity. The step by step guidance provides the bridges for the novice to start to tap into the skills of the expert and learn to read moving images, whether live demonstration or video, for themselves.
Guidance: an active, participatory phase where the learner is guided step by step through the basic process and gains an understanding of any common errors.
Development: repetition is necessary to gain mastery of the skill and this is supported by encouraging the learner to evaluate their outcome, identify and solve problems, and offering them a greater depth of material to explore.
Video remains an important medium but is mostly used in the first and last phases; for contextualising each stage of the process and for more advanced learning where the learner has the ability to form their own interpretation.
In the central phase still images, in particular line drawings, are key to providing the interpretation necessary for learners to engage with the activity. The step by step guidance provides the bridges for the novice to start to tap into the skills of the expert and learn to read moving images, whether live demonstration or video, for themselves.
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