Creative activity used to generate new ideas
Creative Connection Cards
NOTTINGHAM, ANITRA; STOUT JEREMY
There are many times when we can get stuck in a routine and creativity seems to get sucked right out of the classroom. Whether it is the demands from the outside or the compounding of multiple assignments at once, students can get stuck. When students are having a hard time building ideas, they can often become withdrawn from the process or disruptive and distracting to others who are engaged. Traditional brainstorming techniques like mind-mapping and keyword searches can help get things started, but they too can have a routine feel. Finding techniques you can turn to help bring a higher level of exploration and creative engagement when students are having creative blocks will reduce frustration on both your parts.
One way to shake it up and get students engaged again is with these creative connection cards developed by educators Anitra Nottingham and Jeremy Stout. They have created a creative activity that has multiple variables. Built into a deck of cards, you can either customize how you use it with your students by only using certain cards or keep it as random as possible with all 107 in play.
I used these cards to help push my students to explore new ideas with their final projects and it really sparked great conversation and improved the outcomes of the project. I had a relatively small class of 9 students who were consistently distracted with a larger project in another class that occurred just before mine. The visual solutions were starting to look similar and they were choosing the most obvious, rather than exploring more interesting outcomes, so I decided to try bringing in the cards.
These were first year students and I wanted to re-enforce some of the beginning design principles so I pulled out connection cards like; play with color temperature, add negative space, use scale, create focus, use tension, etc. I had them team up in pairs and pick a card from the ones I had set aside. They then worked with their partner to discuss and make changes to their ideas relative to the directions on the cards. At the beginning of the next class, each partnership shared their before and after concepts and talked about how the connection fostered a different creative view, or not.
Overall the cards had a positive impact on the class and increased their engagement with each other and the design process. It pushed them to look at things a little differently rather than settling on their first solution. I would recommend getting a set for your classroom as well as using them for yourself.
Building your student engagement techniques to support achievement
Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty
BARKLEY, ELIZABETH F; 2010
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Getting and keeping students motivated, engaged and actively learning is a challenge that educators face in all disciplines. This is especially true for new educators who can not draw on previous classroom experience to help drive solutions. Add to that students have a lot of things to distract them from engagement from social media to messaging apps popping in on their computer screens and we have our work cut out for us. Solutions are much more straight-forward for things like learning students names efficiently, but keeping your entire class engaged in learning is much more ambiguous and difficult.
Barkley has built a comprehensive resource that outlines techniques that have been proven in the classroom. Not all these can apply to studio-based learning environments and some are simply a part of studio pedagogy, but there is a lot to explore within the 100 plus tips and strategies she outlines. Each technique is divided into learning objectives includes classroom examples, suggestions for online transferability, step-by-step directions, and advice.
One things that really resonates throughout the book is that educators must help get students vested in the class as a shared community in learning. Like many disciplines, graphic design classrooms require the open exchange of ideas and discord to help transfer learning. Each student is dependent on the others to help them learn and grow as designers. This not only needs to be articulated but demonstrated early on. The master/apprentice approach can put a wall up in the community rather build synergy in the classroom.
Giving students choices in their learning is another way to build interest in their own learning. For instance the base assignment can be the same for everyone like creating a series of 5x7 postcards using only typography. But the topic of the postcards could present a choice like choose between design for a series of concerts, gallery shows, restaurant openings etc. When student have more interest or see greater personal relevance in the topic they choose, they will be more invested in the process and outcome.
As Berkley points out, it is also important to be aware of diversity and personal learning styles when presenting information. Mix things up between reading, videos, audio recordings and other methods. Be aware of ESL students and how you can support their understanding.