Category: Design education
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The U101 Welcome Pack Incredible Give Away Competition Event Thing
Lola herself has been in touch with the Design Group and asked that we spread the cheer of U101 at this time of year. She has donated a number of U101 Welcome packs to give away to at least 7 lucky recipients. Just look at the creative goodness on offer, each object a portal to…
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Design Museum: designs of the year 2018
On Saturday, a group of 22 Design and Innovation students (and their friends and family) joined the Qualification team and two Associate Lecturers on a tour of the Design Museum’s permanent exhibition ‘Designer Maker User’ and the Beazley’s Designs of the Year 2018 exhibition. Andy, a U101 student, gives a good summary of the rundown…
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It was a PIG of a Game!
PIG – the Problem Identification Game – from the OU Archive PIG was part of the module T262 (1975-1982) entitled Man-made futures: design and technology, a 30 credit module students typically enrolled on after completing their Level 1 study, which then was two foundation modules (60 credits each) such as The man-made world: a foundation…
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Envisioning Futures of Design Education
Do you know how design should be taught in the future? Our recent paper in the journal Dialectic reports on a workshop we held with a group 6 design educators and 40 international participants to explore the future of design education. To spark off the discussion, the 6 design educators presented 4 provocative future…
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Learning about design and technology
Learning about design and technology: It is not true – there is such a thing as a free course! Design and technology are increasingly ubiquitous concepts. This is reflected in several recently launched free OpenLearn Courses in areas relevant to engineering, software and industrial design. ——-Find out more TT284 An introduction to web applications architecture An introduction…
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Design Star Methods Day
For the last two years we’ve hosted a research methods day for the AHRC funded Centre for Doctoral Training ‘Design Star‘. This year we focused on exploring the relationship between ontologies, epistemologies and methodologies in our own research … through the making of personal ‘thinking positions’ pyramids and placing them on a landscape describing different paradigms of approaching research,…
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End of Year 2018 exhibition
Creating an exhibition of Design and Innovation undergraduate students’ work has been one of the most rewarding experiences I had for a while. We called for contributions to an End of Year design exhibition. Having an ‘Annual show’ has a long tradition in other design schools, but we never had one at the OU. This…
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Facing austerity with clever design
Braving a snowstorm and impending TMA deadlines, three students and a visitor joined us to explore the Imperial War Museum’s exhibits in the North. We investigated the effects austerity measures had on the designs and designing throughout the 20th century. The scarcity of materials and resources, and resulting inventions of new materials and production techniques, was…
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A fairground of ideas in Milton Keynes
Sometimes, you just have to do it – get everyone in one place and bounce ideas, share inspirations and motivations. So what was the Milton Keynes Design Fair like? Three tutors, three central academics, seven students across the Design Innovation Qualification and two visitors made their way to the Open University Campus on a rainy…
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Design Museum: what is a good design?
We did a little experiment. What if we organise a visit to the Design Museum (on a grey and rainy February weekend) and everyone from the Design and Innovation Qualification at the OU is invited to come. Who would come and join us? Twenty-five students, 2 tutors and 4 central academics from across the qualification…