A blog about design at the OU.
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Google Arts & Culture
I came across a fantastic archive of Fashion designs around the world today. What fascinated me most was the focus on making and processes, and the global perspective the project ‘We Wear Culture’ takes. They are concise stories but inspiring enough if you want to explore more on your own. There are thousands of arts […]
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OpenStudio of the Future
We had a fantastic workshop today on how to facilitate progression in OpenStudio. We have reported on OpenStudio successes and scholarship before. This time academics and learning designers from the OU were invited to build on findings from our scholarship into OpenStudio to think about developments and improvements to the studio. At the workshop, we reported on […]
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Citizenship in the smart city
The suite of smart city standards recently published by the British Standards Institute attempts to legitimise smart city developments by placing citizens at the centre of them. Working with Simon Joss and Youri Dayot from the University of Westminster, I analysed the standards to try to figure out how citizenship might evolve in the smart […]
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Lurking and learning at eSTEeM
Today we have presented on the 6th eSTEeM Annual Conference some of the findings from our eSTEeM funded project on student progression in OpenDesignStudio. The bottom line is that you even though you might just ‘lurk’ online, you can learn and succeed in your studies. Simply viewing the work other design students have posted online will […]
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A Tale of Research in Smart Cities
The challenge to design the smartest cities has been embraced in most larger UK cities but less is known about how to evaluate and measure the “smartness” of each approach. Smart city programmes are springing up across UK cities, offering solutions for contemporary challenges facing cities associated with population and urbanisation pressures, and bringing opportunities […]
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Another tool for checking what you know
In addition to Gil’s great post on How to spot fake news, here’s another toolkit well worth investing in – the (bear with me) Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies poster, freely available in pdf here So, the next you read a newspaper piece or watch anyone debating or presenting anything, see if you play […]
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Places of worship, design, and communities
In the Empowering Design Practices project we have been working with groups of different faiths and denominations who look after historic buildings and who want to develop and ensure the sustainability of those buildings through co-design and community engagement. Places of worship have historically been functioning as centres of community life. But what is the […]
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OpenStudio at the Guardian HE Awards
Sadly OpenStudio didn’t win the Guardian University Award for Digital Innovation – but the winner and other runner up were more than deserving. In fact it’s great to see that all three runners up had more to do with embedded practice than simply showing off the next technology. That’s a healthy sign, in my humble […]
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How To Spot Fake News
By IFLA (edited by Gil Dekel). Critical thinking is a key skill in media and information literacy. Discussions about fake news has led to a new focus on media literacy. With Oxford Dictionaries announcement that post-truth is Word of the Year 2016, it seems that there is a need to educate and advocate for critical […]
