Sunday, December 14, 2008

Planning for educational resource development

Thanks Leigh for your comments about funding and wiki books. I had not fully considered the possibility of OER (open educational resources) but think this is a great idea now I have read a bit more about it. http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator/Introduction/Defining_OER
I am slowly working on the plan of attack and presentation of this resource development idea - I see the need for an accessible sustainable design tool/model available to both students and designers working within industry. Building on ideas from Thomas & van Kopplen (2005) from RMIT and van Kopplen's LIDA (low impact design approach) & “Fashion Design/Production Loop”. http://www.hhc.rca.ac.uk/archive/hhrc/programmes/include/2005/proceedings/pdf/thomassue.pdf (page 6,7). This prompt and reflective tool enables students to make good/sound ethical and sustainable choices throughout the design process and the supply chain.
In my quest to create a design "sustain-ability" (Fry 1999 pg viii) http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=24872996 resource tool I will begin within fashion design. Future intentions include creating a model that can be adapted by other disciplines and used by students and industry based designers. It is essential that the resource I develop although informed by Anthea van Kopplen's extensive research and development is a stand alone project. However on saying this I believe it would be beneficial (prudent) to approach Anthea van Kopplen with my project/resource development plan. Consulting and/or collaborating with experts within this area will be a crucial part of the development of this resource. Liaison within the fashion & design industries will further ensure currency. Developing the actual resource will require input from others including funding, education and IT support as well as design for print. This resource development is to be tied into my ongoing research into the most effective teaching and learning strategies for sustainable design education.

2 comments:

Leigh Blackall said...

Sounds great! But don't let a resource production idea lead you to loose sight of developing flexible learning. A resource production in itself is not inherently flexible learning.. it could be that it enables flexible learning, but you'll need to articulate how (for the purposes of the course anyway.

Have a good chrissy, and hope you'll pop in some time next year.

BTW.. you can reply to my comments that I leave on your blog by leaving comments in the same place as well. In other words, view your post where I have left a comment, and comment there as well.

Tracy Kennedy said...

Yes thanks Leigh realise that the resource itself should enable flexible learning - a tool therefore that needs to be flexible in itself and appeal and be able to be used across a range of contexts. T