The Image Conference Presentation - Transforming Sins into Virtues in Design for Learning

We had a great Friday event - The Image Conference, organized by the BRAZTESOL Brasilia team, with the support of the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG and Kieran Donaghy, the one who started the Image Conference in Barcelona.

After such an intense day and weekend, I haven´t had time to put my thoughts together in a blog post with the ideas and resources I presented, but Graham Stanley, one of our keynote speakers and amazingly fast and efficient blogger did it all and saved me some precious hours!

You can read about the whole idea of the presentation at
http://blog-efl.blogspot.com.br/2013/10/carla-arena-transforming-sins-into.html

Graham is really amazing! And nobody can beat him when it gets to blogging! Thanks, my friend.

Thinking Design - Looking Professional

Some might consider it superfluous, or just for professionals. Others could say it is essential, but not for them. In fact, design is for all. The way we present, the choice of images, the displaying of graphic elements, the word we use. Everything counts and matters. Design tells much of who we are. Consider your presentations and digital resources, what are they saying about you? What stories are you telling? How professional do you look?

Manifesto for Conference Presenters

Dear presenters,


We are your audience.

We came from every corner of the globe to watch YOU. Not anyone else. From a comprehensive range of options, YOU were the elected.
Show confidence, even when you are shaking inside.
Say that you care by carefully preparing for your presentation. Be respectful to your audience.
Slides are powerful. Overloaded slides are distractors.
Think design. Instructional design and the pure beauty of good design.
One piece of information on a slide is great. With an image, even better.
Forget clipart! Most of it look unprofessional.
Bullets points? Dump them! A visual cue with just some words are powerful. Remember, we came to hear you talk with passion and encouragement. Reading slides? No way!
Background matters. In doubt, chose plain colors. White will do. Dark colors are fine. If you are on the audacious side, play with colorful ones, but watch out. What needs to stand out is your message, not the wrong colors.
We all have friends that are design-conscious. Asking for advice is OK for a long-lasting good impression.
Your content should faithfully reflect your professionalism. Rush not when time seems to speed.
"Running out of time?" Never mention it! Act naturally. Prepare for emergency exit, without letting your audience notice it. The secret? Have exit points that won't harm your carefully prepared presentation. 10 slides in a minute won't get you there. Playing videos, showing examples are fine. Trying to load 10-minute movie segments on spot is not. Time is a precious commodity for presenters. Don't waste it.
Content is king. A smooth transition between concepts and real-life application is essential. Surprise, engage, have a conversation with your audience. Connect.
Bring up something that WE, your audience, will take with us and carry it around the world in ripple effects within our educational circles. Inspire. Let us dream of a new classroom, a fresh approach to our pedagogical practices.
Simple is more. Why animations and transitions if you are the one to cheer up your audience and move from one concept to the next? Your plain well-designed slides will impress more than the slide show fireworks of sounds and movement.
We chose you to spend time with. Show us that you care. Make your presentation a unique experience to be remembered, to be retold, blogged and twitted.
Make your presentation last by being part of our memories.
Let it travel the world by being retold over and over again.
We chose to watch you for a reason. And the reason is you and all that you have to teach us.
Next time you present, bear this in mind and how your audience value your every word and move.

p.s.: This post was inspired by a great in-depth discussion during the IATEFL Conference 2013, in Liverpool, with great educators Mabel Castro, Vini Nobre and Paulo Machado.

Educators as Designers

I've always had a deep fascination for what was aesthetically beautiful for the eyes and pleasing for the mind. Design has always mattered for me, and it has guided me personally and professionally as a principle of good living an a people connector. I've always believed in its engagement power. And unconsciously I understood that through design, you could express to a group a sense of belonging, being part of a community with shared values.

I remember that from the start of my role as an Ed Tech Supervisor how I'd worry about the simple things, starting from a well-design poster inviting teachers for professional development opportunity. I felt that through design, I could show in a way that I cared for them and that I valued their presence in our training sessions. It was not just a simple announcement on the wall, but a call for action, for meaning and connections, and all of that had to be transmitted visually.

When I think of design, though, it is not only about its aesthetics aspects. Instructional design has permeated my role as an educator. Again, when we are aware of the power of certain rules of good practices and processes, learning sticks, the experience of constructing new knowledge holds meaning, engagement, excitement. It takes the learner to the next level, where he/she feels the thrill of experiencing that urge to move forward, to keep learning.

It is also through instructional design that an educator builds community, makes a tribe thrive as a group, considers effective instruction for differentiated learning. If

If, when we make our lesson plans, we start seeing ourselves less of teachers, but more as designers of experiences through creation and exploration with our learners, then we transform the way we teach and learn. We will then realize:

- the meaning of flow from one activity to the other;
- the need for blank spaces to leave room for creation, questioning, experimenting,; and not cramming one activity after another with no space for thinking or wondering:
- the power of a carefully planned lesson with a variety of activities that engage and not bore, but letting serendipity and surprise have their role in the learning process;
- the significance of considering your audience and its specificities to design experiences that make sense and bring on board layers of knowledge construction that are solid, meaningful, and long-lasting.

When we think os ourselves as Designers of learning experiences, we are enhancing the art of possibility and wonder. We become the catalysts of the so-desired change in our classroom microcosmos.

Design Series - eLearning Design

When we work in the eLearning area, we have the regular instructional design issues, plus some others related to technology and interaction in an arena in which we rely on hypertext in its many forms and shapes and the human interactions for a successful learning program.

eLearningnetwork.org is one place I go for inspiration and the latest elearning trends. Just today I was browsing the site and came across this 24tips series that is a wonderful resources for anybody interested in the area:

24tips - http://24tips.elearningnetwork.org/

Don't miss it! You will certainly find inspiration and very practical tips for your elearning session.

Design Series - Learning Design

In my last post, I talked about the importance of thinking about design in two different levels in our classrooms. The first and essential one, instructional design - planning our classes to convey meaning and to arise interest, engagement. Another aspect of design that we should be more aware of is adding elements that are visually-appealing to the eyes and all the senses. One example I just had in my class was simply adding a wonderful music clip of Adele. First, my students didn't know her, then the video is an example of an upbeat well-designed videoclip. Plus, the music itself was an activation for learning. My students were glued.



Add to design the learner himself. The third level. Many times, we simply take for granted how the learner is dealing with his learning process. We, as educators, need to make them aware of learning strategies that might work for them, that might help them take their language production to the next level. It is all about helping them design their own learning paths through tips, suggestions and constant support.

This is an example of what I generally do. I take a picture of our collective work on the board and post it on our class wiki. However, my handwriting is not a masterpiece on the board. It might be helpful for students, but not that visually-appealing:



Let's turn this option more student-centered and well-designed to help students explore class content more effectively.

Take, for example, a site like http://squareleaf.net/. It is very simple to register, students can add their class entries in a color-coded fashion. It is a clean, straightforward, ad-free online space. Students gain in mobility as they can access their notes wherever they are. Plus, they are the ones creating their language lists in any way they feel might be more profitable for them, including editing the colors for each box. So, here's the twist from my previous image:

What do you think? How might this affect the whole learning process? Isn't it going to help in our students' own learning design?

DESIGN Series - Uniqueness and Beauty in a Lesson Plan

Teachers are generally so overwhelmed by the load of information they have to deal with, be it pedagogical or bureaucratic, papers, tests, lesson planning that we tend just to go with the flow using the repertoire we already have to make things more time-efficient. In this bulldozing routine, common place is what our lessons become. And, in many cases, boredom is what we get.

With very small shifts, we can re-energize our classroom. Maybe the kind of examples we use in class might work, or the kind of activities we ask students to perform can be effective. However,  a more ambitious, but rewarding change that focuses on uniqueness and design, can do wonders. How about going beyond Youtube low-quality videos and clipart and finding multimedia that inspires, instigates, that asks for action, resources that are appealing, daring? Yes, we can be designers of change that bring a bit of delight to our learning environment.

Daniel Pink, in his "A Whole New Mind" says, "We may not all be Dali or Degas. But today we must all be designers". We can be inspired and inspire our learners to appreciate their surrounding and to add uniqueness to their own ways of thinking and acting. This might be an ambitious dead, but, bit by bit, we can make a difference. Daniel Pink goes on saying that "good design offers us a chance to bring pleasure, meaning and beauty to our lives. But most important, cultivating a design sensibility can make our small planet a better place for us all".

Let me just give you a very simple practical example. In every school book, there's a topic related to cities or the place we live, right? Think of the last time you taught this lesson. How did you teach it? What resources did you use?

Here's one beautifully-produced short Brazilian video that can be used in the classroom to discuss the topic:



From there, some pedagogical ideas:

• Explore the concept of uniqueness in your city. What makes xxxxx unique?
• How can you make the ugly beautiful?
• Urban sprawl: You are the mayor of a big city. Traffic is chaotic, peoplre are stressed out. You don't have many resources, but there is a group of artists willing to change the lives of its inhabitants. What could they do to help you make life in the city more enjoyable?
• Use other city shorts videos and ask students to compare cities, to decide where they would live if they had the chance, for example. (Rotterdam, New York , Berlin, Istanbul, Seoul)

Remember: design in our lesson plans is two-fold (1) thinking of activities that are pedagogically-sound and follow a logical, contextualized sequence (2) finding resources that are visually-appealing and enhance meaningful interactions in the classroom.

We tend to focus on the first aspect, but forget how important it is for the eyes and the mind to enhance critical thinking, joy and change in the learning process.

Follow up:
Students check some multicultural projects http://multiculturaluniqueness.pbworks.com to get inspiration to produce their own digital artifact to answer the question: "What makes (their city) unique?"

"It's not true that what is useful is beautiful. It is what is beautiful that is useful. Beauty can improve people's way of life and thinking." 

Anna Castelli Ferrieri, furniture designer