Exercise: On Design
Learning Objectives
At the end of this exercise, participants will be able to:
- Reflect on how all everyone participates in design work.
- Identify and examine gaps in their own design knowledge.
- Recognize areas of opportunity for collaboration.
Suggested Materials
Presenters
- Presenter display, such as connected television or projector.
- Various examples of accessible code snippets and workflows, such as alternative text and closed captioning.
- Sticky notes, both in easel and post-it sizes if available.
- Writing utensils to hand out to participants.
- Jamboard, Padlet, or other software for teams to collaborate.
Participants
- Computer, tablet, or smartphone.
- Post-it notes and writing utensil (provided by presenter)
Estimated Activity Time
Thirty Minutes
Exercise Outline
Consider the quote that concluded chapter two:
“Design means to make a mark, make a plan, or problem-solve; all human beings thus participate in design.”
Exercise GuidelineS
-
- Given the context of this workshop and the quote above, take a few minutes to freewrite a short reflection on how you see yourself as a faculty designer.
- Reflect on strengths as well as gaps as to where you self-identify shortcomings.
- Yes, this type of reflection not always easy to do so. But, since we’re all educators here, it’s what we ask our students to do. Let’s get to modeling!
- Use any document editor of choice – computer, smart phone, tablet or paper.
- Share out.
- Take a few minutes to ask others to comment on – and look for ways to collaborate – with other participants in the workshop.
- Reflect on strengths as well as gaps as to where you self-identify shortcomings.
- Given the context of this workshop and the quote above, take a few minutes to freewrite a short reflection on how you see yourself as a faculty designer.
About and Considerations for Freewriting
According to Merriam-Webster, freewriting is defined as the “automatic writing done especially as a classroom exercise.” The hope is that one idea will lead to another, connecting threads and opening possibilities or areas of opportunity.
Note that some participants may not feel comfortable sharing their writing, which is both expected and encouraged: Ask the group how else might they be included in the recap process of this exercise.
