Although it seems as if we have never been without social media, location aware technologies, and apps to organize many aspects of our lives, we are in fact just at the beginning of our relationship with digital technologies and networks. Continue reading
Image courtesy of www.neospire.net under a Creative Commons license
At Central Saint Martins we explore the myriad evolving relationships between the physical and the virtual in all manner of ways – be they disciplinary, interdisciplinary or antidisciplinary. In doing so we upload films onto Vimeo, send emails with files attached, save documents onto the S-drive, create 3D models using SketchUp, and comment on blog posts – these are just some of the ways in which we generate our digital information. Daily, enormous amounts of data are launched upon the grid by our staff, students and alumni. Continue reading
Illustration of back-end of Moby-Dick Big Read project
In the spring of 2011, artist Angela Cockayne and writer Philip Hoare convened and curated a unique whale symposium and exhibition at Peninsula Arts, the dedicated contemporary art space at Plymouth University, under the title, Dominion. Inspired by their mutual obsession with the American novel Moby-Dick and with the overarching subject of the whale, they invited artists, writers, musicians, scientists and academics to respond to the theme. The Moby-Dick Big Read emerged from this and i-DAT has developed the digital interpretation of the novel in partnership with Philip, Angela and Peninsula Arts at Plymouth University.
Chris Hunt leads the technical team behind the Moby-Dick Big Read, and kindly explained some of the technical aspects of the project. Continue reading
What is eLearning? blog post on the Dashboard
As an increasingly significant part of sociotechnical learning systems, e-Learning is value laden, whether ethical, social or cultural; e-Learning can be viewed as embodying different forms of power and authority, thus being inherently political. e-Learning is not neutral. When framed in this way, how can it be anything but interesting? Continue reading
Image from blog post on urban art
A blog is an online reflective journal where other internet users can post comments – there are over 160 million blogs in existence. Blogs are regularly used for commentary or for personal reflection, and at CSM many students are using blogs as part of their learning activities, and staff as part of their practice. Continue reading
BA Textile Design 'Printerest' board
Anne Marr is course leader for BA Textile Design at CSM. Traditionally a hands-on and three-dimensional practice, we asked Anne how the programme interacts with digital technologies and found a symbiotic relationship. From a research project encouraging students to think about trends in social media, to using e-portfolios in the recruitment process and mounting an analogue Pinterest – or Printerest – board in the print studio – it’s all about finding the right combination. Continue reading
CSM website's home page
Colin Buttimer is Central Saint Martins’ web manager. It is a role that has morphed and expanded exponentially in his four and a half year tenure. We spoke to Colin about the ways in which he responds to new digital technologies and his vision for increased interactivity between the College and its students.
Colleagues share insights about the new digital tool OTTeR created at CSM
The oscillating social, political and cultural interpretations of digital technologies are highly complex and contested. However, with 1 billion people using Facebook each month, and further extraordinary statistics relating to social media and digital technologies being published daily, it is becoming increasingly important for citizens and educators to familiarise themselves with new and evolving information communications technologies.
The College is keen to provide various ways for colleagues to develop confidence and competence in the use of these technologies. As such, a project called ‘Digital Present’ has been developed with the aim of supporting staff digital literacy. Aligned to a ‘communities of practice’ approach, it is designed to supplement existing training, IT support and PPD. Already we have produced four informal drop-in Learning Studios where colleagues from across the College can share information about the ways in which they are exploring different digital tools and social media. September’s well received CSM All Staff Digital Literacy Event provided an intense afternoon focused on technology enhanced learning, and the Digital Present blog has just launched. Continue reading
Jewellers Compendium on Facebook
Sian Evans is a Senior Lecturer on CSM’s BA Jewellery Design course. An avid social networker herself, Sian likes to keep in contact with her students when she is not in college and saw Facebook as a way to boost interactivity between them and her. The page – Jewellers Compendium – has been running for two and a half years and has a current grand total of 4,236 friends made up of students, alumni and industry professionals. As a news feed, an aggregator of course information and as a networking tool, Sian says the project has been “very successful” and advocates the use of Facebook in this way across all disciplines. Here, she explains why and talks through the details of the project. Continue reading
The Centre for Learning and Teaching in Art and Design (CLTAD) is leading the university’s transition from Blackboard to Moodle. The aim is for Moodle to be fully implemented and available to all UAL staff and students by September 2013.
To help colleagues and students find out about Moodle, CLTAD has developed a really useful and user friendly website called Life after Blackboard. On it you can also see an interactive illustrated map of the UAL’s VLE (virtual learning environment) which clearly visualises the suite of digital tools, including Moodle, that is available to all courses. The VLE provides a set of tools that allows lecturers to create and deliver course content and assessments, and communicate via the internet.