Art and Design

Based on three years of innovative pedagogical development and guided by a participatory action research methodology, this paper outlines an approach to integrating mobile web 2.0 within a tertiary education course, based on a social constructivist pedagogy. The goal is to facilitate a student-centred, collaborative, flexible, context-bridging learning environment that empowers students as content producers and learning context generators, guided by lecturers who effectively model the use of the technology. We illustrate how the introduction of mobile web 2.0 has disrupted the underlying pedagogy of the course from a traditional Attelier model (face-to-face apprenticeship model), and has been successfully transformed into a context independent social constructivist model. Two mobile web 2.0 learning scenarios are outlined, including; a sustainable house design project (involving the collaboration of four departments in three faculties and three diverse groups of students), and the implementation of a weekly ‘nomadic studio session'. Students and lecturers use the latest generation of smartphones to collaborate, communicate, capture and share critical and reflective learning events. Students and lecturers use mobile friendly web 2.0 tools to create this environment, including: blogs, social networks, location aware (geotagged) image and video sharing, instant messaging, microblogging etc... Feedback from students and lecturers has been extremely positive, and the course is being used as a model of implementing mobile web 2.0 throughout the institution.

Built on the foundation of four years of research and implementation of mobile learning projects (mlearning), this paper outlines the implementation of an mlearning model in the first year of a Bachelor of Product Design course in 2009. The mlearning model was informed and driven by social constructivist pedagogies, within a staged and scaffolded approach to transform the learning environment from lecturer-centred (pedagogy) to student-centred (andragogy), while maintaining the critical pedagogical guidance of the lecturer (Laurillard, 2007; McLoughlin & Lee, 2007). Analysis and reflection on the previous mobile web 2.0 projects within the Product Design course led to the integration of mobile web 2.0 tools within the curriculum via a three-stage adoption across the three years of the Product Design degree. The first year implementation focused on the first stage in this transformation, facilitating student-generated content and collaboration. A paper that would typically have been delivered in a traditional paper-based mode was developed by the lecturer to model and embed the use of mobile web 2.0 tools facilitating a social constructivist learning environment. Examples of assessment alignment and integration of the mobile web 2.0 tools within the first year course are outlined. Students and lecturers were provided with a WiFi and 3G capable netbook for the first semester (Dell Mini9). At the end of the first semester the students and lecturers were also provided with a WiFi and 3G capable smartphone that integrated a 3.2MP (megapixel) camera, video recording, GPS, touchscreen for text input, and multitasking operating system for a variety of Symbian based applications. Students and lecturers were encouraged to personalise the use of these mobile devices and treat them as if they owned them for the duration of the year. This first stage mlearning project focused primarily on students establishing and personalizing the use of core web 2.0 tools and then moving towards the use of mobile specific affordances adding context bridging and context aware dimensions to the learning environment. The focus for the first year was foundational, using netbooks more than the smartphones to establish students’ web 2.0 e-portfolios which will be built upon in the students second year of the course in 2010.
Keywords:  web 2.0, mlearning, social constructivism, andragogy.

This paper explores the development of a 2011 international collaborative mlearning project that builds upon the success of the implementation of over 30 mlearning projects by the researcher between 2006 and 2011. In particular the project builds upon a 2010 Architecture mlearning project (Cochrane & Rhodes, 2011). The 2011 project aims to produce a significant core group of mlearning evangelists from the participating lecturers and students who will become technology stewards within each of their respective institutions, and facilitating the establishment of further international co-creative mlearning projects in 2012. The 2011 project incorporates international collaboration between Architecture elective course students (Unitec) and public relations students (AUT University) in New Zealand, and groups of students in the UK (Sheffield University and Salford University), Spain (Universitat Rovira i Virgili), and Germany (Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin), where the researcher has established partnerships with lecturers keen to explore the potential of mlearning integration. The learning contexts include: Third year elective Architecture students (Unitec), third year Public Relations students (AUT), second year BA(Hons) Design students (Sheffield), Sociology of Technology elective students (Beuth), MSc Audio Production students (Salford), and second year Educational Technology students (Tarragona). The paper reflects upon the establishment of the international collaboration project and the impact of the use of mobile web 2.0 tools as a foundation for the participant collaborations.
Keywords: mlearning, web 2.0, collaboration, heutagogy.

Keywords: Glass, Bioplastic, Design, Architecture.
Abstract. The Art & Design Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University has been working with the sustainability agenda for a number of years, with much of its focus being on the development of new, innovative materials that afford designers new creative opportunities and provide significant benefits for green manufacturing. This paper describes two such projects highlighting the role played by including key stakeholders in the material development process.
The first, ‘TTURA™’ is a composite glass and resin material with some unique physical properties. The research team engaged with a variety of stakeholders to ensure the material would meet a wide range of end user requirements; trials included tests carried out by the waste glass industries, resin manufacturers, flooring contractors, architects, commissioning agents and end users. The second case study, at an earlier stage of development than TTURA™, takes the same user-centred research approach of engagement with stakeholders. ‘BioChair’ is a project exploring the possibilities for fibre-reinforced composite biomaterials, initially in collaboration with a government research institute. The research focussed on the development of a new bio-based polymer, with the aim being to understand the interactions of polymers with wood and pulp fibres and the effects on production processes and material performance.

This paper explores the development of a 2011 international collaborative mlearning project that builds upon the success of the implementation of over 30 mlearning projects by the researcher between 2006 and 2011. In particular the project builds upon a 2010 Architecture mlearning project (Cochrane & Rhodes, 2011). The 2011 project aims to produce a significant core group of mlearning evangelists from the participating lecturers and students who will become technology stewards within each of their respective ...

The excitement surrounding the potential of web2.0 tools within education has continued to grow. While almost everyone has now heard of PODCasting and YouTube, there are many more examples of social networking and content sharing tools that can be harnessed for education. Recently Twitter (microblogging) has been popularised by the media, with a reported explosive growth rate (uptake by new users) of 1500% during early 2009. While this illustrates that there is undoubtedly phenomenal interest in web2.0, there are still few concrete examples illustrating how to integrate these tools using an explicitly social constructivist pedagogical model within contemporary tertiary education environments. This paper describes the purposeful integration of web2.0 and mobile web2.0 tools within a first year Bachelor of Product Design programme, based upon underpinning social constructivist pedagogy. Examples of the use of several web2.0 tools that support the development of collaborative student-centred learning environments are given. Initial feedback from lecturers and students are also reported.

Based on three years of innovative pedagogical development and guided by a participatory action research methodology, this paper outlines an approach to integrating mobile web 2.0 within a tertiary education course, based on a social constructivist pedagogy. The goal is to facilitate a student-centred, collaborative, flexible, context-bridging learning environment that empowers students as content producers and learning context generators, guided by lecturers who effectively model the use of the technology. We illustrate how the introduction of mobile web 2.0 has disrupted the underlying pedagogy of the course from a traditional Attelier model (face-to-face apprenticeship model), and has been successfully transformed into a context independent social constructivist model. Two mobile web 2.0 learning scenarios are outlined, including; a sustainable house design project (involving the collaboration of four departments in three faculties and three diverse groups of students), and the implementation of a weekly 'nomadic studio session'. Students and lecturers use the latest generation of smartphones to collaborate, communicate, capture and share critical and reflective learning events. Students and lecturers use mobile friendly web 2.0 tools to create this environment, including: blogs, social networks, location aware (geotagged) image and video sharing, instant messaging, microblogging etc… Feedback from students and lecturers has been extremely positive, and the course is being used as a model of implementing mobile web 2.0 throughout the institution.