Loughborough University Library: Open Journals
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Teaching a one-credit course on data literacy and data visualisation
Full text linkData literacy skills are becoming critical in today’s world as the quantity of data grows exponentially and becomes the ‘currency’ of power. In spring 2020, a team of two librarians piloted a new one-credit course in data literacy and data visualisation. This report explains the rationale behind the project and discusses the place of data literacy within information literacy (IL) instruction. The authors describe the pilot’s learning objectives, topics covered, course design, the structure of assignments and the delivery of the course. They analyse the feedback received on the course and suggest ways to refine their practice.
The article calls for a re-envisaging of the library’s role in data literacy instruction. It aims to address how librarians can extend their current practice of teaching IL to data literacy and why it is important. The authors’ experience may inspire other academic librarians to incorporate data literacy and data visualisation into their teaching practice. 
Mechanical engineering design, learning from the past to design a better future?
Full text linkThe economic importance of design, and design engineers to the success of a company has led to the exponential growth in the demand for qualified design engineers. To fill this demand, colleges and universities provide the best training available so that, after graduation these engineers will provide significant input from the first day of work. We live in a time known as industry 4.0 or the 4th Industrial Revolution, where computer power rules and takes on greater tasks, freeing up time for the design engineer to design more and more complex designs.
Sometimes, it is good to stop, and take a breath to review our practices and remind ourselves of things we may have forgotten. It is true that we can design complex mechanisms and systems, in times past many of these would not be possible. But can we learn or be reminded of good practice by taking a journey through some of the design methods from the past. This paper will travel back to the 2nd century BC and look at cutting edge water pump design and the importance of a good literature review. It will highlight a serious gap in knowledge when comparing full-time and part-time students in our modern age. Airship design will be reviewed, the R100, R38 and R101 to remind us of the need to cross check design calculations. Looking at the beauty of Concorde design will remind us of the requirement in any design of good planning and regular meetings. This journey will finish by looking at the design process of the Boeing 777 commercial airliner, one of the first designs to use Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM). The use of Design Build Teams (DBT) with cross-disciplinary experts who can reside anywhere in the world will be considered. The reviewed historical examples may at first glance appear happen-stance but are in fact linked, and demonstrate a continuing growth in the ability, knowledge, complexity, and techniques of engineering design.
This step back in time will remind teachers of some basic principles when teaching design to future design engineers. Designs have become more complex in this modern age, but it would be incorrect to say that complex design did not exist in times past. Before the internet, aircraft were built, global communication systems existed, men went to the moon
Information literacy of Polish state administration officials in the context of the concept of "good governance"
Full text linkThe article presents the results of research on information literacy (IL) of employees of selected state administration offices, those in which the concept of improving the quality of work, named "good governance", has been implemented. The first aim of the study was to determine the components of IL necessary for state administration employees and the deficiencies occurring in this respect. Another goal was to develop research methods and techniques which would be useful to achieve the first aim and to identify challenges of this study. The research was conducted in two stages. The first of them, carried out at the Lublin Provincial Office in Poland, was aimed at determining the information needs of individual official positions, identifying the IL essential for officials and the shortcomings in this regard. At this stage, the following research methods have been used: analysis of cards describing individual job positions in the office, the method of mapping knowledge in the office and the method of focused group interview. The second stage of the research was carried out in five provincial offices. This time, the main goal was to check whether the questionnaires developed by Polish researchers to study the information culture (the system of human attitudes towards information) of various social groups could be effectively used to study the IL of officials. It was assumed that the information culture of staff determined their ability to undertake information activities, including untypical ones, expected from them in line with the concept of "good governance".
The conclusion reached was that IL of employees was underestimated in the current practice of state administration. A set of components of the information skills useful for working in various office job positions have been developed. It was reported that the information culture of the studied group was characterised by an optimistic perception of their own skills and their professional usefulness. Studies have shown that obtaining conclusive results indicating the level of specific information skills in the office environment is often not possible for reasons beyond the control of a researcher. Traditional IL testing methods are assumed to fail there. This is due to the Dunning-Kruger effect (Kruger & Dunning, 1999), as well as constraints imposed by the way offices function and decisions of the management of the office. It seems that achieving more precise results requires establishing close cooperation with the management of an examined group. Undertaking such research is necessary in the context of implementing the concept of "good governance" and a model of one of the methodologies has been presented in the article
The Connectivist Design Studio
Full text linkThe design studio is the core element in the design curriculum where students gain key knowledge and skills. Typically implementing a project-based approach, it is characterised by learning by doing, collaborative learning and a prominent studio culture. The traditional notion is that the social and cultural domain of the studio has a counterpart in the physical environment. However, with the pervasion of information and communication technologies, the design studio was inevitably transferred to the digital realm. When the traditional face-to-face studio had to be transferred to an online modality enforced by covid-19 pandemics, re-conceptualization of the structure and contents was required in order to ensure the quality of the teaching and students’ satisfaction. Based on the premise that the contents should not be simply adapted to an online version but an entirely new learning experience should be created, the redesign of the class was inspired by the principles of connectivism (Siemens, 2005). Connectivism as an alternative learning theory recognizes the societal shifts and the inevitable impact of technology on the learning processes. This new framework for understanding learning, states that knowledge is derived externally of the individual through a process of connecting nodes and patterns recognition.
The paper explores the potential of connectivism applied in two online design studios at the University of Monterrey, Mexico. It describes the structure of the course and the results obtained in the online learning environment. The outcomes are verified in a survey on the perceptions of the students in regard to their satisfaction and the effectiveness of their knowledge acquisition
Glove and Hand
Full text linkThe article introduces the literary genre of autofiction as a means of self-debating drawings, and suggests the efficacy of this kind of writing as a means of articulating the ‘I’ of the drawing-based artist as subject within their work. After a brief introduction to autofiction’s history and theory, the body of the article concerns an example of autofiction written by the author to discuss the subjective basis of his drawing practice that concerns the observation of perception. This is followed by some indication of autofiction’s possible usefulness to other drawing-based artists. The autofictional narrative involves a conversation of a fictional character and his interlocutor friend concerning two drawings, with some academic reference embedded in the conversation. The main formal and conceptual component of the drawings, generated by factors of perception and particularly relating to the second of them, is a space left open between its first and second layer, which is interpreted according to Lacan’s theory of the Thing. Besides Lacanian theory, the article makes reference to Ricoeur’s hermeneutical theory of distanciation, and ends at a point of revelation, to the author, of distanciation in practice through a chance encounter with another artist’s own use of writing. It is suggested that this encounter is similar to how autofiction, if written by the drawing-based artists, may help them in relation to their visual work
The Artist as Athlete
Full text linkFocusing on a practice-based approach – thinking about the relationships between drawing, performance and running, this paper is derived from a presentation aimed to introduce the artwork RUN VERTICAL (Running up the Side of a Building), an Arts Council England funded project.
Pointing to an increasing awareness of interconnected practices, necessity of collaboration and institutional critique, I highlight key aspects of my practice; and artworks by artists such as, Carolee Schneemann, Martin Creed and Trisha Brown help to inform an understanding of the ‘line’ and ‘body’
Cartone
Full text linkThis paper explores the use of mixed media in contemporary spatial and architectural practice. It is an introduction to a set of preparatory works for wall paintings, completed between 2017-20. The 12 panels are inspired by the tradition of ‘cartone’, or cartoons in the visual arts, that were preliminary studies for painted space. They are made using natural coloured pigments, paper collage and material textures. As such they appear as arrangements of fields of colour, and their surfaces tend to have a complex depth.
The project is grounded on the understanding of architecture as a representational discipline. It draws on notions of spatial perception that are first articulated by Merleau Ponty (1962), enmeshed sensorial experience, and participatory experience in visual phenomena - the work is intended to take forward the dialogue between architecture and the humanities.
Colour and its materiality have also long been the subject of philosophical and theoretical debate and by exploring colour and space through hybrid drawing, we may inquire if colour is mind-independent: are colours simply qualities of objects/spaces or can colour be understood relationally, integral to spatial and material experience? Situating the work in the context of the historical development of pictorial space in painting and architecture, this study then asks how mixed media visual practice can contribute to the development of forms of critical spatial practice. For instance, in an age of resource depletion, an exploration of the potential of low-impact pigmented surfaces has an ecological imperative
ePortfolios in craft education at the primary level
Full text linkThe Finnish National Core Curriculum (NCC), which took effect at the primary school level in autumn 2016, includes ICT competence for all school grades, and encourages pupils to document their working processes in crafts. However, the literature provides evidence of the barriers faced by teachers in integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) into teaching. This paper is shaped as an autoethnography, and its purpose is to share the experience of primary school teachers involved in the integration of technology in an electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) project in craft education with 43 third-grade pupils in a Finnish primary school context. Research data – field journal notes, video recordings and interviews – were analysed qualitatively, relying on Ertmer’s conceptual framework on ICT barriers (1999) and five main categories were reported, which are ‘Inadequate software/hardware’, ‘Learner group attributes’, ‘Allocation of responsibility’, ‘Lack of resources’ and ‘Teacher attributes’. Based on the results, the study discusses the challenges of integrating ICT into craft education in primary level
