Wow! What a difference it is to be a second timer in the
6190 class. This time last year, I was extremely stressed out. I had no idea
what the adobe tools were or what they did. I struggled at first to find a
project to complete. I felt completely lost and overwhelmed! This year, I feel
more comfortable about this class and the tools I will use for my project. I
feel much more like a designer now than before. I also know what I want to create
for a project this semester already. This past week I held library orientations
at the school I work at. As I taught the same lesson over and over I thought,
there has to be a better and more interesting way to do this. Also, students
have come to the library this week that were absent during their orientation. I
think it would be neat to create an interactive orientation that I could use in
my lesson, as well as post on a site for students to access.
Andrew
Gibbons wrote an article about the different phases that designers go
through. The article “What and How
to Designers Design?” was a great article for putting where I am and should be
into perspective. As a designer, I feel that I am in the message-centrism
stage. According to Gibbons (2003), “Message-centric design places primary
importance on message-related constructs and employs media constructs
secondarily, according to the demands of the message” (p. 22). I feel that last
year, I was more focused on what tool I wanted to use and made my project to
fit the tool. I think I was in the media-centrism stage. I saw the technology
for what it was and did not think past that. Now I feel that I have grown to
understanding the importance of my project and finding a tool to fit my
project; not the project to fit the tool. I think it is important as a designer
to eventually progress through the centrisms to show growth and understanding
of design. “With each move to a new viewpoint the designer gains the use of the
new design constructs without giving up the old ones, so this change results in
the accumulation of fundamental design and building blocks” (Gibbons, Nelson,
& Richards, 2000, p. 19). I would like to see myself continue to move
through the centrisms and grow as a designer. I am looking forward to learning
more about each stage and its importance.
References
Gibbons, A. S. (2003). What and how do designers design?
TechTrends, 47(5), 22-25.
Gibbons,
A. S., Nelson, J. & Richards, R. (2000). The nature and origin of
instructional objects. In D. A. Wiley (Ed.), The Instructional Use of Learning
Objects: Online Version. Retrieved August 6, 2011 from the World Wide Web: http://reusability.org/read/chapters/gibbons.doc
