Blog Synthesis

I like travel and sightseeing so I often see learning like exploring a national park. In a park, we may find many things that are interesting, like deep valleys and clean creeks, colorful trees and flowers, rare animals and birds, and breathtaking sunrise and sunset. We take pictures of these things and keep them in our memory. I have the same feeling when I review all the blogs I have posted for the course this semester. There are several things that I would take away for later use in teaching.

Hooks. In music, a hook refers to a catchy musical idea, a passage or a phrase, which often comes at the beginning of the piece of music and sometimes repeats and develops throughout the piece. In my blog about music, I mentioned the magic power of a music hook. Could we apply the idea of hooks to our daily teaching? I think we can and we should. For example, we may start a lecture with a personal connection with some element of the lecture to arouse students’ interest, and periodically, refer to that connection and until the end of the lecture. This needs some good thought and design to avoid excessive repetition and make the hook a pleasant device.

Sense of suspension. A related concept I grabbed from the discussion of “My Best Friend’s Wedding” is a role of sense of suspension. In the episode we watched, the plot is the telling of a made-up romantic story between George and Julianne. Everyone at the table was eager to hear the story and the curiosity introduced a great deal of involvement. However, George did not tell the whole story all out immediately. Instead, he paused and again, and that generated even stronger interest. I think this “form” of design is especially helpful in lecturing if we can use it smartly.

Rhythms. Good music and choreography is characterized by beautiful rhythms that can synchronize our heartbeats. However, I don’t think rhythm is not limited only to music. Instead, harmonious rhythm is good for everything we do, including teaching. A nice pace and balance of rise and fall, fast and slow, tense and relax, and high and low all can simulate a rhythm in life, like “yin and yang” in the Oriental culture. The opposite of rhythm is monotony and dullness. We as educators all know the importance of avoiding them in our teaching. So, thinking of the use of rhythm as a form of teaching design should be encouraged.

Space. Of the discussion about interior design, one of the terms I found important is space. A good interior design often leaves adequate space for people to pause, breath and imagination. And a psychological space can be effectively created with skillful arrangement of different objects in interior design, as we have learned from the design literature. An implication of the space concept for our teaching is to me that we need to make the pace of learning and give students enough time to pause and participation in the co-creation of knowledge.

Multimodality. Although we actually did not discuss this concept but I have come to realize the role of multimedia in engagement of learning. We have watched a lot of video during the course and we each have developed several video projects. What really stuck me is, when I review either my own work or other classmates’ projects, I have enjoyed much more of the video with narration than those with only captions over the video. I think a big difference is that the former type addresses both visual and auditory sensory organs while the latter addresses only our visual sensory organ. That is why I decided to narrate my WOA project although I developed hey fever and coughed often. I overcome my coughing to complete the project. When I played it back, I enjoyed it.

Storytelling. When we shared pictures as part of our understanding the forms in photography that create a compelling experience, I came to realize the role of story telling. I have seen some pictures (e.g., a piece of bread, a baseball cap) that, at the beginning, mean little to me. However, after I read the story before each of the pictures, my appreciation of the pictures changed. I think it is because I know the story behind the picture so it becomes more meaningful to me. I come to have two categories of pictures, one with universal meanings, like sunset, forest, and snow mountains, and the other with personal meanings, like those daily pictures with a personal story behind it. How to tell the story often determines the way other people appreciate it. I still try to figure out the implication of story telling for our teaching.

These concepts are a sample of things that I have discussed in my blogs for the course. I think they are distinct for me to add to my knowledge structure that I have build from other courses in the MAET program and these ideas are also concrete enough for my immediate use in our teaching. Overall, I have a better knowledge of the forms that can create a compelling experience in life as well as in our teaching.

Thought about my WOA

I have to say the Work of Art project is the most challenging and also the most enjoyable project for the course. It is a capstone assignment and is supposed for us to reflect on many ideas we have learned during the course and use them to make this project. My understanding is that I should integrate some “forms” that I believe can simulate a compelling experience in the creation of my WOA. A challenge is that the course has covered several subjects, from photography to file and television, architecture and interior design, music and fashion, focusing on the nature and design of compelling experience in each subject. How could I best use the juicy ideas from the reading, discussion and blogging on these subjects to make this WOA?

I decided to explore how a dance show “thousand arms Guanyin” became so popular. After having watched it numerously times, I found the forms that made it different. The show demonstrates marvelous choreography, lavish costume, colorful stage lighting, moving music, and beautiful stage prop. More importantly, 21 profoundly deaf dancers performed the show. The have lived in a no-sound world but their elegant dancing matches the rhythm in extraordinary precision. My feeling was mixed when watching the show—I was thrilled by the shape, pace, and movements of their dance; I was taken into dreams by the beautiful props and colorful lighting; and I felt empathetic with their laborious practice for perfection of each act. By the time I prepared my narration, I have the WOA in my story as a moving story.

Thousand Arms Guanyin - WOA from Julie Jiang on Vimeo.

Some Thoughts on Fashion

People are always fascinated with fashion in their lives. To me, fashion is important because it creates an identity, lends confidence, and entail emotions. Fashion is expressive so its effect is always immediate. As a result, I had not thought about the relationship between fashion and teaching until I read the article "If Ideas Were Fashion."

I think there are some similarities between teaching and fashion. Teachers work with students on ideas, often new ideas that we wish students to accept and integrate into their knowledge systems. Like asking people to get rid of old clothes and put on new ones, teaching sometimes affects the identity of a person so it may create a similar discomfort among students. They have to be willing to open their minds, consider new ideas, try to see how new ideas change their existing psychological identity and become more "fashionable" with these new ideas.

While unlike new clothes that result in an immediate change, the role of new ideas is gradual but fundamental for a person. Try to find and simulate the same level of sensational feeling from fashion to education is probably a challenge for educators. No doubt - emotion plays an important role in the acceptance of new ideas. For example, we often see students accept new technologies such as Facebook, Twitter and iPad with great enthusiasm. These applications not only offer some kind of utility but only psychological satisfaction. Oftentimes, what we teach in the classroom lacks of emotional elements even it is new knowledge and certainly useful.

As the article "If Ideas Were Fashion" states, "To fashion is to imagine, create, and express" and the experience from consuming fashion is what makes a difference. If our teaching can simulate a similar experience that allows students to imagine, create and express, it is possible that students can experience excitement and engagement. A way to achieve such an effect is to make teaching a knowledge co-creation process. From such a process each student can find something that fits their "style of thinking" and forms their psychological identity. This is what characterizes our students in the age of Web 2.0. And we should teach like a fashion expert.

Motown Music

A friend recommended me a song from a Motown Remixed album – War by Edwin Starr. This album is in his music collection and one of his favorite albums. I listened to it and found it is quite different from many songs I am familiar so I chose it for my music project.

I read some articles about Motown when I worked on the project. Motown music has its tradition in Detroit, Michigan and signifies many famous African-American singers. And this particular song, “War” is what made Edwin Starr most famous. I listened to the song and felt a strong emotion in my mind. It is not because of the anti-Vietnam theme but because of its tempo, rhythm, instrumentation and vocals.

Drum beats, fast tempo, and high-pitch saxophone combines to make a mind-shaking prelude. The lyrics “What is it good for” is a real hook and then, Edwin’s vocals “Absolutely nothing” indeed gives me a thrill. The instrumentation, the lyrics, and the sorrow tone of the singer invokes a sonorous image in my mind—mothers with tears on the face and hands in the air in despair.

My emotions were high and my soul was purified, as the story was unfolded along the lyrics and rhythm. What a moving piece of music!

Music and Compelling Experience from Julie Jiang on Vimeo.

Music and Teaching

I had a good time on music appreciation in the past two weeks. I listened to some informative radio talks about what makes great music great, studied the articles on the gifted listener and sonorous image of music, and also listened to award wining music pieces. All of this certainly makes me more knowledgeable about music and let me keep thinking about what is the connection between the art of music and the art of teaching. There are at least three things I like to explore in teaching.

First is the idea of hooks. In music, a hook refers to a catchy musical idea, a passage or a phrase, which often comes at the beginning of the piece of music and sometimes repeats and develops throughout the piece. While it’s difficult to say what the meaning of a piece of music is, it’s safe to assume that a hook often works to trigger a listener’s emotion. When it strikes on one’s emotional nerve, he or she is hooked and wants to resonate more with the music. I think that’s the magic power of a music hook. Could we apply the idea of hooks to our daily teaching? If the emotion is essential for a hook of music, then curiosity may be the target of a hook in teaching. For example, if we can somehow arouse a strong curiosity among students and somehow maintain that curiosity, our teaching should be magic, like a great piece of music.

Second is the gift of a listener. By Copland, music listening is a talent, varying among individuals. Two principal requirements for talented listening are the ability to open oneself up to musical experience and the ability to evaluate critically that experience. How could this idea be applicable for the art of teaching? We have to admit that students also vary in learning talent, at least at the beginning, and our job should be nurture such a talent among students. Fortunately, I have seen that such a learning talent improves, as students get more interested in a subject. Now, I also see the importance of critical thinking skills.

Third is the role of emotion. As I have seen, music is all for emotions. We listen to a piece of music largely to resonate in our emotions and obtain psychological satisfaction from such resonance. In contrast, teaching is primarily for cognition. So, the issue I may ask is, if and how can I blend some emotional elements into a cognitive quest? In other MAET courses, we have discussed the role of affects in active learning. And now, the discussion of music makes me think about this issue again. And I believe emotions play an increasingly role in the art of teaching, and I need to figure out more on how to implement this idea.

If a textbook is like a piece of music, could a teacher be a conductor and all her students be performers of an orchestra? That is, teaching could be as enjoyable as music for more students, if teachers can act as musicians. That sounds very intriguing!

Study of Eisner’s Concept

Eisner’s concept of the role of forms in arts is inspirational for education. The traditional view sees education as the transfer of knowledge from the instructor to students. More recently, co-creation of knowledge by students and the instructor is considered more appropriate. However, our exploration of the role of compelling experience makes it clear that effective learning should be a process of knowledge co-creation with emotion as lubrication. That is, students should enjoy a learning process to maximize the learning outcome. The issue is how to make education a blend of rational and emotional endeavor?

According to Eisner, forms are important for all fields of art. I prefer to see Eisner’s forms as the ways of aesthetic expression. As we know, to simulate a particular feeling among an audience, a painter may paint something, a composer may write a song, and a dancer may dance, all using their own “way of aesthetic expression.” If they are all good in terms of using the way of aesthetic expression in respective fields, a “work of art” can be created.

Educators are creators, too. I’m thinking about how to apply this forms idea to education. We need to be innovative and find the right forms in our instruction. For example, when we make a PPT for a lecture, we could use text only for all the information or better yet, we could add graphics or even interesting video clips. In most cases, a multimedia approach in teaching is more appealing and effective because it injects emotional elements into the learning process.

Along a different line of thinking, interaction and engagement with students is equally important, as a unique form of education. Compared with a straight lecture, lively discussion with students or among students can simulate understanding with emotion. We all remember how pleasing a good discussion for the class. Of course, we have to be creative for each lecture in terms of the right forms—anything may loss novelty if it stays unchanged for too long. That is the real challenge for effective teaching and active learning. So our quest for right forms of education will never end.

Retail Stores and Compelling Experiences

I’m thinking about my project for module 3. For this tale of two retail places, I choose Macy’s and Younkers, two of my favorite stores in Meridian Mall. About the lunchtime on a sunshine day, with a fresh eye and a pocket camera, I’m on my way.

As an anchor store, Macy’s has main entrances from outside the Mall. When I arrived and walked in the first door, the promotional offers on the large signage got my attention. Walking through the second door, I saw the very inviting interior – spacious, well lit, with numerous items along the isle.

The lighting in Macy’s is well designed. There are many lights lining up on the ceiling of isles and also in different angles for display sections, in addition to main fixtures over isle intersections. They gave all displays a beautiful look. When I looked at items, I felt cheerful and experienced a good feeling.

Walking through the isle for a few seconds, my mindset was ready in the store. In the meantime, my attention was drawn to a focal point in the center isle – a set of models in new arrivals of spring fashion. I cannot refrain from walking to the models, paused and took a look. I enjoyed the new style clothes and found a couple of them I really liked. I turned around and started searching for some clothes on the models so I could have a touch.

As we know, shopping doesn’t always mean buying. Sometimes, we need a diversion from work or busy lives and we wander in a store. I was in a mood of relaxation and seeking colorful stimuli. Macy’s interior design does meet such a psychological need of mine and probably many other shoppers. I enjoyed the quiet and harmonious setting, away from a fast-paced work life or a noisy environment -- I could not hear any cars running or people talking…

Many seasonal items are on display. The bunnies, eggs, and many Easter colored items are waiting for my inspection, which reminds me Easter is coming! All of these are very inducing. I walked around the display table thinking about what I should buy for the holiday because I always like to decorate my home.

The “clearance” signs in red, here and there in the store -- they call for impulse purchases. Even if I did not plan to buy anything in advance, I still ended up with two items in hand when walking out of the store. The magic power of store interior design is trigger more impulse purchases!

Another quality I like of Macy’s design is that it has many niche displays, each featuring a name brand’s offering, all within easy reach. I can see every corner of isles has such a display, for Vera Wang, Polo, Tommy, to name a few. Merchandise on these prominent displays certainly helps with customers’ readiness to buy.

All these design features combine to provide shoppers with a great experience, regardless they buy or not, and make you always want to come back.

In comparison, Younkers has some similarities and differences. Similar things include entrances from outside the Mall, in-door promotion signage, and spacious isles.

Unlike Macy’s, Younkers has a second floor. It adds to the store space and also gives me a change. I got a good feeling when I was on the elevator up -- I execrated to see more different items. I also could see the store on the lower level from different angels. That view offered me a compelling experience. As this feature is the only one in Meridian Mall, it makes Younkers different from Macy’s and other anchor stores.

There are several seating areas in Younkers. They are there for customers to take time, relax and enjoy more time of shopping in the store. The patterned carpet and tiles separate the walking isles from display areas. I saw the check out counter with a big sign “At your Service” hanging above, which is open and friendly.

The most impressive feature of Younkers is their display windows near the entrance inside the Mall. Each window displays a designer’s creations, telling the season and new styles. These windows add to the elegance of the store design.

In short, the design qualities of these two department stores, such as the patterned floor and warm lighting, display islands, promotion signage, seasonal products, seating areas, colorful and lovely merchandise, all help create an atmosphere in which shoppers can relax, seek varieties, learn about new fashions, and buy something on the spur of the moment.

I ended up my trip in these two department stories with many pictures. This is a regular shopping trip but a study project. After I considered all I saw, I could not think of any other type of interior design that is able to stimulate a more relaxing and enjoyable experience.

See from a Designer's Eye

Since we started studying and discussing about the architecture and interior design, I have gradually learned to observe many things from a new lens or a designer’s eye. When I’m walking in to a building, an office or a classroom, I always like to look at things around and assess what experience a design intends to create or actually creates. How about this color of the carpet? How about that lighting on the ceiling? What is the relationship between objects in a lunge? Why this piece of music is playing in the store? I rarely thought about these issues before but now, these questions often pop up in my mind when I talk in a building or step in a mall.



Take a look at this picture now. Do you think this is a shopping mall or a museum? It is actually a new Health and Human Services building on our campus. The building has offices, labs and classrooms. Unlike conventional campus buildings that are either square- or rectangle-shaped, this new building has curved walls and high glass windows. It is certainly a contemporary style. I asked a few students what they feel staying in the lunge area. Someone said it is relaxing and someone said feeling like in an indoor garden; all are comfortable with the interior design. As we has discussed, a quality of design often lead to some kind of user experience.

Imaginative Bridges

As for imaginative bridges between the work of art of this module’s theme and the work of art of teaching, I think the most important idea is probably that, when we design a lecture or a homework assignment, we need keep in mind if any “quality of design” can help lead to any “quality of experience” among students. While shape, light, space in interior design may not be borrowable directly to teaching, I think the principle applies. That is, any quality should be unique, interesting, and thought-provoking.

I enjoyed reading Sarah Susanka's article "Home by Design." It's not because she used her experiences to transform a house into home but also because interior design is one of my favored subjects in my life. I often say to our college interior design teachers that I would take a class when I had time. It will be fun as I like it. I have such a sense of feeling for home interior design when we had our house built over ten years ago. I walked through every single detail with the house and when the house was done, I became a half-designer. The implication of this for teaching is, doing is better form of learning. For students to learn something really well, they will have to do it and experience it personally.

I feel proud when friends in our house compliment on many features of our home interior, including the arch, open kitchen, and other qualities of design. For example, at a party, people may chat in small groups but everyone can see everyone else at the same time. It makes a hostess’s job to serve everyone much easier, too. Maybe this is also a "particular feature" had a big impact on the "particular quality" too.

I designed an arch to separate the living and dinning room when our house was built over ten years ago. I did not like the regular wall on the blueprints so I came up with this design. Since an arch was not easy to build and also time consuming, we had to pay extra for the builder to make it happen. Now the arch becomes part of our home and part of our life. We enjoy it every moment when we are home. Friends who visit our house all like the design—they agree that just a change in the wall shape adds to the artistic style of the rooms. It certainly can simulate a feeling of enjoyment. I like to decorate the rooms differently when there is a holiday or visitors are coming. Different decorations transform our feeling of the room, too. Through reading Susanka, I have learned the concepts of interior design and now can better understand the relationship of features of design and qualities of our experience. I am especially impressed with Susanka’s discussion of the role of shape and light. The reading has deepened my understanding of the role of my own design.

The idea of this video is to tell a story that can simulate a compelling experience. I choose to a slice of life on the celebration of the Chinese new year, which falls on the same day as Valentine's Day this year. I am invited to attend a party at a friend's house. I need to bring some good dishes to share wit other party goers. I like cooking so I decide to make a video of food making in a festival atmosphere.

I take pictures and video clips during food preparation and recording phone conversations. I also searched online for some pictures and music, for which I gave due credit for copyright consideration. Many pictures have been taken from which I choose the typical ones that can best tell the story. I use only a small segment of video as I find it is slow for video to demonstrate a process.

A story must have a tone, either sadness or happiness or just neutral. Because my story is the celebration of the New Year, the tone is naturally a cheerful one. This tone affects several aspects of the video making. For example, I choose red, the Chinese traditional festival color, as the theme color for the title pages. I also use colorful ingredients to make a dish for the story—the scenes are enjoyable when I show the disk making step by step. At the end, I present a set of colorful dishes also out of this tone consideration.

Although sound is not the focus of the project, I find a good use of sound can add a great deal to the entertaining nature of the story telling. I choose a high-beat Chinese festival song as the background music. Adding my happy tone of phone conversations, the sound effect certainly helps create a pleasant mood among the viewing audience. As we discussed, a happy feeling can enhance a compelling experience. I use phone conversation recording, instead of a more “realistic” video clip. To create the climax effect at the end of the video, I use a picture of fireworks and a sound track to maximize a visual and audio effect. I hope that, by the time they reach this point of viewing, the happy viewers can feel excited to join our celebration!

I create this video project using iMovie. Several skills I have learned from other MAET courses are very helpful. I am still new to iMovie, so it takes me a lot of time to put all pictures and frames together, adjust the background music and add fade-in and fade-out effect, overlay it with my own phone conversation recording and tweak the transition effects. Overall, the video project, in and of itself, is a compelling learning experience for me, too.

Compelling Experience from Julie Jiang on Vimeo.

http://www.youtube.com/superbowl

As we explore the ways of creating a compelling experience in movies, we can certainly learn a great deal by watching Super Bowl ads. At $2.5 million an ad of 30 seconds long, the Super Bowl advertising is probably the most expensive advertising in the world. So, advertisers cannot afford to not to make each ad outstanding. I have watched most ads this year and found several elements that may make an ad attractive, enjoyable and memorable. The first element is dramatic acts. An example is Budweiser’s human bridge ad, in which Bud lovers make a bridge with their bodies to let the Bud truck pass the fallen bridge. Another one is Audi’s green ad, showing people were arrested because of their “environmentally unfriendly” behavior. The second element is the use of animals. For example, Monster’s violin playing beaver, Budweiser’s Clydesdale-pulling wagon, and Denny’s roosters are very interesting and memorable. The third element is youngsters, as in the E-Trade and Doritos’ ads; what they say and act make us laugh. Is there anything that is common among all these compelling ads? I think storytelling is probably the common character of all the appealing ads. As Groh said in an article, a good storytelling should have an “absurd” idea, entertaining, and “voice in the head.” All of this certainly helps create a compelling experience.

Have you watched the movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding”? It was an interesting movie featuring Julia Roberts and was nominated for Oscar awards. A scene from that movie is the subject of discussion for our class on how movies can create a compelling experience. Here is my thinking about one of the scenes from the movie. It did offer me a compelling experience, and I think the scene was helpful in creating such an experience for several reasons. It was a wedding rehearsal dinner, with a lot of people in a large dinning hall. The background music at the beginning and noise of chatting added a cheerful atmosphere for the event. While not all people were formally dressed, two young ladies with pretty hats did give the dinner a sense of festival. The crowd later joining the singing with George and others, that really helped move the show to the climax. So, the setting, props, people, and sound effects were all well arranged to make a suitable environment for the play to take place.

The plot is the telling of a made-up romantic story between George and Julianne. Everyone at the table was eager to hear the story and the curiosity introduced a great deal of involvement. However, George did not tell the whole story all out immediately. Instead, he paused and again, and that generated even stronger interest. The story telling was accompanies with singing and cheering by others at the table and eventually all the people in the dinning hall. Close up shots of Kim, Michael, Kim’s folks, and the two young ladies with hats, and other people, Kim’s joyful acts, and Micheal’s suspicious and jealous look all helped in simulating a compelling experience. I was thrilled when I was watching all people in the hall singing – emotions are contagious.

Overall, this episode was well designed and orchestrated in terms of the setting, props, plot, actors and actresses and mass actors, use of montage, and sound effects. The implication is that all elements of a play must work well to create a compelling experience.

Compelling Photos

How to create a compelling experience using photography? That is the topic of my course this week. Let me show you two pictures and see what you think. The first picture is a bar table with its surroundings and the second one is the bar table with two glasses of wine on it. Which picture would you feel is more compelling or gives you more room for imagination?

The bar-table-only picture seems pretty but it is no more than a piece of furniture. When people see this picture, people may feel it is nicely decorated and well lit but probably rarely think about anything else. The bar-table-with-glasses picture may convey something quite different. It's telling stories and meaning a lot of things. It may trigger some thought among the people who see the picture -- who are the guests? The glasses could be for old friends who haven’t met for a long time, for a couple who wants some casual drinking before dinner, or for two people who are to meet for the first time.

I think a good picture should be able to create a feel of "social presence," which means the feeling of the virtual existence of other intelligence in your imagination. For example, when people see a picture of the Eiffel Tower in France or Great Wall in China, they are often amazed by the creativity or ambition of the designers and builders of these great works. That is, we often think about people behind these pictured things. With this idea in mind I have created this set of pictures. In the process, I have pounded on the concepts of creativity and compelling experience and realized that creativity should be not only original but also imaginative, inspiring and thrilling.

Actually, I took two dozens of pictures from which the two used were chosen. I used one glass at the beginning but felt it was a bit lonely implying one person drinking alone. So I added another glass for a couple, which made I feel happier. I only thought about setting the glasses ready for two people to start, so I made sure the levels of wine were even. When my classmate suggested if the levels of wine were uneven, that would suggest a different story. That made me think. I did not come to think one glass had more than the other but upon reading your comment, I realize that it could suggest a different story. Implications of the detail of a photo could tell so much. It is really amazing!

Heave Lake

I posted a picture of the Heaven Lake on Facebook (above), and many of my classmates liked it. So I would like to share a video of the Lake that was taped on the same day (below). That day, the wind was strong and the clouds were thick. The luck was the clouds were floating rapidly because of strong winds. As a result, we had a rare window to see the real face of the Heave Lake. As you can see in this video, the clouds moved to cover the Lake in 20 seconds. I bet viewers may experience a thrill viewing this video clip as I had that feeling taping it -- a video often serves as a conduit of emotion between the author and readers.

Meaning of photos

I have enjoyed looking at the photos by my classmates and reading associated stories. Each photo has a story and all are very interesting. I have to say life is such a wonderful thing! I also realize the meanings of some photos are more universal (e.g., sunset, mountains, and desert) whereas those of some other photos are more personal (e.g., baseball glove, a piece of bread) -- without reading the story behind a photo, guessing often tends to inaccurate. This is not say personal meanings of a photo is not as attractive as universal meanings; many photos that bear personal memories are highly valuable because of their uniqueness. On the other hand, photos of universal meanings often leave more room for imagination. From an experiential perspective, both types of photos have their distinct roles in inspiring us.

Welcome

Hello! Welcome to my blog. Here you can read my thought about how to create compelling experiences through designing effective instructional material in an online environment. Stay tuned...