Interior design training in chennai - Aleesha Institute
Over the past four years in October, second-year interior
architecture students and first-year computer technology
students at Kansas State University have been designing and
carving pumpkins while utilizing various tools, techniques and
processes. Students gather visual information through either
digital photography or making sketches by hand. The exercise
pedagogy employs experiential learning between the two
disciplines. With this project, there is no real need for
maintaining disciplinary boundaries as these beginning
students of design share the same underlying principles,
concepts, vocabularies, and processes. The authors draw upon
their respective backgrounds and research interests in design
and the specific needs of their beginning students. Lewis
teaches students studying interior architecture and product
design while Genereux teaches engineering technology
students studying computer systems and digital media
technology.
Traditionally aged American college students are in a demographic that faces a unique set of challenges that didn’t exist prior to the advent of the digital age.1 They have grown up in a hyper-connected, always on culture that can be a source of stress and anxiety if left without any coping mechanisms. Machines are now doing most of the work that humans once did; we don’t walk, dig, hunt, read, calculate or even remember as we once did. This offloading of tasks to machines “puts a strain on the human psyche.”2 Students of the current generation have grown up having spent a significant portion of their lives in virtual environments.
Over the years, the authors have noticed a general decrease in their students’ ability to manipulate physical materials with hand tools; one industry trade journal recently made a similar observation about young adults as well Fewer of these individuals spent their childhoods taking apart their bikes or playing with their dad’s tools. Most millennials don’t have a lot of kinesthetic mechanical experience that many people now in their 50s had. 3 Moreover, as our lives become immersed in always-on technology and its continuous interruptions, our ability to focus and concentrate can be greatly affected. 3-6 Young college students might have grown up with this digital distraction, but that is no guarantee they have learned to manage it well. Sherry Turkle, author of Alone Together writes these days our problems with the Net are too distracting to ignore. At the extreme, we are so enmeshed in our connections that we neglect each other. We don't need to reject or disparage technology. We need to put it in its place. The generation that has grown up with the Net is in a good position to do this, but these young people need help. 7 Young adults of college age are less likely to be interested in civic engagement than were previous generations and they typically do not have significant, meaningful relationships with older adults and mentors outside of their own age demographic.1 Through ubiquitous mobile technology, they continuously interact with private networks of friends and family that typically does not include any engagement with a larger community.
This ever-present distraction appears to make it difficult for young people to accomplish things that require concentration and patience.1 According to Turkle, “media literacy is about knowing when not to use technology as well as how to use it.” 7 One way that college educators can help students learn to manage the challenges of living a digital life is by giving assignments that do not have instantly gratifying solutions, such as this pumpkin carving project. There is no app for carving an amazing pumpkin; doing it well requires persistence and extended concentration. Students completing this project will often spend three or more hours perfecting their pumpkins. A. Why Pumpkins? Pumpkins are historically associated with an old fashioned, rural lifestyle. Shortly after Europeans came to America, the pumpkin became a “symbol of the land's natural bounty and primitive way of life.” 8 Pumpkins possess inherent and deep symbologies. While pumpkins have been cultivated in North America for thousands of years, they first appeared in botanical literature around fifty years after Columbus’ first voyage to the new world.9 The modern pumpkin made into a jack-o-lantern often conveys a sense of dread and horror. The carved pumpkin, such as presented in the introduction to John Carpenter’s 1978 film Halloween, can be a “symbol of both our fears and deep urge to cloak them under a mythic form.” 10 Indeed, the words pumpkin and jack-o-lantern have nearly synonymous meanings in current American culture.8 However, the word pumpkin is also frequently used as a term of endearment for young children. In stark contrast to the scary jack-o-lantern, we “value the pumpkin because, similar to healthy babies, it exudes a sense of natural goodness and well-being.” 8 Pumpkin carving has its roots in an “old custom of commemorating souls in purgatory with candles cradled in turnips.” 11 In one Irish legend, a man called “Stingy Jack,” after being denied entrance to heaven or hell for playing tricks on the devil, was forced to wander through the night while carrying a hollowed out turnip lit by a candle.
After Europeans immigrated to North America, they began carving pumpkins instead of turnips. 12 Carved jack-o-lanterns became a popular Halloween decoration in America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 11 Carving pumpkins invites us to leave behind the constant interruptions of modern life in a brief but beneficial return to nature. Over the past several decades, our connections with nature have become less frequent, 13 however pumpkin carving affords an opportunity to spend some quality time outdoors. Ott maintains, “the pumpkin helps people feel close to nature and rural life and creates a sense of identity.” 8 Disconnecting with technology and immersion in nature can even positively affect cognitive function. One recent study found that “there is a real, measurable cognitive advantage to be realized if we spend time truly immersed in a natural setting.” 13 B.
Design Thinking in Engineering Education There is currently a disparity between the sort of thinking used in the actual practice of engineering, and the kind of thinking that is generally required in academic settings.14, 15 In academia, we tend to value convergent thinking that arrives at single correct answers to well-defined problems. However, in engineering practice, problems are often open-ended, having more than one possible solution to be considered through divergent thinking. Effective design and creativity requires both convergent and divergent thinking; there is much room for improvement in this area of engineering education. Engineering students typically encounter design thinking in capstone courses; however there has been a call for wider integration of design thinking into engineering curricula. 14, 15 The pumpkin carving design project described in this paper can easily be adapted into a variety of learning contexts, while cleverly disguising the hard work involved as fun.
According to Dym et al. good design thinking involves the following skills 14 • tolerate ambiguity that shows up in viewing design as inquiry or as an iterative loop of divergent-convergent thinking; • maintain sight of the big picture by including systems thinking and systems design; • handle uncertainty; • make decisions; • think as part of a team in a social process; and • think and communicate in the several languages of design. To varying degrees, this project involves each of these design skills. For example, toleration of ambiguity and handling uncertainty is implicit in this project; each pumpkin to be carved is unique and represents a different design challenge to each individual student. Decision making, design thinking and communication skills are all essential to being a successful pumpkin carver. This project requires an understanding of visual design elements such as line, value, shape, and volume, all while considering the very real limitations of the delicate pumpkin material being carved.
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Traditionally aged American college students are in a demographic that faces a unique set of challenges that didn’t exist prior to the advent of the digital age.1 They have grown up in a hyper-connected, always on culture that can be a source of stress and anxiety if left without any coping mechanisms. Machines are now doing most of the work that humans once did; we don’t walk, dig, hunt, read, calculate or even remember as we once did. This offloading of tasks to machines “puts a strain on the human psyche.”2 Students of the current generation have grown up having spent a significant portion of their lives in virtual environments.
Over the years, the authors have noticed a general decrease in their students’ ability to manipulate physical materials with hand tools; one industry trade journal recently made a similar observation about young adults as well Fewer of these individuals spent their childhoods taking apart their bikes or playing with their dad’s tools. Most millennials don’t have a lot of kinesthetic mechanical experience that many people now in their 50s had. 3 Moreover, as our lives become immersed in always-on technology and its continuous interruptions, our ability to focus and concentrate can be greatly affected. 3-6 Young college students might have grown up with this digital distraction, but that is no guarantee they have learned to manage it well. Sherry Turkle, author of Alone Together writes these days our problems with the Net are too distracting to ignore. At the extreme, we are so enmeshed in our connections that we neglect each other. We don't need to reject or disparage technology. We need to put it in its place. The generation that has grown up with the Net is in a good position to do this, but these young people need help. 7 Young adults of college age are less likely to be interested in civic engagement than were previous generations and they typically do not have significant, meaningful relationships with older adults and mentors outside of their own age demographic.1 Through ubiquitous mobile technology, they continuously interact with private networks of friends and family that typically does not include any engagement with a larger community.
This ever-present distraction appears to make it difficult for young people to accomplish things that require concentration and patience.1 According to Turkle, “media literacy is about knowing when not to use technology as well as how to use it.” 7 One way that college educators can help students learn to manage the challenges of living a digital life is by giving assignments that do not have instantly gratifying solutions, such as this pumpkin carving project. There is no app for carving an amazing pumpkin; doing it well requires persistence and extended concentration. Students completing this project will often spend three or more hours perfecting their pumpkins. A. Why Pumpkins? Pumpkins are historically associated with an old fashioned, rural lifestyle. Shortly after Europeans came to America, the pumpkin became a “symbol of the land's natural bounty and primitive way of life.” 8 Pumpkins possess inherent and deep symbologies. While pumpkins have been cultivated in North America for thousands of years, they first appeared in botanical literature around fifty years after Columbus’ first voyage to the new world.9 The modern pumpkin made into a jack-o-lantern often conveys a sense of dread and horror. The carved pumpkin, such as presented in the introduction to John Carpenter’s 1978 film Halloween, can be a “symbol of both our fears and deep urge to cloak them under a mythic form.” 10 Indeed, the words pumpkin and jack-o-lantern have nearly synonymous meanings in current American culture.8 However, the word pumpkin is also frequently used as a term of endearment for young children. In stark contrast to the scary jack-o-lantern, we “value the pumpkin because, similar to healthy babies, it exudes a sense of natural goodness and well-being.” 8 Pumpkin carving has its roots in an “old custom of commemorating souls in purgatory with candles cradled in turnips.” 11 In one Irish legend, a man called “Stingy Jack,” after being denied entrance to heaven or hell for playing tricks on the devil, was forced to wander through the night while carrying a hollowed out turnip lit by a candle.
After Europeans immigrated to North America, they began carving pumpkins instead of turnips. 12 Carved jack-o-lanterns became a popular Halloween decoration in America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 11 Carving pumpkins invites us to leave behind the constant interruptions of modern life in a brief but beneficial return to nature. Over the past several decades, our connections with nature have become less frequent, 13 however pumpkin carving affords an opportunity to spend some quality time outdoors. Ott maintains, “the pumpkin helps people feel close to nature and rural life and creates a sense of identity.” 8 Disconnecting with technology and immersion in nature can even positively affect cognitive function. One recent study found that “there is a real, measurable cognitive advantage to be realized if we spend time truly immersed in a natural setting.” 13 B.
Design Thinking in Engineering Education There is currently a disparity between the sort of thinking used in the actual practice of engineering, and the kind of thinking that is generally required in academic settings.14, 15 In academia, we tend to value convergent thinking that arrives at single correct answers to well-defined problems. However, in engineering practice, problems are often open-ended, having more than one possible solution to be considered through divergent thinking. Effective design and creativity requires both convergent and divergent thinking; there is much room for improvement in this area of engineering education. Engineering students typically encounter design thinking in capstone courses; however there has been a call for wider integration of design thinking into engineering curricula. 14, 15 The pumpkin carving design project described in this paper can easily be adapted into a variety of learning contexts, while cleverly disguising the hard work involved as fun.
According to Dym et al. good design thinking involves the following skills 14 • tolerate ambiguity that shows up in viewing design as inquiry or as an iterative loop of divergent-convergent thinking; • maintain sight of the big picture by including systems thinking and systems design; • handle uncertainty; • make decisions; • think as part of a team in a social process; and • think and communicate in the several languages of design. To varying degrees, this project involves each of these design skills. For example, toleration of ambiguity and handling uncertainty is implicit in this project; each pumpkin to be carved is unique and represents a different design challenge to each individual student. Decision making, design thinking and communication skills are all essential to being a successful pumpkin carver. This project requires an understanding of visual design elements such as line, value, shape, and volume, all while considering the very real limitations of the delicate pumpkin material being carved.
https://www.facebook.com/aleeshainstitute/
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