I still remember the night, it was a Friday just like today.
I was standing in the crowds in the Lower Gallery when Lily went up to me and said: 'would you like to work for MDes as a teaching fellow?' I said 'yes' - which is one of the best decisions I have ever made. That was my own year of graduating Master of Design, and the night was the Master exhibition openning. I was simply enjoying the celebration and looking forward to the back-pack trip around Europe the next week. At that time, I perhaps didn't yet realize that what happened after I got back to Dundee was better than the most amazing journey I have ever dreamed of.
It was exactly three years ago.
Tonight I am witnessing a new group of 13 students enjoying their celebration and planning for their next step. So am I. This is my final week of being the ‘teaching fellow’ of MDes at the University of Dundee. Again I am at the point of facing a new journey in front of me. I am so happy that I still have courage to step into all the unknowns of my life, to make changes and to look forward to adventures.
Master of Design has been and will always be part of me. I had truly enjoyed every minutes spent with my brilliant colleagues and my inspiring students. I hope that they had enjoyed my company as well.
It is the time, the time to take my bow and start a new journey, maybe a completely different one but I know I will enjoy it just as I have enjoyed this one.
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Friday, 11 September 2009
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Your Design Brief on Ballons!
We did a workshop with MDes students on Monday to create a design brief for their master's project with ballons - yeah, you hear me right, ballons!
The students were asked to fill their ballons with the answers of 15 questions to create a design brief. They are expected to consider the financial and project management aspects of their master project, as well as how it relates to the stakeholder analysis, material experiment, marketing research and research question.
You will be able to find some photos from this workshop on my flickr
Also, couple of the students has already refelected on the experience from their own perspectives:
Jo: http://joprints.blogspot.com/2009/02/good-design-brief-should.html
Ketan: http://ketan-kulkarni.blogspot.com/2009/02/balloon-quest.html
Grace: http://gracedundee.blogspot.com/2009/02/good-morning-mr-balloon.html
(let me know if I missed yours!)
The students were asked to fill their ballons with the answers of 15 questions to create a design brief. They are expected to consider the financial and project management aspects of their master project, as well as how it relates to the stakeholder analysis, material experiment, marketing research and research question.
You will be able to find some photos from this workshop on my flickr
Also, couple of the students has already refelected on the experience from their own perspectives:
Jo: http://joprints.blogspot.com/2009/02/good-design-brief-should.html
Ketan: http://ketan-kulkarni.blogspot.com/2009/02/balloon-quest.html
Grace: http://gracedundee.blogspot.com/2009/02/good-morning-mr-balloon.html
(let me know if I missed yours!)
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Master of design memories...
http://www.masterofdesign.co.uk/
I sometimes got aksed what my Master of Design experience was like when I started teadching about two years ago. I think I would discribe it as learning to swim – you gotta get your head under the water to feel the panic moment to learn how to go with the wave. Till now, half way through my PhD, I still get confused from time to time in the process, but I don't panic anymore. I know it is just part of the journey, as far as I stay calm and confident I will be able to see the beauty of this advanture and learn a lot along the way.
Yesterday, I did a talk on Action Research Methodology and Research Methods with the new M.Des students this year, reviewing my Master's project as an example. I hope that my experience as a student two years ago would be helpful to them – even just a reassurance that the messiness is a natural part of the research process and literally everyone experiences it.
My Master's year is a life-trunning point to me. It's a shame that the Computing world lost a very talented software engineer when I decide to switch to pursue Design as a life career—ha ha, I'm not joking ;-) Unlike many other disciplines, the knowledge of design often emerges and diffuses through practice. Practitioners gains highly respect by conducting successful design and research practices that impact the waywe live everyday. The knowledge and experience gained through research are then presented in a visual way that communicate to its audience/ users/ stakeholders, creating impacts on their behaviour, emotion, thinking, even perseption of the world. This ability to externalize their thinking amazes me. I guess this is why I choose to pursue Design after my Master's year—I so want to be part of this active group that shapes people's life in such a beautiful way.
This year we had a wonderful group of young designers enrolled for the Master of Design course—as we alway do! Nice diversity in multi-disciplinary design experiences and also mixed cultural backgrouds among the students. Here is a list of some of the blogs of the current students on the course—very talented and wonderful people who always make me pround to work with!
Arlene www.arleneillustrator.blogspot.com/
Dave http://daverothnie.blogspot.com/
Emily http://designeresearch.blogspot.com/
Fi http://fionacampbellfurniture.blogspot.com/
Gio http://giorgiogiove.blogspot.com/
Grace http://gracedundee.blogspot.com/
Jo http://joprints.blogspot.com/
Jumi http://zzoomy.blogspot.com/
Kate http://hopeforanangel.blogspot.com/
Ketan http://www.ketan-kulkarni.blogspot.com/
Lauren http://redjotter.wordpress.com/
Sun http://www.suninthesun.blogspot.com/
I sometimes got aksed what my Master of Design experience was like when I started teadching about two years ago. I think I would discribe it as learning to swim – you gotta get your head under the water to feel the panic moment to learn how to go with the wave. Till now, half way through my PhD, I still get confused from time to time in the process, but I don't panic anymore. I know it is just part of the journey, as far as I stay calm and confident I will be able to see the beauty of this advanture and learn a lot along the way.
Yesterday, I did a talk on Action Research Methodology and Research Methods with the new M.Des students this year, reviewing my Master's project as an example. I hope that my experience as a student two years ago would be helpful to them – even just a reassurance that the messiness is a natural part of the research process and literally everyone experiences it.
My Master's year is a life-trunning point to me. It's a shame that the Computing world lost a very talented software engineer when I decide to switch to pursue Design as a life career—ha ha, I'm not joking ;-) Unlike many other disciplines, the knowledge of design often emerges and diffuses through practice. Practitioners gains highly respect by conducting successful design and research practices that impact the waywe live everyday. The knowledge and experience gained through research are then presented in a visual way that communicate to its audience/ users/ stakeholders, creating impacts on their behaviour, emotion, thinking, even perseption of the world. This ability to externalize their thinking amazes me. I guess this is why I choose to pursue Design after my Master's year—I so want to be part of this active group that shapes people's life in such a beautiful way.
This year we had a wonderful group of young designers enrolled for the Master of Design course—as we alway do! Nice diversity in multi-disciplinary design experiences and also mixed cultural backgrouds among the students. Here is a list of some of the blogs of the current students on the course—very talented and wonderful people who always make me pround to work with!
Arlene www.arleneillustrator.blogspot.com/
Dave http://daverothnie.blogspot.com/
Emily http://designeresearch.blogspot.com/
Fi http://fionacampbellfurniture.blogspot.com/
Gio http://giorgiogiove.blogspot.com/
Grace http://gracedundee.blogspot.com/
Jo http://joprints.blogspot.com/
Jumi http://zzoomy.blogspot.com/
Kate http://hopeforanangel.blogspot.com/
Ketan http://www.ketan-kulkarni.blogspot.com/
Lauren http://redjotter.wordpress.com/
Sun http://www.suninthesun.blogspot.com/
Monday, 13 October 2008
timetable clashing
One of the joy of working on M.Des course is handlling four timetables and trying not to mix up... perhaps we spend more time on making these timetable rather than completing the tasks on it...
Monday, 2 June 2008
giving feedback
It is not easy to give feedback to the others... especially students...
you have to be positive, and constructively critical... and patient...
In general I did fine today with the help of my lovely colleagues, well, couple of feedbacks on my performance there:
'don't talk too fast' - when I gets nervious, I start to talk fast like hell... pause with questions like 'do you understand?' or 'you know what I mean?' help to give other people some time to *think* what I just said... God... I sometimes talk faster than I think... scary,isn't it?
'dont sit too close to others, leave them personal space' - I obviously dont have a issue with personal space, which... then cause trouble to others... I get to close to them -- damn it... too eager to show that I am friendly... I gotta be a bit teacher here... right!
'sit face-to-face to the people you talk to, so that you can see their reactions' -- very good one, and solve the problem of getting to close to them... will do that!
you have to be positive, and constructively critical... and patient...
In general I did fine today with the help of my lovely colleagues, well, couple of feedbacks on my performance there:
'don't talk too fast' - when I gets nervious, I start to talk fast like hell... pause with questions like 'do you understand?' or 'you know what I mean?' help to give other people some time to *think* what I just said... God... I sometimes talk faster than I think... scary,isn't it?
'dont sit too close to others, leave them personal space' - I obviously dont have a issue with personal space, which... then cause trouble to others... I get to close to them -- damn it... too eager to show that I am friendly... I gotta be a bit teacher here... right!
'sit face-to-face to the people you talk to, so that you can see their reactions' -- very good one, and solve the problem of getting to close to them... will do that!
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