Graphic Design History: Timeline implementation

My students have been working since last week researching significant events, theories, artifacts, etc. that have to do with reading on the screen in their assigned contexts — design, culture, society and technology. The first round of research was due today, which they submitted online through a Google form. Behind the scenes, I hooked up the resulting spreadsheet to a TimelineJS spreadsheet that generates our very own GDES 3300 Reading on the Screen timeline.

Students were super excited to see their work visualized and in context. In class, I did some reframing around what is a useful entry — not sure if that conversation went over nearly so well. Hopefully the revised entries, due on Wednesday, will set-up the mind mapping phase better than the first entries did.

Report: Collaborative Learning for GDES 3300

The Course

The History of Graphic Design has traditionally been a survey course from the Lascaux Paintings (15,000 BC) to present. For our students who are used to hands-on projects in studio courses, the lecture model has proved problematic. They become frustrated by the amount of information served to them without a sense of relevance to their own studio practice. Their frustration often turns to disengagement.

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