This is the survey that was sent out to students on the 18th May 2015, in total 29 students responded.

Results.

Qualitative responses

Q1 – What could you have changed to improve your performance.

• Time management.
• Put more time into my work
• Experimented with more methods and explore a wider range of graphic styles
• Worked a bit harder on my first project as i felt I left too much till too late and had to rush slightly
• better attitude towards work not being as laid back more focused in the lessons performing more work at home and in my own time
• Spent extra time on homework
• I could have ensured that I clearly annotated my thoughts and processes from the first project, however I was not really sure of the process at that point but I am now more confident.
• wokr more in own time
• improve my attendance and actually hand in homework.
• Try different techniques and research to come up with a wider range of ideas for projects
• Focusing on the work
• Made decisions faster, this would have given me more time to focus on an outcome.
• Dedicated more time to developing work at home.
• Started doing work and coming up with ideas earlier on in the project or planned out my project more thoroughly
• Be more proactive/productive all year round instead of just when I needed to be.
• Not a lot I attended all lessons and extras.
• I feel I have worked to a descent level, but not to my optimum. I feel if I was to achieve higher (and this goes to all my subjects) me and fellow college students need more motivation and guidance from all our teachers/tutors, inspiring us to do more and making sure we are up to date with work and are working to our best. Another thing which has hindered is the balancing of all the courses better, as they are all different and different requirements to be achieved in each (and learn) it hard to do it all as well as have a social life.
• I underestimated the amount of coursework i needed to do and my final piece was unpolished because i left things to the last minute.

Q2 – What has been the most valuable thing you have learned during the year, and why?

• Organisation and time management
• the ways that various types of typography can give messages
• How to research properly as it helps give more context to your work.
• I have learnt lots of photoshop skills, last year I only really knew how to use the basic tools but after this year I feel a lot more co dissent with it
• Research and new graphic artists
• Quantity is needed
• I learned a lot about how to layout the designs so they work better and look a lot cleaner and get the information from. Before I didn’t really consider where i was putting elements of the design.
• How to originise time more efficiently
• What I want to specialise in within graphics
• learning different ways of using Photoshop and a range of materials for a end product as it gives a better outcome in then end if a range has been shown
• Photoshop skills
• dedication and using my own time beucase i can then refine my final products and make sure it is the best it can possibly be
• Time management, it’s an important life skill, especially during university.
• I need to manage my time effectively and do a little bit of work each day instead of a lot of work at one time so that I can produce as much work as possible.
• the importance of experimentation and making mistakes
• I learnt that although grades help with your life, they dont decide on your future.
• How to develop my work from different ideas and experimentation to a final design that shows a process
• To experiment with different ideas and improve them but also include them and evaluate them in your work.
• Photoshop skills as it opens up a broader spectrum for you to work within.
• I don’t know
• I have learnt how to use photoshop, this is a valuable tool and I think it will help me in the future.
• to keep up with work and not fall behind
• Managing time, planning outcomes and developing ideas.
• To bulk up books by constant experimentation
• Learning how to truly experiment and try new things in order to get the best outcome.
• loads of things, its been amazing ive learnt lots on photoshop and other softwares needed. Also the typograohy and effort needed to be put in.
• Not to put things off
• The information to achieve high grades within my chosen subjects. In graphics only though it would of have to of been getting the general idea to tackle each work but getting researching doing work then gather more inspiration developing, repeat etc until created that thing. Then linking that into the next part of the project etc. Reason for this is because once you have this basic understood into your mind you can tackle any problem to a high grade.
• The importance of experimenting, recording your process. To take risks.

Q3 – What have you like best about Pinterest

• Organised and collects ideas and themes in a place which data can be recieved and shared easily
• i can find a large range of images
• the ease at which i can compile specific visual resources relating to my brief.
• That you can create different boards and all the images you want are there for you whenever you log on
• Finding new inspiration and ideas
• Easy to use
• Large source of images that are all in one place and can easily be sorted into specific boards which really helps with research and getting inspiration for my own designs
• This has been a huge help when researching and gatherings images to create my own responses
• The great images
• it allowed me to look at ideas that are simmilar to mine and i could then use that information ot inspire my own work
• I liked how you could look at the boards other people have created for inspiration, and that you can follow boards to see what new things have been added.
• When you stick an image in your book and forget to reference it you can easily go back and find it.
• how it can introduce to you sources you wouldnt find otherwise
• helpful for image research
• It keeps all of the resources I have collected in one place so it’s easy to find and it gives relevant images to the search criteria
• I like how Pinterest helps you find more research and helps with design ideas and experimenting with materials.
• Storing any images that could inspire me.
• How easy it is to gather images/research material
• I like the fact I can open pinterest anywhere and check the boards I have created. The boards help with brainstorms and creative ideas, I have been inspired by work I have seen on pinterest and have used pinterest images to start off my project.
• that it is really accessible and easy to use
• Is a clearly structured search engine dedicated to forms of art – unlike google.
• Easy to use and there is a lot of inspiration on there that you can’t usually find on the Internet that easily
• The online storage that it offers. It makes it really easy to bring research together and then be able to access all the different images and all there sources from one place.
• the ranges of ideas you can gather and loads of research
• You can collect all your ideas and store them in one place
• Yes it has allowed me to put the research I collect into one easy place.
• It’s a good resource. You can find alot of great work that’s helpful for research.

(other questions did not require a qualitative response)

Q8 – What do you like about using Pinterest to search for images

• collection of similar themes can be through internet as well as from follwers boards/pins
• That you can find different types of images for one topic
• the way in which they are organised into categories.
• That if you find an image it comes up with related images and that tool is really helpful
• You can look at images unavailable on Google search and explore niche images/styles
• The search results, especially when searching for design related things, tend to be more stylish and better designed than stuff from google which makes them a lot better for research and inspiration. If you were to search for some thing like film posters the results on pinterest are a lot more varied and show a range of styles and designs were as the google results look a lot more generic and are all very similar.
• It’s so precise and easy to find what your looking for
• They are all high quality images
• I like how Pinterest seperates the words into separate sections and how you can find boards full of images that are relevant to what you’re researching.
• I like the fact that doing a search using one key word brings back a variety of images, using different techniques and completed by differing people.
• i think it carries such a variety of images that you find more unique things
• All of the images are relevant and I can easily repin/ like and keep looking so research is quicker and easier
• I like Pinterest as it’s easy to use and has a good range of images and ideas for different topics.
• There is a wide variety of techniques and designs on pinterest that help to influence your work.
• You can pin images you find
• It supply’s images that would not normally be seen in Google. Pinterest also allows uses to comment on what they have seen, I like reading what others think about art work. Other uses can also repin and comment on what you have posted. One image I posted was pinned 93 times and had 18 likes, this helps to give me confidence in the work I’m researching.
• that they are grouped
• It provides a range of results from people who are also interested forms of art/ design.
• Easy and a lot of material
• I like that it is basically a data base that can keep growing. So when you search for am image of an animal for example you can get all different styles of drawing and even more, and you can narrow the search really easily too by searching for something like cat painting.
• it has a brilliant range of all kinds of arts, cultures and lots of things involved they you can really further develop
• It’s very convenient and you can save the images by pinning them
• You can gather a lot of images about a few key words, which is useful then searching the entire internet as they will be more relevant and generally images or videos, which is easier to stick into sketchbooks.
• You can find more relevant images more quickly.

Q9 – Do you think that Pinterest has helped you be more motivated in your Graphics lessons: Please explain your answer:

• Because its allowed me to view images that would normally take a long time to find
• as it allows me to collect images quicker and in turn start idea generation faster.
• It’s given me a lot more inspiration and ideas
• Yes seeing images I like the style of and want to take inspiration from motivates me to do responses
• I find it makes it easier to generate ideas and think about styles as it allows you to view a range of work by lots of different designers quickly and easily which makes it easier to find things that you like and that can help give you ideas for your own project
• I think this because not only did I use Pinterest for my work but also my own interest in fashion and design
• I go to Pinterest for inspiration
• Being able to see all the different products and images that people have created definitely motivates me to create work that can look as professional.
• I don’t think that Pinterest has motivated me however it has made the process of researching easier and more efficient so I can spend more time doing other things.
• it helps me find inspiration if im feeling a bit stumped for ideas
• Being influenced by the work on pinterest that is relevant to my own work and aiding me with my own project
• It helps me find different Ideas and techniques to use in my work.
• The images from other pinners provide me with a lot of inspiration for my own work and motivation to achieve a similar standard of work.
• I think pinterest helps with motivation as you can see other artists and their work. This made me want to try different ideas I have seen online. Other it would be easy to lose track of time while on pinterest, this could conflict with lesson productivity.
• because the images on pinterest were a great example to try to improve my work and get it to those standards
• The work that can be found on there is often inspiring and can influence my own ideas greatly.
• Helps you come up with ideas and get good research pages done in your book with references
• I believe that it makes me more interested in researching for images then I can transfer that into motivation for using them in my projects.
• it allows me to be more confident in what to design as I wouldn’t have very good ideas
• Because I feel like I’m being proactive about my work
• It has helped as it put all my research in one place so I look at it all faster instead of having to find each website. Overall it has speeded the research and inspiration process up therefore making me do more work.
• Not that much really.

Q10 – when you re-pin, do you then visit the source of that image to see where it came from? why or why not?

• yes, to gain more information about the design in reference to your own research and designs
• yes i do because at times i would like to know why they created it like they did
• sometimes it really depends on whether or not im suposed to be cataloging where the images came from or not.
• I often look at the boards it was repinned from
• Yes I do because there may be external links to other external images
• I occasionally do if I like the style of the designer and want to see there other work if it is a link to their website or portfolio bu if i’m just finding a range of things i like for inspiration early in the project i don’t look too much into it
• Yes because they may have a whole board on the topic you are looking for and have a similar preference to you
• I do it on occasion if the pin didn’t include the artists name
• I don’t because the app shows you other pins by the same person and I can tell whether or not the other pins interest me. I think it is quite tedious to add pins from other sites so tend to just reference them in my book and not pin them.
• only if im going to use it in my work , i usually just repin without looking at where it came from
• Occasionally, to see what type of website it comes from (i.e blog or professional website) to learn more about the artist and to see if there are any more images similar, or other designs that could be influential to my own work.
• I sometimes visit the original source of the pin if it has to be included in my work or I want to research further into the idea.
• Not often, I just don’t think about it.
• No, I stay on pinterest for images
• I will go to the source to locate an Artists name or website if I’m interested in there work. However I would normally not look for an image’s source.
• yes, if I want to know more about the image, get more information, I do look at the source
• I do. As it is often an artists main website and I can explore their other works.
• Not usually
• I do visit the source website but most of the time I don’t. I look because sometimes the images of one variation of many and they are on that website, there is no reason why I don’t apart from that I found that image useful so I pinned it and moved on.
• Occasionally if for school; too see the link or if there are similar images / information or to see if I can buy whatever the picture is
• Occasionally I visit the source it depends on what the image is and if I want more like it or that one is fine and provides me with the inspiration I require.
• Sometimes if i really like the image, to se if here is more wok b the am artist, or similar images which i may find useful.

The student sketchbooks evidence how Pinterest was used to form visual responses therefore directly influenced tangible outcomes. As all research images were sourced from Pinterest and students are required to analyse the image and annotate their response.

Note how the image at the top of this research page has been used for reference for the resulting outcomes, for both content and presentation

just a few of my diary entries from earlier this year. Evidence of some of the observations I was making over the study

Zhong C., Shah S., Sundaravadivelan K. & Sastry N. (2013) Sharing the Loves: Understanding the How and Why of Online Content Curation, AAAI Publications, Seventh International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, pp659-667 – http://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM13/paper/view/6137 Accessed 15/04/15

This paper considers; Why people curate, how they curate and what others, namely followers of the content curators find useful.

“Curation might provide a personal value to the curators by collecting together items which might be difficult to find by other means” p659

They suggest that this paper provides evidence for Clay Shirky’s theory that “the job of curation is to synchronize a community so that when they’re all talking about the same thing at the same time, they can have a richer conversation than if everybody reads everything they like in a completely unsynchronized or uncoordinated way” (Shirky 2010).” Pinterest facilitates conversations (staff and students) allowing them to become visual almost immediately without the need to go to the library and spend ages filtering out relevant images to use as examples.

Pinterest allows “Structured Curation”p660 categorising content along with other similar items.

Macek J. (2013) More Than a Desire for Text: Online Participation and the Social Curation of Content. Convergence August 2013 vol. 19 no. 3295-302, Published online before print May 16, 2013, doi: 10.1177/1354856513486530 Accessed 30/03/2015

Suggests there are three factors for participation online 1. A will to text; 2. A will to self-performance and 3. A will to conformity

“these three factors then impact on the social curation of content – a reflexive process in which members of the audience construct texts for consumption and recirculation”p1

“When exploring participation in textuality performative self-exposure and self-presentation must be taken into account, as well as the context of the audiences everyday life.”p1

He uses the term “online participation of content”p2 and addresses are

1. the creation and posting of audiences own content.
2. reception of content made and posted by others.
3. sorting and recirculation of content made by others.

This leads to a need to investigate definitions of participation. Macek suggests Nico Carpentier’s definition, reflecting “the fact that some crucial aspects of the audiences textual practices (potentially) have a participatory dimension since they are linked to power relations and decision making processes and can hardly be described as mere interactions.”p2

“The key issue in this respect is that the creation and posting of one’s content and the sorting and recirculation of that of others can be seen not only as the production of a text but at the same time as a performative self-exposure and as a performative exposure of taste and consumption. In other words, members of online audiences also share, narrate and circulate ‘themselves’ and representations of their life worlds.”p2

The will to text:

Online participation is not based solely on a desire to produce a text, however textuality is still central. Macek asks “first, What texts do people deal with and why?Second, why do they demand control over a text and how do they practice it?

He focuses on the everyday life of the audience and specifically the family

http://curationchronicles.magnify.net/video/Clay-Shirky-6#c=1RMHLF18HLLBQ6WK&t=Talk about Curation

“Curation comes up when search stops working,” says author and NYU Professor Clay Shirky. But it’s more than a human-powered filter. “Curation comes up when people realize that it isn’t just about information seeking, it’s also about synchronizing a community.”

Lowry C. (2010) Content Curators and Twitter: Earning Attention in the Age of Distractions. Communications 597: Psychology of Digital Media http://www.cheryllowry.com/portfolio/content-curation.pdf Accessed 12/05/15
Our problem is a short attention span, which remains fixed and limited in. A time of digital abundance.
A wealth of information crates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently.

Content curators locate, organise and distribute links to relevant, high-quality content online, voluntarily assuming a quality filtering role that traditional publishers once held.
Content curators are opinion leaders.

Within a closed environment and recommendation based structure an experts authority, reputation and presentation skills become more discoverable.

Lowry says ‘don’t just broadcast’ as one of his key strategies for building an audience. Could this be the same as don’t just pin, also re pin, therefore adding to the reputation of certain pins rather than adding to the pool.

Conclusions – his opinions
People need guidance, to focus their limited attention span.
Search engines do not provide adequate tools for this as they operate within too much noise, not enough filtering.

Experts are important still for guidance !? Authority is an important asset, however People’s attention is still held more by personal connection and credibility.

Abbott, D. (2008). “What is Digital Curation?”. DCC Briefing Papers: Introduction to Curation. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre. Handle: 1842/3362. http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/briefing-papers/introduction-curation Accessed: 21/05/15

As well as generating new data, scientists, researchers, and scholars have begun to rely on digital content created by others.
Digital curation is the management and preservation of digital data over the long term.

Talking about curation done by archivists, however not really discussing everyday curation of user created content, as per pinterest.

One of the major advantages of making data widely available is that it can be searched.

Mechanisms for quality control, authentication, and validation of data should form part of digital curation – again prioritising quality in terms of gatekeepers.

Marcum, J. W. (2000), Out with motivation, in with engagement. Natl. Prod. Rev., 19: 57–60. doi: 10.1002/npr.4040190410

Strategies to improve productivity, essentially from the point of view of employee situations but relevant for students in learning situations too.

To make employees more focused and effective

This is about the central role of the mind and the part played by perception, values, social circumstances and the development of the self in determining behaviour. With maslows theory that places self actualisation as the goal.
Marcum suggests that we need to move away from carrot and stick, where stick has been proved not to be motivating, and carrots are not effective as rewards kill interest as the focus stops being the work and becomes the reward. And the action is being performed through manipulation and their fore is not for its own merit. Rewards destroy commitment.

New tools included
mission: stressing the importance of the work
Agenda control : to allow people greater influence over their work lives
Ongoing learning : by both the individual and the group
Reputation : crucial for professionals

Engagement as a concept is replacing motivation

Engagement is linked to self-determination as people choose to be engaged they are not assigned it.
Engaging activities are interesting and enjoyable
Engagement requires direct participation, tactile experience rather than just observation.
Engagement is characterised by persistence.
Engagement involves the selection of challenging tasks routine work is not engaging.

Engagement can not be static, it is a dynamic process, activity is a given and action is a primary goal..
An activity is a braid concept, contains cognition, motivation, emotion, and process.
This theory allows room for peer and social influences on behaviour without losing site of the importance of individual interests and the need for self direction.

The role of the teachers in fostering emotional engagement as opposed to disaffection. Through coaching, modelling, enthusiasm, confidence building, sincere praise and reinforcement.
Coaching as opposed to instruction.

However
Engagement isthe relationships and process of communication that engage the intentions of others in the absence of coercion. Involving dialogue and a measure of introspection. It cannot occur when a situation is closed or complete, but involves the ability to presence something before it is well formulated or complete.
And the amount of engagement is inversely proportional to the amount of authority is being excesses.

Differences between motivation and engagement, as they seem to be synonyms
Participants are independent. Agents acting with self determination and an ongoing quality of endeavour rather than episodic.
Engagement is based on learning and involvement.

Therefore teachers should scan for interests and competencies rather than past records. Focus on achievements not processes.
Negotiate projects avoiding assignments
Test people with challenges and opportunities for personal growth.
Where engagement provides its own rewards.

The engaging leader is a coach and facilitators scrambling to keep up with the pack.

Burleson W.(2005) Developing creativity, motivation, and self-actualization with learning systems, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Volume 63, Issues 4–5, October 2005, Pages 436-451, ISSN 1071-5819, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2005.04.007. 
There is a synergistic cycle between self actualisation, learning and creativity.

Learners must have opportunities to develop multiple and flexible perspectives to facilitate deep understanding.

Self-actualisation is the desire to become more and more what one is, to becomes everyone that one is capable of becoming – fundamentally equivalent to the goals of education, learning environments and creativity. Learning and creativity are essential to self -actualisation, but also that self awareness, intrinsic motivation, and self-actualisation are fundamental to learning and creativity as well. – if pinterest is a creative space and a learning space then it can also be a space for self actualisation.

The definition for creativity is frequently debated but there is some consensus that it deals with a process which results in a novel or useful product.

Flow – intense concentration, absorption, feeling of control, loss of self-consciousness and a contortion of time all facilitating learning and creativity.

Constructivism – emphasises active knowledge construction through experience, particularly through creating and experimenting.

To achieve learning one needs intrinsic motivation, achievement, discovery, experimentation, imagination and increasing exposure to cultural influences.

A self-directed concept of knowledge ownership and personal franchise in the cultures knowledge base develops the self actualised learner.

Well conceived Learning environments should be contentious and even disturbing by focusing on contrasts and inconsistencies instead of absolutes.

Conclusions
Society must produce diverse skills, resources and intellectual strategies to face its challenges. .connecting individuals, peers and social groups as part of their own feedback loops holds great potential for learning, personal growth, motivation, creativity and life enhancement. Realising self actualisation, perhaps in the process.

FELTAG: Further Education Learning Technology Action Group: Recommendations (16 June 2014) , http://feltag.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/FELTAG-REPORT-FINAL.pdf Accessed 7/5/2015

This report gives some good rationale for my own project, in terms of how it fits in to the wider debate of technology in teaching and learning.

The FELTAG report was commissioned to make “practical recommendations aimed at ensuring the effective use of digital technology in learning, teaching and assessment in Further Education and Skills.”p4

What the report has to say about Learners:

“Learners must be empowered to fully exploit their own understanding of and familiarity with digital technology for their own learning.
FELTAG’s research and conversations consistently referred to the under-exploitation of learners’ skills, devices and technical knowledge when it came to the use of learning technology…..More effort needs to be made to engage and empower learners’ use of digital technology – and the use of their own devices – in the learning process.” P5

“The work of FELTAG addresses how digital technology can personalise learning, enabling people to take greater control of how they learn, when they learn and how and when they are taught and assessed.” p7 (Although using technology for any formal assessment has not been part of my remit, allowing more control over how and what students learn has been directly affected by the use of Pinterest in their learning.)

There is little money in the pot for innovation into institution led VLE’s therefore Pinterest is a ‘small-scale local innovation’:
“Educational organisations have small margins for building investment funds, so this innovation requires them collectively to orchestrate small-scale local innovations if they are to reap the benefits on a sustainable scale” p14-15

“The FE sector is keen to innovate, and is already doing it, but on a small scale and in a fragmented manner without strategic support”

Does it matter that these small-scale innovations are outside the ‘walls’ of the institution, therefore subject to uncontrolled change?

What problems are there for the students if the ‘fragmented manner’ of these small-scale innovations mean that they are constantly having to learn new technologies for each teacher they encounter?

To help organise what I know, what seems important and also what things link together I have been putting together a mindmap.

link is below so are some screen shots.

https://www.mindmeister.com/345205391

It is fairly difficult to put everything into separate groups, there are a number of areas where things naturally overlap, however this map is helping me to make sense of what I need to cover. (and perhaps leave out)