The RE design of my everyday things

Jennifer Fane - John Robson Elementary School

After reading the first Chapter of "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald A. Norman, an optional reading recommended by my instructor. I was intrigued, but not convinced that the book would be particularly useful in my current professional role of teaching kindergarten. However, after the humbling experience of the Mane Event from the term previous, I decided to read a few more chapters before I chalked it up to an amusing but largely inapplicable read. I am very glad I did.

This book got me thinking about design, and how design and its form (the good, the bad, and the ugly) permeate all aspects of life. The most powerful thing I took from this book, however, is how broad the term designer is. Norman states, in his engaging matter of fact style, that "this is a book about users [and] things that are used by them, and designers - again people who design things for people." I started reading this book thinking of myself solely as a user, only to realize that I am also a designer. As a kindergarten teacher I had always been aware of the design element of my job from a curriculum standpoint, while reading this book I began to think of my role as a designer of the built environment. I began to look at my immediate physical environment (my classroom) and determine how good design could change that way in which I teach and my students learn.

This year I had moved back to my previous school and into a new to me classroom filled with brand new materials purchased from the All Day Kindergarten Program. At the beginning of the year I was so busy unpacking boxes of learning materials, furniture, and sensory activities that I was more concerned about having a classroom that didn't look like a disaster than creating a master design plan. However, after reading this book I decided it was time to re-evaluate the current design and see if there was a better design of the space that would naturally lend its self to learning, fun, and organization.

The design challenges I was facing in my class were:

* My sensory tables and painting easel were all in extremely close proximity to each other, making it impossible to run several stations simutaneously

*My word wall was being unused by students during printing and writing activities

*Centres clean up was a mess with students unable to remember where toys and materials needed to be returned to

*Many great educational activities and toys were not being used by students

*The furniture was constantly needing to be moved throughout the day just to facilitate different activities: such as lining up to exit to the playground, or for students to be able to see the chart paper during seat work.

After reviewing the 7 Steps for Transforming Difficult Tasks into Simple Ones I decided on a few plans of action.

1) The too close proximity of my sensory tables and easel and the non or under use of many activities and centres by students was actually the problem of not "exploiting the power of constraints"in my classroom. Some constraints are natural and unavoidable, i.e. the size of my room and the items that most reside there, but some constraints were very artificial, i.e. the placement of furniture and items in the room. Instead of working from an aesthetic perspective, I decided to try to place items and furniture in locations that would work harmoniously together and invited play and exploration due to space and placement. I created coexisting spaces that could be used harmoniously and interchangeably, such as a large carpeted area with a book shelf, puzzles, and independent learning centres on one side for reading and quiet times, and blocks and building toys for large scale noisy play during centres. I then rearranged my work tables in a linear fashion against the back wall to allow for placement of my sensory tables throughout the room so they can be used simultaneously. This then allowed more open space for daily physical activity and for movement throughout daily activities and transitions which now requires little daily manipulation of furniture.

Jennifer Fane - John Robson Elementary School

2) Clean up was a mess. Not because my students were not trying, but because they could not remember where things belonged. This isn't their fault, but a fault in the design, so I "simplified the structure of the task." I made up signs with pictures for all the centre items and posted them above where the item goes. Now students have a visual cue to where items belong and clean up has been much quicker and easier.

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3) A focus for my students this term is print and its uses and conventions. Encouraging and enabling students to use printed words and invented spellings in their journals and other work is an extremely important part of my kindergarten program, yet the design of my space did not speak to this. My word wall was on my smaller chalkboard, making the letters close together and requiring smaller print of words, which is very discouraging for emerging writers. I decided that my design must encourage students to read, use, and copy print and letters by "using knowledge in the world and knowledge in the head".  I moved my word wall to my larger chalkboard allowing for larger letters and words. I also made signs with pictures for items all over my room to increase the visibility and convey the usefulness of print to my students. I also integrated a daily new word into our calendar routine that the V.I.P puts on the board, increasing the excitement of the word wall. To make thematic tie ins between units and print I put up a pocket chart with seasonal/thematic words with pictures that the students can read and copy into their work. These changes regarding print have helped my students make great strides in their pre writing and reading abilities and have above all generated excitement for learning.

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By embracing my role as designer I was able to make specific and useful changes which have allowed the users (in this case my students) new opportunities and increased learning and play abilities and experiences in the classroom. I was surprised at what a difference a careful and deliberate classroom design makes, and how impact-full it has been for my students academic and social learning.

Promoting Health or Stigmatization?

I came across an interesting health promotion initiative from the state of Georgia that I found very startling. Strong4Life (a campaign brought to Columbus by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Live Healthy Columbus to address the issue of childhood obesity) has released an add campaign with photos of obese children with captions such as "Chubby isn't cute if it leads to type two diabetes"; and "Being fat takes the fun out of being a kid". The idea behind the campaign is to educate parents of the childhood obesity epidemic in Georgia. Georgia (which has the second highest state childhood obesity rate in the nation) is, according to Strong4Life, lacking in parental awareness of the prevalence and knowledge of childhood obesity and their understanding of healthy eating and active living for children.


The campaign, however, has been fraught with controversy with many activist and opposers calling the campaign "bullying, cruel, and potential sources of stigmatization that may reinforce unhealthy behaviours and potentially pose risks to the psychological health of over weight adolescents."


While I feel that attempting to address the causes and perceptions of childhood obesity is extremely important, I have to admit that I found the posters disturbing. After going to the website and watching the linked videos of the children in the campaign speaking about their learning and journey towards a healthier lifestyle, I can appreciate what Strong4Life is doing for their community, though I worry that the sensationalism of the campaign may serve more to alienate overweight children and their families than encourage them. It will be interesting to see if an evaluation or assessment of the program will be published as to the effectiveness of the posters and social media campaign.


Above all, this campaign makes me wonder if scare tactics and shock value are useful tools in health education and promotion. Though if nothing else, this campaign has people talking about health perception and behaviours and perhaps the old adage is true, any publicity is good publicity.


http://strong4life.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16958865
http://www.facebook.com/S4LGA

Biggest Mover Challenge 2012

Our current course is about developing health promotion programs in diverse settings. Even only a few weeks into the course, I've come to great appreciate and delve into the complex realm of health promotion and it's role within health education. Now that health promotion programs are over taking the fore front of my mind, I am beginning to realize just how prevalent they are in my community, life, and workplace. While walking to the gym from work last week I glanced up at the electronic community billboard and happened to notice that they were promoting a community wide health promotion program. Curiosity piqued, I went to the city website to find out a little more about it. It is called the "Biggest Mover Challenge 2012" and is hosted by the city, with a couple of private sponsors, for New Westminster residents.

The basic premise of the challenge is that you log your physical activity through the tracking passport they provide and complete a tally sheet which is then returned at the end of the challenge. In addition, there are weekly challenges on a variety of aspects of healthy living, such as eating better, drinking, getting more sleep, and taking preventative health measures such as having your blood pressure checked. Challenge participants that return they're tally sheets and have recorded a baseline number of points are eligible to win prizes. There is also an optional weight loss component (optional weekly weigh ins at a designated time and location) if participants so chose.

I find this initiative quite interesting, and while I am not privy to the exact health promotion model or theory used to create the challenge, I definitely see many of the steps and processes outlined in our text at play in the creation, implementation, and vision of the program.

In an interview in The Record (a local paper) New Westminster's active community programmer Sandy Earle states that the "objective of the program is to have people become aware of how active they are, and to perhaps increase [it]".  She also states that the biggest mover goals are based on recommendations from Canada's Physical Activity Guide. From this, I infer that through an assessment, it was determined that many NewWestminster residents struggle to meet the recommendations of Canada's Physical Activity Guide and that this may contribute to health issues facing residents.

She also speaks that this challenge builds on a similar challenge launched last year called "the Biggest Loser" where residents competed to loose weight within a given time frame. The shift from a solely weight loss based program to a more inclusive activity based program speaks to the likelihood of an assessment or evaluation of last years model which may have been to narrow a focus or exclusionary.

Earle also mentions in the article that the additional weekly challenges are an attempt to "[tie] in a bit of education" which from an evaluation or assessment of last years challenge may have been found to be missing. I'm unconvinced that these mini challenges would actually fall under health education instead of health promotion, as while it encourages participants to do them, it gives no information or reasons as to why, it is clear that assessment and evaluation from the previous model is making an impact on the planning and implementation of the new challenge.

All in all, I think it is a great initiative, and I have chosen to participate in it. The challenge starts today and runs until April 28th. While I'm a little skeptical of the honour system that they are running it on, I look forward to taking part and gaining a better understanding of health promotion programs in my community, and some benefits and pitfalls of such a program.

http://www.newwestpcr.ca/database/files/library/2012_Biggest_Mover_Challenge.pdf

http://www.royalcityrecord.com/health/Moving+challenge+launched/6095899/story.html