A blog about design at the OU.
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How do you draw a circle?
I just stumbled across a great article that analysed how different cultures draw a circle. Give it a try at their page. They found strong arguments that the way you draw circles relates to your cultural context, or to be more precise, to the language and writing system you use. For example, if in your writing […]
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Concrete hippos
Milton Keynes eat your heart out – New Town artworks at Killingworth (North Tyneside). Great buildings still – Gas Research Lab and Lion Brush Works (Ryder and Yates) as well as Ralph Erskine houses by the lake.
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Digitally engaged learning 2017
The Digitally Engaged Learning – DEL 2017 conference gathered around 100 academics and practitioners at Central St Martins, UAL, to discuss Teaching/Making – Marking/Teaching. http://www.digitallyengagedlearning.net/2017/ The conference was opened by Diana Arce’s (http://visualosmosis.com) powerful appeal to not forget the supremacy of ‘real’ human action and interaction. The digital can and should be used to connect […]
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Design Council Spark 2017 – Do you have an idea?
The Design Council Spark initiative will open on 12 September 2017 and is open to anyone with a good idea which they think would make a great product. Financial and mentoring support is available to support the development of finalists. Details are available on the Design Council Spark site here http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/design-council-spark
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From Design to Innovation and Enterprise
Trends on UK business start-ups are upward. Companies House data analysed by the Centre for Entrepreneurs showed that new records were set in 2016 with a total of 657,790 new UK businesses. This equates to 75 an hour! Many will be new design-based businesses. The Design Council’s 2015 publication ‘The Design Economy’ valued the contribution of the […]
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Energy and the Environment
Dr Sally Caird recently presented her work on smart city energy programmes and the need for evaluation studies to provide evidence of the value and outcomes of city programme design for cities and citizens at an international Energy and Environment Workshop held at The Open University 25th and 26th May, 2017. This was chaired by […]
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On the Fringe
Stephen Peake, a member of the Design and Innovation group at the OU is currently appearing in a two man show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The show,”The Hero Who Overslept”, is a dialogue about climate change; a playful piece which sees a dour professor from Bolton with a head full of statistics about climate […]
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Design, Development and Impact of Sustainability Website Resources
More than ten years ago, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) funded the design, development and launch of Soil-Net, an innovative, open, online soil education website resource to support school curricula. Soil science has been under-represented in teaching National Curriculum in UK schools, despite recognition of soil as a major global natural […]
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Designing interactive distance learning in Nigeria
Dr Nicole Lotz and Dr Kerry Murphy recently led a two-day workshop on designing interactive, practical STEM Open Distance Learning (ODL) resources with the National Open University Nigeria (NOUN). The Dean of Science, Head of Applied Science and Director of Learning Resources from NOUN, as well as a delegation of OU and UK academics, explored opportunities for collaboration […]
