3 - Week - Considering Form

Teach by "immersion" and "show kids how letters are all around us." Lisa Mosier

While sifting through all of the websites and other resources that I am using to fuel this project, I got sort of hung up on this quote. Hung up in a good way, though. I hadn't come upon this "immersion" term before, and, in a way, it both answered questions while creating so, so many more(in a constructive, definitely-moving-forward kind of way though). Previous to this moment, I had spent a lot of time considering books. Books, books books. But the more I go through things, the more it seems like that is the wrong way to go about things—at least, in respect to the materials created for the children.


 From the same article comes this quote:


"Every outing is a spontaneous opportunity to learn," Play guessing games like, "I spy with my little eye something with the number 3."

Why was I stuck on books? Silly me. Books might be an appropriate format for parent materials, but I don't need to be formatting books and worksheets and the like for these kids. They will have plenty of time in the next 12+ years they spend in school to get used to the "buckle down and work at a desk" method of learning. That's not how children learn in their earlier years of life!


I want to take this dense information, and inform and motivate parents with it. I want to create an opportunity for dialogue and participation. I want to call attention not just to the formal aspects of what their child needs to be prepared for school, but to the fun, interactive every-day experiences that can be presented as learning opportunities.


I want to finesse this into an artifact that—while it might contain some of it's own activities—also contains a spark that ignites a participatory flame under parents and gets them to find their own ways of preparing their children. This is where the form comes in, and right now iPhone/iPad design seems to be a logical path to move down. Not only is it portable and interactive, easy for children with developing fine motor skills (and it also assists in further developing them), and—hypothetically—can be updated endlessly to meet any regional/I-don't-know-what-else-yet standards, it also opens up the opportunity for sharing and community. What's better than creating a community and an opportunity to distribute and share  knowledge!?


Now, for the sake of practicality, keeping an eye on the calendar, and trying to be realistic and all that stuff, I don't know that I will have the time to make this degree project into a full-blown research project. I thought about this. I am okay with this. I've spoken with professionals, I have collected research, and I am putting it to good use. I will continue to correspond with them to make sure I'm keeping my project in check as far as materials goes. With only 11 weeks to develop and design though, I want to keep focused on the end-result of all this, which I would prefer to be more about the final artifacts than the research that it stemmed from. A small change from the original plan, but I think it's a good one!


(now I will get to designing—images will be added soon)