Evaluating: Type Animation

[GraphDesProject]

 

Resource:: History of Type in a stop motion (click here)
As the activity suggests evaluating a resource that I’d consider using, rather than one that I already have used, I have selected this short animation on the history of type. I found it this week through a Tweet from, Brainpicker, one of the many online design sites (great resources for inspiration in their own right). It is a well-made and fun animation – go on watch it, it’s only short!!

•How do you decide when a resource is worth adopting? I thought it was worth using because it is short but expressed useful information in an unusual manner.

•What criteria did you use to evaluate this resource? The accuracy and relevance of the content is, I think, paramount. This closely followed by whether or not I think my learners of whichever appropriate level would engage with it; in this case I think they would because it is nicely made, fun (but serious!) and above all is trendy in a design sense as these short animations are very much what is “done” right now, so my learners would see it as a resource of the community of practice on the level of style as well as content.

•What are the advantages and limitations of this resource? Advantages are it is short, fashionable and gets sometimes dry information across in a cheerful and entertaining manner. One limitation is that I don’t think you could use this to simply introduce the content, but to watch it would make a good refresher or revision task. The history of type – well, how that pertains to how typography is used today – is much more complex, but this would remind learners of some of the main points. It may also give them stylistic/aesthetic inspiration for making design.

•How could you incorporate this resource into your teaching? For f2f I could simply put it on Moodle for them to use as and when they wanted to. Or it could be shown in class as part of a wider lesson, or reminder. Or I might just use it in a “hey, look at this!” kind of way – what designers do! Fir online learners I think it would be even better as it is lively and would make a good link amongst several less entertaining or longer videos, texts or sets of imagery about type history and use.

•How will this help your learners? It would be a refresher or reminder of main aspects of type history (which is a learning outcome in our f2f graphics programme). Some learners might also actually learn the facts here – penny drops moment. Also inspiration for type or other designs.

•Are there any limitations to the use of this resource for your learners? As I’ve said above, though accurate, it doesn’t have much depth and does not go into how and why we’d use type based on its history or break these “rules”. It might not be counted as an academic source for dissertations or essays at HE level.

Sancha (@GraphDesProject)

Not sure if link at top is working so here is the full URL:

http://exp.lore.com/post/49522138627/the-history-of-typography-in-a-stop-motion?utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer:+brainpicker+on+twitter&utm_content=buffer036c3&buffer_share=36ecc

 

[GrahamRGibbs]

Sancha,

your last point, about not counting as an academic resource, reminded me that there is a general issue of how we – and how we teach students to – cite learning resources. I see no reason why they should not cite videos etc. if it is good quality material. I’ve started putting citation information on the pages of written resources of my OnlineQDA website, but I’ve not done this for videos and I’ve never seen it done on YouTube. But why not? We probably need to teach students to apply the same discrimination to the wide range of learning resources as we do to printed materials and to cite them following the same principles (Author, Title, place of production, date etc.) as we use for journal papers, books etc.

Graham

(Still getting terrible scores on my Helvetica vs Arial app)

[Stephen Brown]

Hi Sancha, just to say thank you for posting the link to this lovely, playful, engaging and informative resource. Im definitely going to use this one.  The stop animation technique is great too, although the idea of having to create so much cut paper material, shoot so many pictures and do so much editing is daunting!

Stephen

[ElizabethECharl]

Sancha – a great evaluation of this resource.

Graham – interesing point about citing such items.  I did not think there was an issue with this but it could be because my department includes media studies which equals films, so I am used to learners needing to cite from films and videos wherever they may be sourced. They are treated in the same manner as online databases or other such resources with URL and date and time accessed.

[GraphDesProject]

You’re welcome!

[James Kerr]

One of the learning objectives in my introductory computer science courses is always about citing resources; since it’s an introductory class usually populated with first-year students, this reinforces the requirements for citations that they will need throughout their university career (and beyond).

[Author]

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