My original SIP idea was How would a digital visitor/imigrant learn a digital skill in order to be able to teach a digital native/resident?
A particular skill would be to learn how to operate a Prusa 3D printer and to explore this from the perspective of a digital immigrant in order to be able to teach it effectively. This is a skill that I will be learning as my department recently acquired two Prusa 3D printers. I planned to make a filmed element for my presentation which would document the process of my learning journey, and what resources I would access in order to become proficient enough to be able to demonstrate the printers to students. I wanted to question other art-educators and find out what resources are their go-to methods and also address learning styles; are they aware of how they learn best.
I learned how to use Premier Pro in lockdown, so relatively recently had gone through a similar, very steep learning curve, with the intention of being able to teach students how to use that too.
I applied these questions to this original idea:
- Demonstrate the professional context of your project (e.g. your teaching practice, creative/disciplinary practice, research, leadership).
As a sculpture technician, becoming conversant with emerging technologies is essential to being able to support student’s learning. Focussing on a particular piece of equipment by going through the learning process myself and by applying it to my own practice, will help me shape my teaching offer. Finding the necessary information will also address learning styles, what works best for students, how do they navigate their own learning?
- The question or problem your project responds to, and why this matters.
The (original) question was how a digital immigrant/visitor can learn something well enough to enhance the learning of digital natives/residents and to look at what resources are available to enable this transition. I planned to investigate these resources and to gauge and reflect on their effectiveness for myself as a teacher and also for students who may feel uncomfortable with emerging technologies (including those from digitally poor backgrounds)
- What you plan to do in terms of ACTION (e.g. intervention) and what will inform this.
I planned to film my learning of the equipment and then talk to digital visitors and a digital residents to compare and contrast their experiences of this specific device.
- What you plan to do in terms of RESEARCH (evaluation, reading, analysis etc.)
I planned to research the learning patterns of digital natives/immigrants and to include material that I found about the evolution of attention spans. I would also have researched what works best in terms of learning styles, something which interested me during the first unit of the PGCert, and how these can be taken into account when digital immigrants are learning new technologies.
I also planned to interview the ceramics technician at Camberwell to gain insight into his practice and how he has enhanced his skills using 3D printing. We’ve talked several times about how he uses 3D prints to make slip-cast pieces. Given that ceramics/pottery/clay are inherently low-tech and one of the earliest forms of art; combining this with digital technologies is an exciting area of experimentation. I would have liked to explore how to teach these skills to digital natives and I felt excited at the thought of talking to other technicians who are working in this area.
I also planned to interview an artist called Anya Gallacio who uses a 3D printer to ‘print’ complex designs using liquid clay slip. I’m fascinated by the combination of these technologies which seem so at odds with each other – the main point of this piece by her called ‘Beautiful Mind’s shown at the Thomas Dane Gallery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJS86FCZdW8
As I began to simplify my research question and through extremely inspiring conversations with my peers on the course, my point of focus evolved and I realised that narrowing down my investigation might mean more depth of research rather than a lighter touch across too many areas. During peer’s presentations of their ideas for research and through feedback on what I presented, I began to see the value of keeping the question and area of research more simple. Uncovering the bones of the question took many attempts and I found that trying to explain my intention to anyone who would listen was a useful device! I’m hoping that the simplifying of the idea will allow the time and space for more depth in the research rather than having too many factors to investigate.
During some discussions with peers, I was describing the process of students being shown how to use dangerous equipment during inductions into safe methods of studio practice. One such activity is demonstrating the use of a battery-powered jigsaw. Whilst being wonderfully versatile and powerful, there’s a posibility of serious injury if not used with care. Students have ready access to these around the studios and can use them out-of-hours with no staff present. It is essential to make them aware of the risks of using the tool, whilst also wanting to give them the confidence to develop life-long skills. Also, from a life-long-skills perspective, students being able to use these tools safely in their studios in future is the best possible outcome.
I was describing this process to PGCert Peers and explaining that I am aware of how much learning to use a noisy and potentially dangerous piece of equipment can take people outside of their comfort zone. I was asking if peers remembered learning a new skill and wondering what part fear plays in the learning process. For example; Do you remember something more vividly, do you learn more effectively, if the learning process took you outside of your comfort zone? If you are shown a dangerous tool and the dangers are highlighted, does it mean that you absorb the necessary information more effectively? I wondered also, if this applied to other skills, not necessarily physically dangerous ones, but perhaps learning skills that you consider to be very challenging, for example, as a digital immigrant/visitor, this for me would be learning to be profficient with a 3D printer which is where I began my thoughts about my research question.
I began to ask teachers and learners how they know their own learning with the element of challenge, including pushing one’s self to explore unknown areas in their making process, and whether this actually becomes a tool in itself. This is when my research question became clearer.
I also looked at research around how people learn the most effectively and found some interesting articles on brain development in connection with the comfort zone. There is scientific research that indicates that the growth zone is where the most learning happens. The following article illustrates this with Yale research and is taken from this link about learning increasing brain plasticity: https://news.yale.edu/2018/07/19/arent-sure-brain-primed-learning
‘Not knowing what’s going to happen next is generally stressful. Uncertainty signals that you’re unsure of your environment, your skills, or both. But uncertainty also signals the brain to kickstart learning, new Yale research published in the journal Neuron has found.
That means crazy, unstable situations might be uncomfortable, but they’re also essential if you want to make the most of your brain.
Stability is a shut off switch for your brain. (I find this statement interesting because surely some stability has to be essential in order to feel comfortable in the first instance?)
If you want to maximize learning you need to make sure you’re doing hard things 70 percent of the time, five-time entrepreneur Auren Hoffman has advised. It’s tough to face the possibility of failure for such a huge chunk of your working life, but this new research confirms Hoffman is on to something. If you’re not at least a little stressed about the outcome of what you’re doing, your brain shuts down learning.
To figure this out scientists taught a group of monkeys to hit various targets for a reward of tasty juice. Sometimes the odds of a particular target producing a sweet treat were fixed — the monkeys consistently got a reward 80 percent of the time, say. Sometimes the target was more unpredictable — the frequency with which it paid and the amount of juice the monkeys received varied.
The team of neuroscientists then measured the monkeys’ brain activity while they played with the targets. A clear pattern emerged. If the monkeys could predict how often a target would pay off, brain regions associated with learning basically shut down. When the monkeys couldn’t guess what would happen, their learning centers lit up.
This makes sense. Once you’ve figured out the best way to behave in a given environment learning new techniques or approaches is pointless. If you’ve found the faster route from your house to your work, varying your routine is just going to get you stuck in a traffic jam
For this reason, stability kills learning. Which is fine if you’re trying to master your golf swing or figure out how many minutes to boil an egg. But in many areas of life — including the professional domain — we want to continually improve and learn. And to do that you need to avoid the easy and comfortable in favor of the unpredictable and probably hard.
Or as Yale neuroscientist Daeyeol Lee put it to Quartz “Perhaps the most important insight from our study is that the function of the brain as well as the nature of learning is not ‘fixed’ but adapts according to the stability of the environment… When you enter a more novel and volatile environment, this might enhance the tendency for the brain to absorb more information.”Or as Yale neuroscientist Daeyeol Lee put it to Quartz “Perhaps the most important insight from our study is that the function of the brain as well as the nature of learning is not ‘fixed’ but adapts according to the stability of the environment… When you enter a more novel and volatile environment, this might enhance the tendency for the brain to absorb more information.”
How should we humans put this insight to use?
There are, as I noted above, some occasions when a tapering off of learning is fine. But it’s all too easy to get into a rut that leaves your brain idling. Avoiding that outcome if you’re everyday reality isn’t inherently changeable and challenging
Try Consciously building variety, uncertainty and newness into your life. The goal should be to inject unpredictability into your life to keep your brain learning. Stability can be restful, but science shows it will teach you pretty much nothing.
The above article twice mentions that stability kills learning. I think that you can learn to appreciate stability! If you’re learning to move outside of your comfort zone then you need a secure base from which to start, so I think that stability, and recognising it’s potential as an anchoring influence, is an important part of the learning journey.
The article below also details that changes in the brain occur when a person learns. Whilst not referencing the comfort zone, it does talk about brain plasticity which occurs through learning.
It is intriguing that changes associated with learning occur mostly at the level of the connections between neurons and as new connections are formed the internal structures of the existing synapses change. A result of this phenomenon is that when a person becomes an ‘expert’ in a specific domain, the areas of the brain that deal with the types of skill involved will grow remarkably.
Some of the amazing evidence of brain plasticity comes from studies of London Black Cab drivers. To become a black cab driver in London you need to study for between two and four years and at the end of that time take a test called The Knowledge. To pass The Knowledge you must memorize over 25,000 streets and 20,000 landmarks in Central London. Scientists found that after this complex spatial training the hippocampus of the taxi drivers had grown significantly. The hippocampus is a part of the brain that specializes in acquiring and using complex spatial information. When drivers retire, many years later, the hippocampus shrinks back down again.
The quote above is taken from this article: https://www.youcubed.org/evidence/anyone-can-learn-high-levels/Van-Praag, H., Christie, B.R., Sejnowski, T.J. & Gage, F.H. (1999, November). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 96, 13427-13431
My SIP research question as it stands: How do artists apply the concept of ‘the comfort zone’ to their making and learning process?
I intend to conduct an exploratory study of an artist’s relationship with their comfort zone during their making process and when learning a new skill. I would also like to ask what is helpful and not helpful in a learning context in order to support participant’s exploration of this relationship. I would like know if artists learn to use their comfort zone as a tool, which is how I percieve it for myself.
The article quoted below is taken from: International Journal of Environmental & Science Education
Vol. 7, No. 1, January 2012, 71-81 – https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ972445.pdf
Finally, it does appear that the nature of the material being learned and the intensity of learning activity parallel resulting brain plasticity. Thus extensive learning of abstract information can trigger plastic changes in the brain (Draganski et al 2006). They imaged the brains of German medical students three months prior to their medical exam and immediately after the exam comparing them to the brains of students who were not studying for exam at the time. Medical students’ brains showed learning-induced changes in regions of the parietal cortex as well as in the posterior hippocampus. These regions of the brain are known to be involved in memory retrieval and learning.
This obviously applies to medical students, so not entirely relevant but it relates to the value of brain plasticity which occurs when challenges arise, in this case ‘extensive learning of abstract information’. I would argue that this could be mirrored by an artist challenging themselves to take their subject matter beyond what is familiar/safe. The comfort zone is an abstract concept which is unique to each individual but the principles of going from a safe place to something unfamiliar is universal. Also, one person’s extreme challenge, is another’s familiar territory, for example making performance art or talking in front of large groups of people. I am interested to ask participants their views on these issues.