A new class will require less books and more technology as it uses a popular gaming system to teach students the concepts of design.
Students taking Design 797 next quarter will use the Nintendo Wii to learn 2-D and 3-D design principles, design history and color theory. The idea is that through game-based play, students will explore the material while staying active and engaged, said Tony Reynaldo, design foundations coordinator and assistant professor in the Department of Design.
Reynaldo, who designed and will teach the class, said the course structure is framed around the students developing various gaming explorations and new ways to learn the material. However, they first need to examine how design principles were taught historically, current traditional studio experiences and computer limitations.
Then they will use the Wii environment as a means of learning and teaching those design principles in a more active way.
“The Wii game environment offers a tremendous amount of opportunity for kinesthetic learning and innovation in the classroom,” Reynaldo said. “It engages you. It allows for retention and awareness of the material. It makes for active, hands-on play.”
He said he came up with the idea a year ago.
“The Wii class was one of these moments where I thought, ‘Why are we not taking advantage of these tools that these kids are used to and use this as a gateway to help students transition from high school into our design foundations program.’ After all, they are already heavily immersed in the social media spaces and many of them play games,” Reynaldo said.
By using games to teach, Reynaldo aims to change the idea of the typical studio experience.
“We need to change the paradigm of the studio, where there is little kinesthetic moving and you spend a large amount of time sitting and working at a table,” he said. “By engaging movement, students are getting more excited, more energetic and maintaining the information, which is our ultimate goal. I want them to learn the content but in an interactive, exploratory way.”
Perhaps this innovation accounts for the large response to the class, as it is rapidly filling to its studio limit. Even students outside the department like the idea.
Bethany Hancock, a fourth-year in business, said learning digitally would help students remember the material during class. This, she said, would be more appealing than reading notes the night before an exam.
She also said she would be more inclined to come to class if it were more hands-on.
“I am not really motivated to go to class, though I still do it, because I know I’ll be sitting there for two hours writing,” she said. “If I could just do something different for a change, maybe I’d look at the material differently. Plus, playing with Wii is fun.”
In addition to Design 797, students have the option to take Creativity in Design 250, another one of Reynaldo’s classes. This course, entitled Creativity: MacGyver Style!, uses non-traditional approaches through a hands-on, experiential environment, much like the ‘80s character MacGyver used his skills and knowledge to solve problems. The course is comprised of activities that help to develop critical-thinking skills, teamwork and self-awareness in all areas of expertise that “help in becoming good problem solvers and designers,” Reynaldo said.
“The course grew from observations about the standardized testing system in K-12 education and how it seems to have drained away creative learning, such as art, music, dance, etc.,” Reynaldo said. “Creativity seems to have fallen to the wayside, and a designer’s creativity is a huge part of what we do and how we innovate for the users we solve problems for.”
Innovating for students is just as important to Reynaldo.
“This kind of teaching helps to make learning experience more fun,” Reynaldo said. “I want students to be excited about coming to class and to be able to do something no one else does. I want them to be the leaders of this kind of new thinking.”
Design 797 will use one Wii console, but Reynaldo plans to introduce more. He currently supplies the technology needed for the course through a research support package he was given to help in gaining tenure.
For more information on the course or the Department of Design, e-mail [email protected] or go to design.osu.edu.
