Talk with Shweta at the Hippocampus Library:

• Shweta is the parent of two children one boy aged 6 and a girl aged 9. She is a full time mother.
• She came to the Hippocampus Library to read a book with her child.
• Her kids study in a nearby school in Koramangala. Her daughter had earlier been studying at the Valley School. She had been happy there. Shweta was pleased with the system of education there and had been especially happy with the long art classes they had where the children were allowed to paint and draw freely without fear of judgment.
• In their free time her kids like to play sports, take classes and do homework. They also play pretend games and often invent their own games. They usually always play together and she attributes this to the fact that they live in a joint family.
• Shweta does not allow her kids to watch TV on weekends. She prefers it f they play on their own be it sports, playing pretend games or drawing. She has enrolled her children in classes like swimming and tennis to keep them occupied.
• She claims that both her children, especially her daughter loves to draw. One thing that baffles Shweta however is the fact that her children usually draw the same thing over and over again, they have fixed subjects (like airplanes and cars for the boy) and they tend to repeat them over and over again.
• Shweta says she lets her children be completely free when they are drawing. She does not offer her judgment or any guidance by telling them what to draw.
• One thing Shweta laments is that her children do not enjoy reading. She has stocked up her house with many books, many of which she used to read as a child but her children rarely ever pick up a book unless they are forced to. Her motivation for buying books for her children is not so much the content of the books as it is getting them into the good habit of reading, which will improve their skills.
• Shweta is quite picky about the books she buys. She feels that the language should be appropriate and the spellings and grammar correct. She does not like to buy books with American spellings.

Viit to Hippocampus Libraray on 28th July 2009

• Books for children aged 4 to 14.
• Weekend activities like arts and crafts, photography, reading competitions and talent competitions. Mostly children until the age of 9 participate in these. Older come there mostly to borrow books, they don’t spend time there or participate in activities.
• They do not judge the work done by children nor do they teach them. They basically let them be free and do their own thing. The activities are seen as a fun event for children where there is no pressure of performance or being right or wrong.
• They have a large collection of book including story books for very little children, counting book and alphabet books, fiction for young readers, encyclopedias, educational books like The Knowledge Series (which has titles like Murderous Math and Horrible Histories which aims to educate children in a fun way), arts and crafts books, hobby books which teach children skills like writing, drama, needlecraft, photography, drawing, painting, etc.
• One book that caught my eye was ‘Games and Giggles’ which is an activity book for young girls that has many ideas for games that children can play together, and also variations of popular games like hopscotch. Other activities included finding a way to convert one’s initials into a picture and making up a song where each letter of the alphabet is the beginning to a paragraph. This book is interesting because it involves activities that require the child to use her imagination rather than just using logic to deduct something.
• Another activity book that caught my eye was ‘Play in Art’ which is a compilation of famous paintings. The paintings have been used as a trigger for some activity. One such activity is called ‘Make up a story’ where the child looks at the subject of a painting and uses that as a trigger to create his own story. Another spread is titled ‘Animal noises’ where the child is challenged to make the noise of the animal that is depicted in the painting. I find this book interesting because it serves a dual purpose, that of being educational and also being a starting point for creative activities.
• Hippocampus has organized an activity for children from the age of 7 onwards on Saturday, 1st August that may be worth checking out.

Visit to Hippocampus Library on 28th July 2009

key questions

Q1) What are various forms in which children creatively express themselves?
Q1) At what age is the child’s creativity inhibited?
Q3) What conditions are the most conducive to bringing about creativity?
Q4) What creative activities to children most enjoy? Why?

The minutes of the third review:

• Define three questions to focus your research. Articulate what the purpose of your research, what is it that you want to find out.

• Visit schools:
• Vidya Shilp
• Poorna School
• Canadian School
• DPS

• It is important to talk to children that come from different backgrounds. Cover a diverse range of children to get the maximum from your research; so that your opinion is not singular, rather it is based on observations of a variety of children.

• Visit schools where the system of teaching is distinctive.

• A lot of work has already been done on creativity especially with children. There are many exercises, games, and articles that address creativity in children on the Internet. Find out what is unique about your project, how it is more than just a collection of exercises

• Update the review panel daily on the progress made.

• Run the exercises by Tarakini and get her feedback.

inspirations

http://www.amazon.com/D-I-Y-Kids-Ellen-Lupton/dp/1568987072/ref=pd_sim_b_16#reader

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Out-Loud-Keri-Smith/dp/0811836746/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1248377331&sr=8-2

Visit to the ‘Reader’ library in SFS colony

• Even young children have the power to question; they do not accept things the way they are told to them. It has to make sense to them.
• Children love to make up their own stories. If they are shown a picture, they will not hesitate to interpret it the way they see right.
• A child’s creativity should not be stifled; rather the teacher and the parent should nurture it. Often there is more than one right answer, a parent or teacher must accept that and not admonish the child for thinking differently.
• Some things are facts and therefore not questionable. For example one cannot dispute that the state of Karnataka lies in south India, or that the sun rises in the east. But other things, like the answer to the question ‘what flies in the sky?’ may have many possibilities, each of which may be true. One may question why something is a certain way and come up with many ideas to answer the question, but these questions must have scope for interpretation. Proven facts are separate from ideas that have scope for interpretation; the designer should keep this in mind.
• While creating exercises for children to encourage creativity, one must as a teacher or designer provide a trigger for the creative process to take place. Young children may need a starting point to help their creative process.
• The exercises should be created in such a way that they guide the child in the right direction. Freedom should be given along with some sort of boundary so that the child stays on track and learns from his/ her creative process.

List of QUESTIONS to ask the various people i will be interviewing as part of my research:

Teachers:
1. What are children from the age of 7 to 11 reading? What is the focus of these books (text books and storybooks)?
2. What capacities of learning do children from grade 2, 3, 4 and 5 have?
3. What level of creativity do children from grade 2, 3, 4 and 5 have?
4. What is the focus of 4th and 5th grade education?
5. What to want to know about children by the time they come to grade 4 and 5?
6. What value does this particular school give to creativity? How important is it considered in their system of education?
7. What exercises does the teacher conduct for children above the age of 8 to encourage creativity? What is the response to these exercises?
8. Until what age are children completely free in their thinking?
9. Do children still enjoy creative exercises that allow them to be completely free after a certain age?
10. What is the change that appears in the child’s thinking habits as he grows older?



Parents:
1. How old is their child?
2. What books does he/she read?
3. What does he/ she like about these books?
4. What is the change that appears in the child’s thinking habits as he grows older?
5. In the experience of the parent, at what age does the child become rigid in his thinking? What is the reason for this change?



People who are involved in and have done research on education for kids:
1. Until what age are children completely free in their thinking?
2. Why does the change in thinking pattern emerge when it does?
3. What capacities of learning do children from grade 2, 3, 4 and 5 have?
4. What level of creativity do children from grade 2, 3, 4 and 5 have?
5. What to children know by the time they come to grade 4 and 5?
6. What exercises does the teacher conduct for children above the age of 8 to encourage creativity?
7. What can be done to encourage creativity in children above the age of 8 when their creativity seems to diminish?
8. Do children still enjoy creative exercises that allow them to be completely free after a certain age?

Child psychologists:
1. Until what age are children completely free in their thinking?
2. Why does the change in thinking pattern emerge when it does?
3. Is it natural for a child to become more rigid in his thinking as he grows older?
4. How does the learning capacity evolve from the ages of 6 to 10? What changes in the way children learn, assimilate and respond?

Children’s book writers and publishers:
1. What kind of books are being written for children of age 7, 8 9, and 10?
2. What is the reason for choosing the mentioned themes/topics?
3. How are books for 6 -7 year old different from books for 9 -11 year olds? On what basis do they choose the content for the two age groups?
4. How does the language/style of writing differ for children from age 7 to 10? What is the tone that they choose to write in?
5. How do they decide what language is fitting for children of age 7,8,9 and 10?
6. Do they test the books that they write with the identified age group of kids? How important is this process?

DIPLOMA PROPOSAL- Second attempt

I. THE DESIGN BRIEF
To design a product (interactive kit), which is a compilation of creative exercises designed to make a child think out of the box. The exercises, many of which will involve storytelling, will then be compiled into a collection of short stories for children.

PROBLEM:

When we are young, our creativity is at its fullest because we are not limited in our thinking. As we grow older, school and society conditions us to think and behave in a certain way so much so that our creativity is curbed and our ability to imagine is diminished. Exercises in school encourage us to think in a manner that is more academic than creative, thus causing us to fall into linear thinking patterns rather than lateral ones. Curriculums in schools are often rigid to the point that there is no sense of play left in them; there is no excitement of discovery through imagination, there is purely a right and a wrong answer. Children’s book publishers too create activity books that are focused on the right answer, thereby neglecting to encourage and nurture the creative side of a child.

SOLUTION:

Part 1:
I propose to make a product for children from the age of 8 to 10 yrs that will be a compilation of exercises designed to encourage children to think out of the box. This product may be in the form of a workbook or an exercise kit, which will have various games that the child can play.

The focus of these exercises will be to build a child’s creativity. The exercises will have open-ended solution rather than close ended so that no answer is right or wrong, in fact each exercise may have more than one solution. While some exercises may allow a child to be completely free and express him/herself the way he/she imagines something, other exercises may be at a higher level of difficulty where the child may have to think within a framework provided to him, where the focus will be more on creative problem solving rather than creative storytelling through imagination.

Examples:

1: The beginning half of the story will be written. The end will be given and the child will have to fill in the middle so that the beginning, middle and end connect. There may be more than one solution to the story, and no solution will be considered wrong.

2:Images will be provided. The child has to create a story using these images.

3: A bizarre situation will be provided. The child has to come up with a convincing story as to how that situation came to be.

4: a nonsense verse will be provided. The child has to make up a story connecting each line.


Part 2:
The exercises that I create will then be tested on the children in workshops facilitated by me. These workshops will serve to introduce the child to the game and get his/ her feedback. The stories that emerge will then be compiled into short story books for children. These storybooks will be illustrated by me and will serve as a bi product of the project.

II. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Subject related:
1. What constitutes a good exercise for encouraging creativity in children?
2. What kinds of activity books exist in the market currently?
3. How do children respond to these exercises?
4. What methods are employed by schoolteachers to enhance creativity in children?
5. What do teachers and parents feel about the existing material? What is lacking in it and how can it be improved?
6. What subjects/topics to children of the targeted age group like to express their feelings about?

Product related:
1. What interactive elements will I use in my product?
2. What materials will I use to create the product?
3. What style of illustration will I use for the visuals?
4. How will I package this product?

III. APPROACH/PROCESS
Research about the activity books that are available in the market today, analysis of these to see how they can be improved.
Understanding what the need of the user is by talking to parents, teachers and other people involved with children’s education.
Creating exercises based on the research.
Testing the exercises with the identified user group in workshops facilitated by me. Through this interaction, I hope not only to get feedback on the exercises, but also stories from the children that have been created from the games designed for them. These stories will then be edited and illustrated by me, and will serve as an example of the kind of material the first part of the project hopes to create.
I feel that design can play an important role in the education of kids, and by creating the right kind of material we can encourage them to free their minds and think creatively. To involve them in the design process can be a learning experience for both them and the designer.


IV. MATERIALS/RESOURCES

Internet
http://www.tulikabooks.com


People:
Teachers from different schools across Bangalore such as Mallya Aditi, Poorna Vidyalaya, The Canadian School
Parents of children who lie within the targeted age group

Equipment:
Sound recorder, Digital Camera

V. LEARNING OUTCOMES
1.This project will give me a chance to learn more about children’s education.
2. It will help me build and apply my creative thinking as a I make exercises for children.
3.It will give me a chance to interact with children and learn from them.
4.It will give me experience in children’s book illustration.
5.It will give me a chance to explore the craft of making interactive material for children.
6. It will give me a chance to explore the craft of book design.

Brainstorming for more ideas:

What are the possibilities that emerge when children are identified as the targeted user and an educational product for the user is identified as the desired outcome?
1. Teaching children moral behavior, codes of conduct, how to respect, love, accept, tolerate other people objects. Folklore and such already do this.
2. Creating material that is concerned with teaching children about issues that are relevant today, such as those concerned with the planet, the environment we live in, ecology and how to preserve and sustain the same.
3. Creating material for kids that inform them about a specific activity (‘how to’ books), or telling stories to kids that are about a specific subject like indigenous crafts, or cultures or people in a certain culture.
4. Addressing fears of a child, using stories as a tool to paint a lighter picture of the object of fear, so that a child may laugh at it rather than cry or feel scared.
5. Taking children from different economic groups and discovering their similarities and differences, what drives them, the differences in their lifestyles, what their dreams and fears are, noting what connections lie between this and compiling the finding into a tactile product. Something that exposes the reality of the vast economic divide.
6. Crafts book for kids. A product(like a book) that tells them stories about certain crafts in India, and also has ideas as to what they could do or make with that craft, with step-by-step instructions and a gallery of ideas. Basically an introduction to Indian crafts for kids.
7. To compile a product, (workbook, interactive toy) which is a compilation of creative exercises designed to make a child think creatively and out of the box. A product that pushes the child to think out of the box, and to practice lateral thinking and to come up with creative solutions and ideas.Some of the exercise, many of which will involve storytelling, can be compiled into a collection of stories for children.
8. A dictionary of sorts for young children (age 6-8) that will introduce them to terms and concepts concerned with the environment and preserving it.

1st meeting with review panel - 30th june 2009

The following points were discussed in the first meeting with the review panel:
1. why is the subject of the stories the moon? can there be other themes?
2. the theme can emerge after first meeting and discussion with children depending on what they would like to write about.
2. The project is uni dimension at the moment. it needs another layer, something that will bind the project together. you can think of ways of making the content educational.
3. instead of the workshops simply being a means to get children to generate stories, you need to find a way to make the workshops a part of my final product.
4. what age group of children are you going to work with? this is important because children will want to know about, talk and write about different things at different ages.
5. holding workshops with children requires organisation and planning. young children can be restless and particularly hard to deal with it. the workshops should be planned in such a way that both the kids and the parents are comfortable with the timing,duration and the location of the workshop. also, i must inform the parents as to WHY the workshops is important otherwise they have no incentive to let their child attend.

diploma project proposal - version 1

I. THE DESIGN BRIEF

PROJECT:
To create a book targeted at children, that is a compilation of fictional stories about the moon. The children of Bangalore through workshops designed for them will generate the content for the book. The stories, accompanied by illustrations will be complied into a tactile product in the form of an interactive book.


AREA OF EXPLORATION/STUDY:
The moon for centuries has a subject of constant study and observation. Many cultures including our own have given birth to myths and legends about the moon, its origin and its purpose. In some cultures its beauty has given it godly status, causing people to bow down before it and worship it.
The mysterious object in the sky invites much fascination and sparks the imagination of people, adults and children alike. Each person has private relationship with the moon and from this relationship emerge stories each unique in its own way.

SOLUTION:
My aim through this project is to involve children in oral discussions about the moon by means of workshops, which will be facilitated by me. These workshops will be designed to make children open up by sharing what it is that draws them towards the moon and eventually tell stories about the its origin and its purpose using their imagination. These stories interspersed with already existing myths and legends about the moon from different cultures will be compiled into a product in the form of a book.

The stories will be written in both English and Kannada and will have illustrations to accompany the text. Other interactive elements like pop ups and open flaps will also be integrated into the book The attractive imagery will serve its purpose by entertaining children who are also the targeted user for the end product.

My purpose through this project is get the child actively involved in the process of storytelling. A child’s creative energy is unmatched by an adult, it is their creative process that I am interested in observing, how and why they have used the symbols that they have. I plan to hold these workshops with children from different economic backgrounds (children from Drishya and children from upper middle class families) as I m sure that stories that emerge will be of a different nature. It will be interesting to observe the differences and also the similarities between these stories.

As a student of art and design I feel that storytelling is an extremely powerful tool, which all human beings, children and adults alike respond to positively. I am also interested in children as an audience. Design can play an important role in the education of kids, and by creating the right kind of material we can encourage them to free their minds and think creatively. To involve them in the design process can be a learning experience for both them and the designer.


II. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Subject related:

• What myths and legends exist about the moon today?
• Where and how did they originate?
• What significance does the moon carry in different cultures?
• What perceptions do children have of the moon?
• What relationship do children share with the moon?

Product related:
• What style of illustration will I use for my book?
• What interactive elements will I use? At what junction in the stories will these appear?
• What kind of paper will I use to create this book?
• How will this book be bound and packaged?


III. APPROACH/PROCESS

To begin my study of the moon I will read about literature that exists about the moon, be it myths, legends or short stories. I will observe the way the moon has been perceived by people of different cultures.
I will then design a workshop where young children will be asked to open up their perception of the moon. Over sessions I will ask them to narrate stories about the moon that the child has thought of him/herself.
I will then collect these stories and write them in English after which they will be translated in Kannada. Each story will be illustrated in a style chosen by me, with added interactive elements when required. I will create and test a mock up of the product with the targeted user group and incorporate feedback provided.
Finally I will create the actual product by printing using the chosen technique (screen printing, digital printing) and then continue with the binding and packaging.


IV. MATERIALS/RESOURCES


Internet:

People:
Children from Drishya
Children from Aditi Mallya School

Equipment:
Sound recorder, digital camera


V. LEARNING OUTCOMES

This project will give me an opportunity of having conversations / discussions with children and learn from them.
It will teach me how to take a facilitative role and lead a discussion.
It will give me experience in children book illustration.
It will help me explore the craft of creating books.