Contents
Presenters
Professor Clive Holtham – Professor of information Management, Bayes Business School
Monica Biagioli – Senior Lecturer Design Innovation, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Workshop
Generative AI currently dominates the debates about learning at the higher education level, and is being embedded in teaching and learning at a very fast pace. But knowledge, learning and relationships cannot be wholly encompassed by a digital world based around brain metaphors. We anticipate a renewed interest in analogue methods of classroom engagement which forefront embodiment in learning.
The specific Unfold zine method was developed by a colleague in art and design (University of the Arts London), then evolved over five years through collaboration with the Bayes Business School. The aim was to develop a flexible form of engagement that could be used not only in small workshops but also large, raked lecture rooms. When COVID arrived, the method had to be applied online, where its flexibility enabled the development of the method to continue. Unfold is a learning design process geared to adult learning and the hands-on workshop will be based around two worked examples – the first being the most basic form of paper-folded zine, usable economically in almost any physical classroom situation. The second demonstrates a more refined partly pre-printed zine.
Workshop participants will work on, and discuss, each of these. The emphasis is on experiencing and dialogue, based on using the two examples, not on presenting theory.
Paper folding has featured in European educational innovation for some 200 years, though mostly for small children (Blasche, 1825; Iurescu, 2021; Froebel, Montessori, 1912, Dewey, 1934). Many of our experiences since 2019 have been in professional development, in parallel with degree courses.
Some paper-folding innovations in higher education have emphasised the playful learning perspective (Parvin, 2024), and this is indeed one of the eight dimensions of our Unfold framework. Our overall emphasis though is on what some generically call “manipulatives” (Byrne et al, 2023) – designing physical objects which stimulate forms of thinking and active learning. Other relevant terminology includes “active experience”; Lozada and Carro (2016) explore “how cognition arises emerges from experiential (enactive) processes, which contributes to the understanding of how embodied agency facilitates conceptual processing”.
Prerequisites: writing instrument (essential); drawing/colouring (optional)
Attendees will gain:
- Practical experience of use
- Key points to implement next semester, as beginner workshop leaders
- Raise aspirations relating to later more complex/sustained use
References
Blasche, Bernhard Heinrich (1825) Papyro-Plastics; or, The art of modelling in paper; being an instructive amusement for young persons of both sexes. 2nd edition, Boosey & Sons, London
Byrne, E. M., Jensen, H., Thomsen, B. S., & Ramchandani, P. G. (2023). Educational interventions involving physical manipulatives for improving children’s learning and development: A scoping review. Review of Education, 11, 1-42
Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. Minton, Balch.
Fröbel, F. (1887). The education of man (W. N. Hailmann, Trans.). D. Appleton & Company.
Iurascu, Ilinca.( 2021). Papierdenken: Blasche, Fröbel, and the lessons of nineteenth-century paper modeling. Goethe Yearbook 28 (1): 209–24.
Lozada, M. and Carro, N. (2016) ‘Embodied Action Improves Cognition in Children: Evidence from a Study Based on Piagetian Conservation Tasks’, Frontiers in Psychology, 7.
Montessori, M. (1912) The Montessori Method. Translated by A.E. George. New York: Frederick A. Stokes. Available at: https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/montessori/method/method.html
Parvin N, Rouse R. (2024) Feminist Philosophical Toys: Playful Companions and Live Theorization. Hypatia. 2024;39(3):465-491. doi:10.1017/hyp.2023.123
Ponticorvo, M. et al. (2019) ‘Multisensory Educational Materials: Five Senses to Learn’, in T. Di Mascio et al. (eds) Methodologies and Intelligent Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning, 8th International Conference. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 45–52. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98872-6_6.
