User:FLEM/thesisoutline

What do I want to write about?

Last year I started questioning my notebook's practice and tried to build a new paper device that would satisfy better the needs of my brain in that moment. To get there I asked myself what were the problems in the device I was using and how changing something small could already improve my use of the notebook. I then wondered: "Why are we all using a device with the same structure? And what impact does it have on our learning, thinking and living?".

I believe this is really a personal matter and that every individual should or could find their personal answers to this. How can I, through research and explorative sessions, discover more about the topic and create a generative structure that can be interpreted by every person in their own way to promote creativity and self-expression?

The thesis will analyse the use of notebooks in contemporary society and why writing is important for humans. It will research, from a sociological point of view, learning processes and learning types and the connection between writing and learning; how the act of making can help this discovery.

Then, it will focus on the arrival of the industrial revolution and how it changed humans' approach to making, how capitalism and consumerism changed our vision on notebooks use and how going back to making could save us from the consequences of these historical changes; what is standardisation and their impact on humans' existence.

The final chapter will talk about making as an act of subversion: how we can create our own narrative and our personal perception of the world through the act of making our own tool and making the creation experience as part of the learning process.

Table of content

1. History on the use of notebooks

1.1 Note taking methods

1.2 Why humans write?

2. Making as pedagogic practice

2.1 How writing is connected to learning?

2.2

2.3 Learning types in sociological studies

2.4 How making and learning are interconnected?

2.5 The self-learning process

3. Industrial revolution and consumerism

3.1 The Arts and Crafts Movement

3.2 Consumerist habits and psychology: why do we all wear the same shoes?

3.3 The process of creation after industrialisation

3.4 Personalisation vs standardisation in society: why do we create standardised objects? How do they interfere with humans' existence?

4. Building our own tool: how making becomes a process of self-discovery

4.1 Making as an act of subversion

4.2 The CES (Collaborative Explorative Sessions): an overview based on observation

4.3 The process for others (analysis of texts that my case studies will write to analyse their personal process towards a notebook that works for them)

→ keep it separate

4.4 Instructional piece: How to create your notebook. → the outcome of the thesis and the grad proj together

Why?

One of the main urgency I have to talk about this topic is that both from my personal experience and experiences of others during growth, standardised learning types are a big problem in education. Students are all the same, needs the same time to read a text, understand it and to talk about it properly. Obviously, it is not exactly like this. We are supposed to satisfy standards and generalisations through our entire lives, with someone stronger to stay on their track, some others more fragile, especially if we talk about young humans that are still building up on their personality and still discovering about their abilities and strategies.

I don't like that we are all the same, that expressing who we are is not part of daily life but it's a shaming process that has a lot of impact in the growth.

I would like this research to be a sort of manifesto for a general context but using the notebook as a  "metaphor": who are you? how does your brain work? how do your ideas come along? what are your needs from a tool that society provided in a standardised form?

It is not only about making a notebook, is how making a notebook will put us in the position of questioning who we are and the objects we use, why we use them and how something made for us from us could look like.

How?

The thesis will follow the graduation project alongside: it will research on theoretical studies to create a context and answer my questions, analyse the results and documentation that will follow the workshops that are part of my graduation project.

As this process is really personal, I will not be able to produce charts or standardised results; instead, I will be working on observational essays that will try to create a more general overview on the outcomes of the processes of the workshops.

3 key issues/research questions?

Can the structure of the interface we use for note taking and thinking processes change our learning results?

What is the impact of making and writing in learning?

Are learning and thinking devices standardised?

What does happen to the user when they are the creator of their own tool?

How the act of making their own tool can help users to better understand what they need from the tool?

How the materiality of the objects help learning about ourselves?

Bibliography

Blair, A. (2004). Note Taking as an Art of Transmission. Critical Inquiry, 31(1), pp.85–107.

Gibson, M. (2019). Crafting communities of practice: the relationship between making and learning. Int J Technol Des Educ 29, 25–35

Hamzah, F., Sharifudin, S., Kamarudin, A. and Azlan, M. (2016). The use of personalized notebook among first semester students of UiTM. National Conference of Research on Language Education 2016.

Illich, I.D. (1985). Tools for conviviality. London: Marion Boyars.

‌Kealy-Morris, E. (2015). The bookbinding workshop: Making as collaborative pedagogic practice. Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education, [online] 14(2), p.119.

Korn, P. (2015). Why We Make Things and Why It Matters. David R. Godine Publisher.

Sanders E. B.-N. and Stappers P. J. (2014). Convivial design toolbox: generative research for the front end of design. Amsterdam: Bis.

Sennett, R. (2009). The Craftsman. Penguin UK.

https://www.thecollector.com/industrial-revolution-arts-and-crafts/