'A Sense of Place'

 Over the past couple of weeks I have gradually been developing my ideas for my final Vis Com project. Admittedly, to begin with I didn't have a clue where to start. However, after some of the sessions with Susie and using what I remembered from the sessions with Mandy I began to brain storm some ideas. In one of the sessions with Susie we made a collage from cut-outs from magazines of things of importance to us, and in another session we made a 'window' in a group of 4 with 5 things that mean something to us. I then used these as inspiration for my sketch book and final project, along with ICT skills we had used in the previous months with Mandy.

As mentioned in my sketch book, I am admittedly not the most artistically talented person by any means, although I do enjoy painting and attempting to make things. I tried to include a mixture of digital photographs, ICT (including photograph effect changes), paintings and my clay final piece. I used 'Wordle' to brainstorm some ideas for what I could use for my final piece which I found useful as I could go back to that to remind myself of ideas.
Once I had started my sketch book I found my ideas kept flowing then and found the task easier than I had first imagined.
I had many different ideas for my final piece and wanted it to be as imaginative as possible, although restricted by my artistic/ICT abilities. However, during the Easter holidays I visited an arts/crafts centre in Mid Wales with my family, so thought I would take the opportunity to use their facilities which I was unable to have at home. There were choices of paints, crafts, wood working and clays. I thought the clay would be the best option as it was something not many people would have the option to make for their final piece, due to needing a clay oven. I enjoyed making the piece as it involved messy clay and painting. I used the inspiration from the photograph by Lionel Playlard which I have included in my sketch book. I decided to show points of importance, mainly childhood for example my school and my home on my clay piece. However, it did break when taking it out of the clay oven as it may have been in there too long, but you can still see the images clearly so it doesn't really affect it. 

PROJECT: bubble

I used www.bubbl.us which we had used in sessions with Mandy, to gain some ideas of what to base my project around. I found this useful as when I was writing some down, more and more ideas came to me, so by using this I was able to keep a memory of them so I could go back to it.

Visual Communication - Metaphors

I have decided to put my blogs about Metaphors together as I believe it shows how they all link together clearer.

In the first session with Susie we looked at 2 different famous artist paintings. The first one was, 'Ich Habe Angst' by Rosemarie Trockel 1993. 

When first looked at it is hard to understand what the image is about. 'Ich Habe Angst' translates roughly into something like, 'I have fear'. Once that is understood it is easier to have an opinion on what the image is about. It looks like it is set at an altar. To many people religeous buildings can be scary places, and to same they are the most homely. My opinion is that it could be about somebody having fear there when others feel so welcome there, maybe they are calling out for help, whether it be from God, or from other people.

The second image we looked at was 'The Scream' by Edvard Munch in 1893. Noteably a long time before the previous one. As a class we all sat around together and discussed what we think the image is about. We noted the people in the background look like they are walking away from the 'scream', and everything else around him seems a bit mixed up, hense the swirling lines in the painting.








The second theme we looked at in Susie's sessions were metaphors. At first I didn't understand how this could be linked to 'a sense of place' but as the sessions went on it became clear how the work and tasks we were doing could be linked in with our project.
For the first session we worked in pairs or small groups to make a collage of different cut-outs from magazines to display things that relate and had meaning to us. Some of the images we found were just things we liked, such as make up, cars etc but other things had more significat meaning such as family and friends, however we found they all linked in together. We split our collage into 3 different sections; home, university and things we liked. Our home section included images of beds, and homely scenes like cosy fireplaces. The university section had images such as books, and a butterfly which we made into our own metaphor for the butterfly flying into a new start, as we have done with a new start in September coming to University. Finally, the things we liked section consisted of images of partying, socialising and shopping. 

 

Above you can see the collage. Once we had finished, we had to present it to our class and explain why we have included the things that we have.

  

The next task was 'metaphors in advertising'. We were given a number of advertisements from worldwide organisations and companies that used metaphors in their adverts. Some of them were shocking images, and some of them were funny. We had to take the images and try and work out what the image was trying to say. Some were easier to guess than others, as some were charities for example against animal testing, so the image was closely linked with that. After looking on the internet briefly after the session I found many more adverts with a strong image. 

 The images above are ones I found myself on the internet. They are from the German Animal Rights Organisation NOAH. They show the animals being captured, tortured and locked up just for humans to have perfume. I think this is an excellent example of images in advertising. 

For the second part of this session we listened to Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech. Whilst listening to this we had to write down all the metaphors that he used in this. I was quite suprised how many metaphors he did use, but I thought they were very strong metaphors and expressed his point very well. Some of these metaphors were;

• 'Let us not seek to  satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred'
• 'We cannot walk alone'
• 'It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream'

Policy and Practice Guest Lecturer - Dr Russel Grigg 16/1/12

This lecture was based around Estyn and what they do. Obviously, it was imporant to first know what Estyn was. 'Estyn inspects quality and standards in education and training providers in Wales' (www.estyn.gov.uk). This includes; nursery, primary, secondary, independent and special schools (including pupil referral units), community learning and work-based learning environments.
Estyn is funded by the National Assembly for Wales under section 104 of the Government of Wales Act 1998.

I found this lecture interesting as I didn’t fully understand everything that Estyn inspections involved and knew this lecture would be useful for my assignment coming up in which i am going to be involving inspections. For example, I did not realise that Estyn provide advice to the Welsh Assembly Government on quality and standards in education and training in Wales.
Estyn also promote the spread of good practice in education and training.

Estyn is linked with OFSTED who are also an inspection body. When inspecting they look at issues such as How good are outcomes? Including standard and well-being. How good is provision? Including learning experiences, teaching, care, support and guidance. Also, how good are leadership and management? Including, leadership, improving quality and resource management.
As you can see from this there are a lot of aspects included within Estyn and OFSTED which I did not think of. 

Dr Russel Grigg also told us that any school inspection report is available on the Estyn website which I found interesting and think this is a good thing that they are available as it may encourage schools to want to improve more, and also to see how other schools are better which also influences them on how to improve.

References:

http://www.estyn.gov.uk/english/

Policy and Practice Guest Lecturer - Mike Day 28/2/12

This lecture was held by Mike Day who is a Cabinet Member. The main aim of this lecture was to gain a greater understanding of Education Policy - A personal and practical perspective.
The first discussion was 'what is Education?’ Although we had already done a lot about this in our previous session with Andy I found it beneficial to hear somebody from a political backgrounds opinion on what education is. Some of the suggestions were political options, tradition and values, socio-economic objectives, and fundamental choices.
Next he discussed what education is for, with the answers, to create a workforce, to produce rounded individuals and to keep people off the streets. Whilst all these answers do have a point, I agree with the first more than others, as supported by Jeffs and Smith (1999) 'Education is is future-oriented - it is about development and growth even when we are studying the past.'

Education policy is needed to guide operational decisions and actions. Also education policy is important in order to set out a framework for teachers to work by as the national curriculum is involved with educational policy. If a teacher had no policy to follow, they could be teaching children anything, or nothing. 

To show the importance of education policy we then went on to discuss the types of policies we may not think about immediately and examples of education policies at different levels.
At a UK level, policies such as compulsory school ages, pay and condition of responsibilities of local education authorities, parents and schools.
Welsh Government policy level - includes foundation phase, choice of no SATS, no academies, and the choice of HE tuition fees and the pupil deprivation grant. Some of these are not available in other parts of the UK, therefore making them Welsh Government Policies.
Local Authorities - includes the organisation and the number of schools and school places, improving standards within the schools, offer advice and guidelines to schools. Also one important local authority policy is 'making arrangements to identify children and young people of compulsory school age missing education within their area' (Education and Inspections Act 2006).
School and Governing Body level - deal with polices such as school uniform, school start and finish times, raft of policies on social and personal education, child protection and SEN, also the school improvements plan (SIP) which sets out how the school can improve what it is doing. 

Mike Day finished the lecture by discussing with us who should develop policies; politictions or practicioners? There are arguments for both sides, for example politictions are there to 'represent the people' so should they be able to speak for the people, however polititions are not all experts in the education policy fields so would it be better for practitioners to decide? I agree with Mike Day that there should be 'A meeting of the minds' with both sides involved with developing policies.


Reference:
Jeffs T and Smith M (1999). http://www.infed.org/foundations/f-educ.htm
Education and Inspections Act 2006 (2006).

Policy and Practice Guest Lecturer - Nick Bennett 6/3/12

This lecture was from Nick Bennett who is the Principal at Gower College, Swansea. The lecture was based on an overview of further education in Wales. Firstly Nick Bennett discussed with us what further education is for, which led to us having two main reasons which were, to underpin social justice and support the economy. Within these reasons we then discussed further reasons which would be included in the two main factors. Which were as follows;

• Underpin social justice
  - widening access
  - second chance at education
  -civic duty
  -financial support
  -community regeneration
  -fulfilment of potential
• Support the Economy
  -employer engagement
  -work-based learning
  -business regeneration
  -international partnership
  -entrepreneurship
  -workforce development

Nick Bennett also talked about how some of these factors would not have been thought of years ago, such as workforce development and work-based learning. These factors would not have been thought of years ago as business' would not have had the opportunities to improve the staff they had and would have just been trained up within the business itself, or the member of staff would have just been sacked and replaced with somebody who could already do the skill required.  'Workforce development involves recruiting, developing and retaining the staff and volunteers needed to help an organisation reach its objectives. Training, qualifications, induction, supervision, appraisals, coaching, mentoring, reading and reflection are all part of ‘workforce development''. NCVCCO(2008). 

He then went on to discuss the Welsh Governments Programme: Sept 2011.

This programme encouraged the merges of FE colleges which enabled closer collaboration between further education and higher education providers, also working with FE providers to establish a new strategic management. Leighton Andrews (2011) 'Performance will be our driver, with a continued focus on improving performance and quality across the board and at every level.'

The point Nick Bennett discussed that I found most interesting was when he talked about how there are too many courses and qualification available, in which I agree. There are over 5,000 qualifications available in Wales, with often only a couple of people in one class. I believe this is a waste of funding when there are often very similar courses available with larger class numbers. However, Nick Bennett did inform us that changes are being made and there are going to be cuts in some minor classes and funding will go into larger courses.

References:

Leigton Andrews (2011), Education Minister for Wales.

National Council of Voluntary Child Care Organisations (NCVCCO), (2008). London

Policy and Practive Guest Speaker - Jane Davidson 20/3/12

This session was held by Jane Davidson who was the Education Minister in Wales for 7 years. I found this lecture interesting as Jane had lots of experience in the subject and had also been a teacher for many years. This session was based around the background of the national curriculum and the changes within it.
The national curriculum was introduced in 1989 during Margaret Thatcher's reign following the Education Reform Act 1988. In this curriculum all students were taught in the same way and it was required that all children were to be taught a basic curriculum of Religious Studies and the National Curriculum. The purpose of the National Curriculum was for all children to receive opportunities to learn and achieve. Pupils were required to sit SAT tests at 7, 11 and 14 years old.
During the 1997 referendum change of government there were changes made to the education system.  '"Education, education, education" was how Tony Blair set out his priorities for office - as Labour campaigned to put classrooms at the top of the political agenda.' according to BBC news. The government believed that the curriculum was too structured and the curriculum of the time was 'training children, not teaching them'. It was too restrictive and did not allow the widening of pupils learning.
In 1999, the national assembly for Wales brought in the 'pre 16' and 'post 16' committees. These committees were set for 2 different groups of people as clearly education format is different between pre and post 16.
Rhodri Morgan (2005) believed that 'Education is the route out of poverty'. He believed that education liberates talents, and the more educated a nation is the wealthier it can be.
Overall I found this lecture very helpful in increasing my knowledge of the background of the education system and found it interesting to see how different education is today to when the national curriculum first began. After looking on the welsh government website as advised to do so by Jane, I came across this quote from the 'learning country' document which I think sums up why it is important to continue reviewing the education system throughout the years. 'Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. But with vision and action you change the world' Arthur Barker (2007).


References:
Arthur Barker, (2007) The Star Thrower


http://wales.gov.uk/dcells/publications/publications/guidanceandinformation/learningcountry/learningcountryvis-e.pdf?lang=en