Jessica's IDM Blog

Production Process Week 5, Video Task To me, design thinking is the process of generating ideas for a design concept.  In the first video (https://youtu.be/gHGN6hs2gZY), ‘What is Design Thinking? An Overview’, Jonathan explains that design thinking is a philosophy and a set of tools to help us solve problems creatively. This can be used if a company is trying to create something new or when a company or team is trying to solve a complex problem.  I had learned that there are 5 steps to this process. The first step is empathising. This is about knowing and understanding the people or business we are trying to design the product for. In the video we are asked what is their problem?’ and ‘what do these people do?’. These questions allow us to build a persona and fully understand who we are designing for. Step two talks about defining. This breaks down everything in step one where we have to ask ‘what are the users needs’ and ‘what are the insights we use’. This shows us what sort...

 Media Literacy Week 4, Reading Task While reading the three different pieces of reading, I gained a lot of insight from each of them. I found the use of statistics in the first opinion piece, ‘Digital media companies found lacking in helping users understand the online environment’ written by Dr Niamh Kirk very useful as it gave me a better understanding of the numbers. I found it really interesting that only 62% of people surveyed had concerns about misinformation online. I would have personally expected a higher percentage considering how much the internet has changed and developed over the last couple of years.

Digital Media Week 4, Video task  Before I had watched the three videos, my idea of Digital Media was any form of media such as video, audio, or software that is in a digital form. There are many things that separate traditional media and digital media. The main thing I think is that traditional is a very one-way communication while digital has such a broad platform to communicate to others. Digital media can also be changed and make an original piece look almost just as authentic. From the first video, I had learned that digital media is not only media that is in a digital form, it is also a way of connecting and interacting with people all around the world. The video explains that we are all part of an infinite network and that we can connect to anyone as easily as they can connect to us. This allows us to find people with common interests and I have experience with that through the social network Twitter. My experience with connecting with people online has been so interesting. ...

Active Reading Week 3, Reading task I found out by reading the paper 'Using Student-Constructed Questions to Encourage Active Reading' written by Ernest Balajthy, different learning activities and how we as students can use these during reading tasks that may seem tedious or uninteresting.  I especially trusted this article because it was published by the International Literacy Association and Wiley in February of 1984. I had learned that some studies suggest that retention is automatic with comprehension or it can be influenced by interacting factors. It has been said that there are four factors of interactive learning from the nature of the material, the characteristics of the learner, the learning activities applied to the task by which learning is measured.  I found it quite interesting that studies have said that retention can vary quantitatively and qualitatively when one of the four factors changes.  I can understand that questioning as a learning activity can impr...

  Study Skills Week 3, Video tasks In the series of videos that I watched, I learned many study skills from them to set myself up for success and make my college life a little bit easier. In the first video, 'The 3 Best science-based study tips' uses many different resources from universities and professional studies. Mike states that he is a doctor working in California. He shows evidence-based learning strategies about how to study for exams and how to train our brains effectively while backing everything up by science.  What I learned is that the more brainpower and effort one uses, the more retention one will get. This is because you can learn more under difficult conditions since it would be harder to forget. This had made me realise why many people in my life had told me that trying to study lying down or on your bed won't work as well, this now makes sense as to why.  There is a study by Kornell that states ultimately quizzing yourself is a great strategy for study...