2.1 Introduction
A glass jar stands on my desk. It is labelled ‘Think Tank’ and contains a piece of white cotton wool. From time to time it makes an excursion with me to a three-thy workshop for teachers on the subject of…
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2. Thinking up a design
2.2 What might this ‘something’ be?
The help which is offered to teachers and designers in the Think Tank workshop involves the use of four decision-making aids. The aids, or referents as I would prefer to call them (because of how they function), are shown in…
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2.3 Referent 1: A set of criteria for a good design
If a designer is to come up with an optimum solution to the problem of thinking up a design, the existence of a set of criteria against which to test an idea that is being considered can be very helpful….
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2.4 Referent 2: The nth generation of the specified needs
Think about designing a course for teaching six-year-olds to tell the time. Let digital watches, cuckoo clocks and every other sort of clock chase each other through your mind . . . . Have you ever had to teach a…
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2.5 Referent 3: An appropriate model (an existing design)
Thinking up a design takes time: before the optimum design is found a lot of mental effort will be demanded. It can be nice to have something to accelerate the process. This is what referent 3: an appropriate model is…
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2.6 Referent 4: A response environment organizer
Sometimes in thinking up a design, you can have the best didactical intention (referent 1) in mind, your specification or databank (referent 2) filled with the right needs, an existing design (referent 3) sending out interesting signals, and yet you…
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2.7 Case study no. 2: Fighting forest fires safely
On repeated occasions in 1964 on the shuttle flight between La Guardia airport New York and National airport Washington DC, I was struggling with a course design problem. It seemed relatively simple and yet the solution (the choice of a…
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Some examples of Response environment organizers (REO)
Examples of REO’s in Tony’s book: A scheme: Case study no.1 Figure 2, Two examples (a poem and two pictures): paragraph 2.6 10 safety orders for firefighting (pictures): case study No2, A sentence of the study book: Case study no. 3,…
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