Friday, November 27, 2009

Learning trades skills - using multimodal discourse analysis

Doing some reading in preparation for next year’s research project which I now have some funding from the CPIT foundation to kick start. It is one of a series of projects on studying the learning of trades people using multimodal discourse analysis. The foundation has provided enough money to purchase hardware (2 digital videos, 6 digital voice recorders) plus research hours for one trades tutor (the redoubtable Flip Leijten) and myself.


Not much available but found Transmitting Craft Knowledge: eliciting and passing on the skills of craft masters with the help of interactive media. This project at Sheffield Hallam University draws on expertise in the role of tacit (unspoken) knowledge in design, interactive learning materials, contemporary craft metalwork, video production and human computer interface design, all based in the Cultural, Communication and Computing Research Institute.

"practice-led" in the sense that much of the investigation is pursued through making and evaluating things. The relationship between creative practice and development of new knowledge has been a feature of this and other design research at the university where creative practices may be an important feature of the methods, but the focus is on developing useful knowledge that has implications beyond the problems of designing.

youtube video by Nicola Wood on clog making, baskets, wooden bowls provides a sense of how some of the research was completed.

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