Practical Examples
Thinkercubes and Sway with Anders Melbye Boelt
Practical Examples
Thinkercubes and Sway with Anders Melbye Boelt
Facts
- Lecturer: Anders Melbye Boelt
- Faculty: SSH
- Department: Department of Culture and Learning
- Education: IT, Learning and Organizational Change
- Course: Interaction Design
- Semester: 8th semester
- Number of students: 20
- Teaching format: Presentations combined with exercises and students presentations of their own work
- Learning technology: Tinkercubes, Sway
Anders Melbye Boelt used Tinkercubes as a brainstorming tool and as a method to encourage students to work with alternative materials in their thinking processes.
Sway was used to create a portfolio to teach the students that an academic assignment can consist of more than text and images.
- Teaching took place in X Lab, which provides access to modelling clay, playdough, coloured paper, a 3D printer, etc. However, in previous years, students had not used these materials, perhaps because they perceived tools such as modelling clay or LEGO as insufficiently academic. The objective was to change this mindset and make use of the room and its resources in new ways. Tinkercubes were introduced to encourage students to consider that alternative materials can be part of their thinking process.
- The academic content of the course is suited for practical exercises and to challenging the traditional way of producing academic projects or assignments, so the dissemination is not rely solely on text or images. Sway is well suited for creating a portfolio that can include text and images but also audio and video recordings. It was therefore introduced to encourage students to work with other modalities in their submissions.
A. The teaching consisted of five sessions of four hours each. Students were asked to design a “tool” that could be used in a potential teaching space. The term “tool” was understood broadly. Instead of starting with the object itself, it was important that students first considered what the object should support in a pedagogical practice.
Tinkercubes were introduced as a tool for brainstorming in the first session. Students were asked to use it as a physical manifestation of the reality in which their tool would be applied. Since Tinkercubes is nothing more than an empty wooden frame, students could build or imagine the teaching space by using other materials available in the room. This facilitated a group conversation about the possible problem their tool should help solve. Below are examples of how students worked to fill the Tinkercubes.
B. The teaching also included five sessions of four hours each. Students were asked to use Sway to create a process and product portfolio, which also served as their submission. The course was passed through active participation, and the portfolio documented this participation. Through Sway, students could produce something beyond text. For example, they were encouraged to record conversations and include them to document the process. One group also chose to include video.
A. Student reactions to Tinkercubes were diverse. One group was deeply frustrated about having to use the empty wooden frame at all. Three groups were moderately enthusiastic, and one was very enthusiastic. Resistance among some students was not necessarily a disadvantage. Perhaps for some, it may simply have been a necessary step towards being open to alternative ways of working.
For the lecturer, there is sometimes a need to try something different and see how it goes, because the existing approach does not seem optimal. However, it can feel difficult to take the leap when you do not know whether it will succeed.
B. A major advantage of Sway is the ability to work with different forms of expression. The group that was most enthusiastic included a video recording of a long group discussion, which was interesting to observe.
Technical difficulties can, however, be an obstacle, and there were a few occasions when the tool did not work.
A. Students were surprisingly sceptical. One conclusion is that if you want them to use alternative tools such as Tinkercubes, the activity must be strictly structured by the lecturer. Students need clear instructions on what to do and when, likely every time the Tinkercube is used. Free play after an initial introduction will probably not produce great results. The idea in this course was that students could ideally have used the wooden frame throughout as a form of role‑play to help visualise issues and facilitate conversations, but none of the groups chose to do so. If this idea is to succeed, it must be clearly structured by the lecturer.
This experiment reminded me that lecturers should dare to try new things. It is okay if it does not necessarily succeed. For me, it made the work more exciting.
B. Sway is a suitable tool for portfolio work, and you should not hesitate to try it. It is very user‑friendly and largely self‑explanatory when you start.
C. Both Sway and Tinkercubes were recommended by a good colleague from CDUL, which is also a great place to find inspiration for your teaching.
Students were given a text on the content of a portfolio. The following text was used:
Lund, B. (2008). Portfolio i et lærings- og uddannelsesperspektiv. In Portfolio i et lærings- og uddannelsesperspektiv ([1. oplag]). Aalborg Universitetsforlag