As part of my COETAIL course, I took on the assignment to redesign my resume in an infographic style. I already had a fairly unique looking resume (it is still up on my Resume page but will be archived soon) but I wanted to get it down to a single page. After many revisions, here is the latest version:
I like the little icons (thanks Noun Project!) as I think they add a clean visual to the document
I like the photo of me and my daughter as it shows a very important part of who I am without me having to articulate that I am a mom
I like the QR code link to my personal blog
Creating the ‘bar graph’ of things I believe in was actually really hard – the ranking of items – and I liked that this gave me the opportunity to reflect on what was important to me, philosophically
I am on the fence with the L/R Brain although I do like the idea of this. I just took an online quiz and that was the result and so I took the key words from the test analysis and created the little graphic.
I really like the “Let me help you” and “Hire me” titles (this idea ‘remixed from #23 on this list) and these titles helped me to focus on what I wanted to say about my skills and my purpose
I thought the timeline was an easy way to see where I have been although it does make it clear how much I jump around!
I really wanted to keep the concentric circles but I modified the wordiness of them and refined my purpose.
I have spent so long looking at elements of good design that it really was hard to narrow this down. I think the resume looks good (it is entirely done in Pages, btw, as I wanted to try not using anything ‘fancy’ but to see if I could create something in a fairly standard program). I do think I will also create a ‘slick professional’ resume that is less infographic-ish.
I think this would stand out in a pile of resumes – I just hope for the right reasons and not because the recruiter wanted to be sure to not take a second look! I think I would like to partner this resume with an online profile such as the one I am working on at about.me and I updated a previous one that I had created at re.vu
I have been doing a little ‘spring cleaning’ (wishful thinking given all the snow on the ground!) of my blog. I wanted a cleaner, tidier look to the blog and, inspired by my third COETAIL course, I wanted to makeover the graphics and create a more engaging visual display for my readers.
Here is an overview of the changes and the new blog format:
Next up, is an overhaul of my resume. I really like my current resume but it is good to keep it fresh and updated so I am looking forward to playing around with it. I want to incorporate a more infographic feel to the resume while still showcasing who I am – and the color orange (of course). This is going to be my assignment for my COETAIL course on Visual Design which I am loving. I think it bodes well that one of the course instructors blogged about my resume design when discussing this course a few years ago. I look forward to sharing with her the 2015 version, soon!
I was reading this article about a group of industrious young women who wanted to transform their neighborhood. They didn’t know how they were going to use the abandoned vacant lot in their community, just that they were going to design something to bring back hope to their area. Instead of sitting inside a building somewhere to plan their design, they just set up their planning space beside the lot and started there. What they found is that in doing that, they got buy-in from the community as well as ideas, feedback, support and help from people in the neighborhood who were keen to be a part of the project.
Move your design studio, or your classroom, or your city hall meeting, to the sidewalk. When you’re designing and building incredible things in public that no one thinks are possible—not just doing an art project or a mosaic, but actually solving a problem—people are inspired to come up to you and ask questions, and share advice or offer resources. There’s a seamless feedback loop with the community.
In my last school, we had a large atrium space that I would often utilize for group work. In doing so, I would get the kids out the classroom and into a space where people could stop by and ask them what they were working on. Other teachers used this space too and it is fast becoming less of an atrium and more of an “ideas pit” in which students can share their work and solicit new ideas and feedback on their projects.
How can we make this bigger?
Often we look for connections to our units for field trips. In an international setting where language can sometimes be a barrier, such trips may not be possible for all units. But what about taking a trip to the town center when planning your own city? Or going to a local park for ideas on shared space usage? What if the field trip was less about going to a particular museum or gallery and more about being out in the community and seeing what evolves from thinking visibly in a shared space?
How will you make learning more visible this year?
do you have faith in your ability to look at problems from different perspectives?
are you inspired by the people you spend your time with to find solutions to make things different?
can you use a process to unleash creative thought?
I like the simplicity of the process that has been laid out as a blueprint for Design Thinking. That is not to say Design Thinking itself is going to be simple! Design Thinking is thinking in a way that is similar to other goal oriented ways of doing, but this process seems so well designed (naturally!) and the support for teachers to incorporate this into their teaching seems endless!
Here is the Design Thinking Process:
If you go here to the Edutopia site, you will be introduced to this process in greater detail via Design Thinking for Teachers – Week One. There you will be able to join an online community of educators looking to gain a deeper understanding of Design Thinking. This starts by contributing an example of something you have seen that constitutes ‘good design’ and explaining why this is so. I chose these two things to add:
Both of these items take something we are all familiar with and then add something creative, thoughtful, whimsical, interesting and fun. Who wouldn’t want to showcase their lego masterpieces knowing they were not going to fall off the shelf? Who wouldn’t want to watch dice roll as the dice “watched” them back! The range of other examples of good design added by other educators is enormous.
Move on to step two: download the week one challenge, do it and then post about it. Do this! I have printed it and I am going to do it while I watch some more Olympics! I am tempted not to do it but I think it is good to go through the same sort of process our kids go through.
The final part of Week One is to download the Educator Guide to the Design Thinking Process and reflect on it. The guide is phenomenal. Not only does it outline the five phases of Design Thinking (above) it breaks this phases down into smaller steps and outlines why you are doing them, how doing it will impact your overall design, what your desired outcome is and more! It reminds you of the importance of communicating with others who may share the same frustrations that have led you to want to re-design something, it discusses the value of group work and defines this as working with at least one other person, it gives you tips for how much time you might expect to need, and adds in a few suggestions if you get stuck. Quite simply, it is a stunning piece of design in and of itself.
Take a look at the resources and sign up for the challenge. It started today and runs for five weeks with 2-5 hours of work per week. Here is the upcoming schedule:
Update!
I just finished week one of Design Thinking for Educators. It really is brilliant. I learned a lot from doing the mini design challenge:
1. To listen more
2. To think about the needs of others
3. To focus on finding solutions for other people that are outside the box
I also learned a lot from what other people posted. Having used the IDEO Design Thinking method, I am so much more confident in using it with my kids. Much more powerful to come from a place of “Hey, I have actually used this myself” rather than “I hear this is good…”. It is not too late to sign up – and you can do it while watching the olympics (promise!).
Did you know that the most creative companies have centralized bathrooms? This is the line that totally grabbed my attention when I first read it. Can you imagine? Makes me think of Ally McBeal, actually!
Creativity is the buzz word of the moment – at least inside my own at head – and so I wanted to share a couple of things with you to ponder:
Imagine
The video below is a 90 second preview of Jonah Lehrer’s book, Imagine. He describes creativity as “our natural state”. Love it. The video itself is worth watching for the sheer brillance in the use of graphics at speed to convey a message. So good! This book is on my wish list and ever-growing pile of ‘books I need to read’. A quick peruse of his website and he is quickly climbing to the top of my Fabulous People Club list too!
Yesterday on Twitter, GOOD asked the question “Define creativityin five words or less”. I added my tweet to the chorus:
I then went on to type a list of what everyone else had to say and turned that into this. What words would you add?
One of the workshops I went to at the NAIS Conference was on The Taxonomy of Creative Design by Peter Nilsson. The workshop was very thorough, with underlying the message (bear in mind you are getting a major summary here – please visit his website for a more full understanding of the work he has been doing) was that in a way similar to Blooms Taxonomy, we can actually have a Taxonomy of Creative Design. This was interesting if a bit analytical and ‘boxy’ for my liking. What I did like about it was that it gives a framework to teachers who are now asking “Well, how can I be more creative, add assignments of a more creative nature and extend creative thought in my classroom?”. Peter shared some examples of work that would fall in each category and this is an area I want to pursue further. His taxonomy looks like this with ‘curation’ at the point where novelty in form and novelty in content meet.
That leaves me with three last ‘gems’ on the topic of creativity. If you have seen them before, you know where they are when you are ready to look at them again! If they are all new to you, then you are in for a treat!
Steal Like An Artist is something I came upon about a year ago. I love it. It is now a book and the only thing I don’t like about that is that the content used to be free and now you get to read the first few points and then are asked to ‘buy the book’. Now, I know artists need food and shelter and trust me when I say the book is slick and sexy and square (love square books!) and that you will want to buy one, but as my guy Seth Godin points out,
If I give you an idea, a blog post, a PDF and just say here, take it, spread it, it starts by its nature as being uneven. And since it’s uneven it can be a gift. And when it’s a gift, it’s art. And when it’s art, it can make a change. ~ Seth Godin
I’m not picking on you, Austin, just sharing some Seth Godin love! The book is beautiful but more importantly, it is so cool in the way it talks about how everything really does come from something else.
One of my favorite parts is when he talks about creating your own genealogy of creativity – your creative family tree. Immediately, the crafter/art teacher/elementary school teacher came together in me: Start by taking all the people, things, passions you love and arrange them all at the top of a page. Now make another copy and lay them on top – you might even want to have a pile of three or four of each (you will see why in a minute!). So, have you got it – Steve Jobs, Picasso, Running Shoes, iPad, Art Supplies, Kandinsky, Jamie Oliver, Ansel Adams. These are my ‘grandparents’. Now, move ’em around. Mix ’em up. What would Steve Jobs, Jamie Oliver and Kandinsky make together? What about Kandinsky and Ansel Adams? Running Shoes and an iPad? Bring your passions together in weird and unusual ways and see what you end up with!
If you are going to Steal Like An Artist, then you should probably know that Everything Is A Remix – which leads us to Kirby Fergusson, creator of the recently finished four part web series “Everything Is A Remix”. He describes Part Four as some of his best work – and it is pretty great and very much worth your time. He begins by saying:
Copy, transform and combine. It’s who we are, it’s how we live, and of course, it’s how we create. Our new ideas evolve from the old ones. ~ Kirby Fergusson.
FYI, His new work, which has just been funded by Kickstarter donations, is called “This Is Not A Conspiracy Theory” which is designed to give perspective as to ‘where we are now’ with the first episode due out before the US Election. This is a totally FREE project that Kirby has opened up to be remixed as people see fit. Kickstarter is a great way in and of itself to ‘fund and follow’ creativity, describing itself as “the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects”. This is a treasure trove of good stuff waiting to be discovered!
Finally, these videos blow my mind every time I watch them. Pure creative genius. Enjoy!
sonya terborg 