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WHAT CAN GRAPHIC DESIGN OF STATIC TEACHING RESOURCES LEARN FROM COMMERCIAL FILM AND MEDIA IN ORDER TO BE MORE RELEVANT FOR TODAY'S CHILDREN? by Tetiana Koldunenko Master of Design (by Research) - UNSW Australia­ October 2014 Abstract This thesis initially describes a new ‘digital age’ for children; an age specifically identified as one where children consume and interact with digital media on a daily basis. It describes a ‘gap’ that continues to widen between what is defined as ‘static’ and ‘dynamic’ media – as the latter continues to develop at an accelerating rate. Research within this thesis supports the view that traditionally static visuals, still used in today’s teaching resources, do not engage or provide information to children in a way that aligns with more contemporary modes of communication with which they are now more familiar. The thesis presents a body of research to explore ways in which graphic designers could improve existing teaching resources to increase children’s motivation to learn. Chapter 2 begins by defining what is described as ‘static’ and ‘dynamic’ media. It presents a short history of dynamic media in order to explain the technical and commercial forces that exist which continue to drive its proliferation and uptake, especially amongst young children. It argues that children are attracted to a mix of both visual and non-visual characteristics of dynamic media: realism, colour, movement, appealing characters, exaggerated emotions, etc. In contrast, the history of static media is characterised by limited development and progression. The research is further focused by providing an overview of a selection of traditional Mathematics textbooks, illustrating how, in general, static Maths teaching resources (still used today) are increasingly outdated and in need of improvement regarding internal layout, illustrations, etc. It is emphasised how such learning materials have experienced little change over time and are clearly not what children now respond to. As a result of the initial introductory overviews and definitions within the thesis, together with a thorough literature review of relevant fields, a specific research question is formed: what can the graphic design of teaching resources learn from contemporary commercial film and media, in order to become more relevant for today’s children? The two main goals of this research are to: (i) make suggestions of how graphic designers can adopt the design elements of commercial film and media and apply them to teaching resources in order to make them more relevant to today’s children; (ii) demonstrate how a newly designed practical outcome – a set of cards and board game – could be used by teachers/ educators to support contemporary teaching methods for the foundation year Mathematics curriculum (kindergarten). Chapter 3 gives justification for a particular graphic design approach to produce revised practical outcomes, as well as the analysis and explanation of a number of visual and non-visual design elements. Following is an overview of the current Mathematics school curriculum in order to clarify what children are required to learn in their kindergarten year at school (in NSW, Australia). The chapter progresses to give a description of how new methods could be applied to answer the overall research question. It describes how a number of concepts could be taught using static printed materials (cards, board game) that have been developed using dynamic media design elements and which goals are being met in terms of contemporary teaching methods discussed in Chapter 2. Chapter 4 provides an evaluation and conclusion of the entire research project and its practical graphic design outcomes. The chapter aims to argue the case that: a new design strategy is needed to improve existing ‘static’ teaching resources; that commercial film and video, together with new graphic design techniques, offer the means to make visual Mathematics learning materials more relevant to today’s generation of kindergarten children; and, finally, that the resulting and improved teaching resources and suggestions could now be even further developed and practically applied by teachers in today’s kindergarten classrooms. Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance and help of several generous individuals who in one way or another contributed and assisted in the preparation and completion of this study. First and foremost, my utmost gratitude to my academic supervisor Associate Professor Rick Bennett, PhD, MHEd, BA (Hons), School of Design Studies, College of Fine Arts (COFA), University of New South Wales (UNSW) for his wise guidance, patience and critical input into my work. Also my sincere gratitude is extended to Wendy Parker (Coordinator Postgraduate Research, School of Design Studies), Liz Williamson (Head, School of Design Studies) and Dr Katherine Moline (Senior Lecturer, Graphics Media Coordinator) for their valuable inputs. In addition I would like to thank Maria Zueva from UNSW Learning Centre for her help in reading through sections of my work and commenting on language and structure of my paper, as well as Joanna Elliot for her advice and support regarding administrative requirements of the degree. I would especially like to thank to my family: Evgeniya Chemerys, Kateryna Chemerys, Anton Chemerys, and my son Bogdan Koldunenko for their constant support and understanding during this exciting and challenging time. Finally I would like to say a special thank you to my husband, Raymond Raheb, for his patience, emotional support and encouragement throughout the process of writing this thesis. Table of Contents Chapter 1 - Introduction 8 Overview 8 The new ‘digital age’ for children 8 Current state of children’s teaching resources 9 Identifying the gap in children’s teaching resources 9 Filling the gap – graphic design and the research problem 10 Conceptual framework 11 Chapter 2 - Review of Literature 12 Definitions of: ‘static’, ‘dynamic’, ‘media’. 12 Evolution of dynamic media 12 A short history 12 Commercial interest 13 Visual evolution 14 Evolution of static media 16 Teaching Math 17 Traditional mathematics texts 17 Design of Math textbooks 17 Following, are some examples from an early 1960s elementary school textbook 20 Math books from the 1990s 21 Contemporary Math text books 23 Math teaching – the on-line alternative 25 Financial aspect of textbook production 26 Patterns of use – comparison of dynamic and static media 27 Background 27 Growth of overall time spent on media 28 Types of devices and percentage of use 28 Age and time spent on each type of consumer electronic device 30 How much time children spend on reading 32 6 Comparison of design characteristics – dynamic and static media study materials 34 Relevant research 38 Decline in academic achievements 38 Australia and the world 38 Contemporary teaching methods 40 Important works in the field 40 Statement of the research question 45 Main goals of the research and practical outcome 46 Chapter 3 – Method 47 Justification for the proposed graphic design approach and its practical outcomes 47 Analysis of adopted dynamic design elements into practical outcome 48 Imitation of screen 48 Horizontal orientation 49 Full colour pages, intense and depth background 49 Bright and colourful texts and images 40 Non-linear layout 50 Volumetric style 51 Appealing characters 52 Increase in entertaining effect 53 Current Math school curriculum 54 Common age when children start attending school 54 Australian school system curriculum 55 Mathematics course 55 Proposed method of solving the research question (practical outcome) 57 Chapter 4 - Evaluation and Conclusion 68 Answering the research question 68 Implications of an innovative graphic design approach 69 Future possibilities 69 List of references 71 List of figures and tables 77 7 Chapter 1 - Introduction Overview Human perception is influenced by the kinds of activities we engage in. Radio journalists, as an example, comprehend audio information better than written text; whereas, for a novelist or writer, the reverse would be true (Oakley, 2009). Children, today, spend increasingly more time in front of electronic devices (Marszalek, 2013) with the result that they have become more receptive to information delivered in this way (Edgar & Edgar, 2008). The consequence for school teaching resources – which for the most part are in printed form (AEL, 2003) – is that they have become outdated, less engaging and less motivating to children. This paper will discuss research studies that support the view that current static school teaching resources must change in order to reflect the changes in preferences of school children today. Studies have shown that Australian education standards have fallen in the last ten years. This paper argues for the need to improve our education resources in order to make them more relevant as children have become habituated to these prevalent visual forms so much so they are perceived by them to be the norm; whereas traditional static teaching resources, e.g. school textbooks which have developed little in recent years, are consequently less interesting to them. This paper argues that improving the visual design of these materials with the tools of graphic design will increase a child’s interest and potentially their engagement and motivation to study. Based on my research, this paper will describe a strategy (model) that adopts some of the visual and non-visual design elements of commercial film and video and apply

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