Miss-understand-ing: design education in Ontario secondary schools : an exploration of the issues with stakeholders and recommendations for change /

For most people design is a mystery. The products of design are integrated into our daily lives to the point that design has become invisible to us. However. what is subsumed in design practice is a creative problem-solving process that is applicable as a teaching strategy as well as a method for teaching the subject of design. The purpose of this study was to inquire into the current classroom practice of Ontario Visual Arts and Technological Education teachers, understand the goals of Ontario government curriculum developers, and explore the position held by the professional design community on secondary school design education. Data for this study were collected from: (a) a textual analysis of 4 Ministry curriculum documents; (b) interviews with JO stakeholders; (c) unobtrusive observations and informal conversations conducted at 7 secondary school open house events; and (d) observation of 2 sessions of an AQ course for Design and Technology. The research design modeled the design process and was divided into 2 parts: a discovery or problem-finding phase and a discussion or problem-solving phase. The results showed that design is misunderstood and misused; it has become lost between visual arts and technology where neither program holds responsibility for its delivery; students mistake working on computers for design practice; and while there is a desire within the professional community to have a voice in secondary school design education. there is no forum for participation. The technology-driven paradigm shift taking place in society today calls for a new framework for tellching and practicing dcsign. Further research is required; howcvcr. in the meantime. secondary school educators might benefit from professional development and classroom support from the professional dcsign community.

John Adams Smith letter, Jan. 14, 1813

Transcript: New York Jan. 14. 1813. My dear uncle, I had nearly concluded to have made my [jaunt?] earlier than I had mentioned in my last letter to you, for Swartout had intended to have written by me to Father & yourself; having [Louisa?] concluded not so soon to depart he sends me his letters which I forward in mail, I shall hope to have letters from home soon, it is a great pleasure to hear from any of you. I said last week in Hollands letter mentioning [bladeworth?] account, I have explained to him. It is a mistake about me agreeing to pay Mr. [Dening?] [their?] account. Caroline mentions to me your jaunt to [Sophia?], but I regret our friend there should be unpleasantly situated. I have not yet seen Col. Willett but will see him as mentioned. I have neglected to go there for some time which has been remiss in me. We have nothing new I believe unless it be that Armstrong & Jones of Philadelphia have been nominated as Secretarys of War & the Navy & [cer?] this in all probability may be appointed. There may be room for speculation, but perhaps it is not probable that Canada will be ceded to American Valor in the year 1813. There is a Bill before congress by which it may be made penal to enter on board American vessels, either British subjects or naturalized Americans, which it is presoomed by many will [spon?] the accommodation of Peace – may be yes may be no – the proof of the pudding is in the eating of it. I imagine pacification is not so near at hand although it is much to be desired. Whatever might be for the honor & prosperity of the Country I would strenuously advocate, aloof from partial & party considerations. We have not a word as yet what the Council at Albany may be thinking of as yet. I suppose these things will come in time, perhaps untimely to many. I desire for the present not to be found among the untimely. I am your sincerely, with love to all. John Adams Smith

Letter to S.D. Woodruff from Dexter Deverardo

Letter to S.D. Woodruff from Dexter Deverardo in which he says that he fears that a mistake has been made in A. Mains’ pay. He may have overpaid a considerable sum, April 25, 1857.

A domain-general perspective on medial frontal brain activity during performance monitoring

Activity of the medial frontal cortex (MFC) has been implicated in attention regulation and performance monitoring. The MFC is thought to generate several event-related potential (ERPs) components, known as medial frontal negativities (MFNs), that are elicited when a behavioural response becomes difficult to control (e.g., following an error or shifting from a frequently executed response). The functional significance of MFNs has traditionally been interpreted in the context of the paradigm used to elicit a specific response, such as errors. In a series of studies, we consider the functional similarity of multiple MFC brain responses by designing novel performance monitoring tasks and exploiting advanced methods for electroencephalography (EEG) signal processing and robust estimation statistics for hypothesis testing. In study 1, we designed a response cueing task and used Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to show that the latent factors describing a MFN to stimuli that cued the potential need to inhibit a response on upcoming trials also accounted for medial frontal brain responses that occurred when individuals made a mistake or inhibited an incorrect response. It was also found that increases in theta occurred to each of these task events, and that the effects were evident at the group level and in single cases. In study 2, we replicated our method of classifying MFC activity to cues in our response task and showed again, using additional tasks, that error commission, response inhibition, and, to a lesser extent, the processing of performance feedback all elicited similar changes across MFNs and theta power. In the final study, we converted our response cueing paradigm into a saccade cueing task in order to examine the oscillatory dynamics of response preparation. We found that, compared to easy pro-saccades, successfully preparing a difficult anti-saccadic response was characterized by an increase in MFC theta and the suppression of posterior alpha power prior to executing the eye movement. These findings align with a large body of literature on performance monitoring and ERPs, and indicate that MFNs, along with their signature in theta power, reflects the general process of controlling attention and adapting behaviour without the need to induce error commission, the inhibition of responses, or the presentation of negative feedback.