Summary: |
This communication is based on the development of a new subject to be imparted in collaboration with three Departments (Visual Communication, Projects and Construction) at the School of Architecture of Barcelona. It is a work that has been financed with a special grant from our university, aimed at the development of new teaching modalities and, in particular, of those that would develop the use of new technologies, collaboration among university departments and eLearning. The aim of the communication is twofold. First, to present some results that we consider valuable in themselves, as much for the techniques as for the methodology that we have used. Second, to propitiate a debate on the new situation that the teaching of architecture is moving to, due to the advance of a series of instruction methods where the methodological organization, the storing of informative material and the preparation of autonomous interactive systems, open more and more effective roads of learning but that, at the same time, point towards a new educational structure that fits badly within the traditional structures in which we have still to work daily. Regarding the first point, the main aspects to highlight are: a) the development of a selflearning system by means of a very complete series of tutorials that allow a gradual acquisition, depending on the necessities or interests of each student, of geometric modeling, parametric design, visual simulation and interactive animation techniques, b) the development of a system of general information supply and on line comments and corrections. Regarding the second point, a provisional theoretical framework has been elaborated based on the consideration of the ubiquitous visual communication media as misleading mediators of a personal relationship. This theoretical frame has been tested by a few experiences carried out with the collaboration of students implied in the project. The general conclusion is that both challenges must be faced at the same time: new educational technologies must be analysed and integrated in our curricula and a new theoretical framework, able to clarify the difference between instruction and education, must be developed in parallel with those technologies. |