Technologies for Teaching Design in Architecture and Engineering
A project for the Teaching + Technology Initiative
Last updated Thursday, March 21 1996, at 10:19 PM Copyright © 1996, Kirk Martini
  • Overview
  • Digital Imaging
  • Communication
  • Interactive Analysis
  • Conclusions and Acknowledgments

  • Related Sites
  • Arch 324/524: introduction to Structural Design (in progress)
  • Digital Images and Seismic Design
  • Digital Images and the Web in Teaching Structures

    • Overview

    The objective of the project is to integrate teaching technologies into a newly created course in the Department of Architecture, Introduction to Structural Design. Required for all undergraduate and most graduate architecture students, the course will commence in the spring of 1996. The course's chief objective is to teach creative design rooted in analytically rigorous methods of inquiry. The approach is based on the philosophy that design centers on making and manipulating formal models. A successful model employs two concepts: rigor and metaphor, where rigor means the internal logic of the model, and metaphor means the correspondence of the model to the real world. This project focuses on three key technologies to achieve its objectives: The project is the subject of a 1994-95 Lilly Teaching Fellowship, which provided support for developing instructional technique and content, while the TTI Fellowship provides necessary hardware, software, and technical support.

    Digital Imaging

    The course will employ the many advantages that digital images offer over conventional photographic slides; these include:
    Archival quality
    According to Kodak, a slide has an useful life of three to four hours of total projection time, and may suffer significant degradation after fifteen to twenty years of dark storage, depending on the film type. Images encoded as digital data do not degrade with time. Using digital images, it is feasible to discuss a image in lecture for 20 or 30 minutes, something that would quickly ruin a conventional slide.

    Electronic filing
    The process of extracting slides, arranging them in a carousel, and refiling them is extremely cumbersome, especially when images are used in different combinations. Digital image eliminates that process since images are stored in one location on disk and retrieved by file address.

    Flexible sequencing
    The table below shows four thumbnail images, clicking on any thumbnail brings up a full size image. This arrangement allows random access of images rather than the sequential access dictated by a conventional slide carousel. Using this technique, the sequence of image display can be determined by the flow of the class discussion rather than the instructor's pre-determined choice, creating a fundamentally different relationship between speaker, audience, and images. The audience becomes an active participant in the lecture, and the speaker becomes a guide and moderator; this is a strong contrast to the conventional arrangement where the audience passively observes images while the instructor provides a voice over.

    Detail extraction
    As illustrated by the images above, digital images make it possible to extract details from a larger image, making visible important features of the image that are otherwise indistinguishable. This digital zoom lens magnifies the amount of information in an image collection.

    Annotation
    Using digital imaging, it is possible to annotate an image with text and graphics to highlight and explain important features. The image below shows a simple example based on the golden gate bridge. The photo shows the bridge under an unbalanced load condition due to a change in the roadway surface, resulting in a highly asymmetric deflection pattern: the bridge is bent. The annotated version includes a translucent yellow curve to highlight the deflection pattern.

    Annotated version

    Enhancement
    Digital images can be enhanced to highlight important features that may be obscure or indistinguishable in the original slide. The images show original and enhanced scans of an underground construction site, plus and enhanced detail.
    Original scanned image Enhanced image Enhanced detail

    Integrating images into course content
    As this web page demonstrates, the web makes it possible to make images available for viewing outside of class time, so that images can be assigned for viewing before and after lecture, and integrated into homework and tests. This capability allows images to be incorporated into the course content, rather than being an interesting, but ultimately inconsequential diversion. This integration is essential to teach the relationship between analytic models and the real world.

    Image resources on the web
    There are several sources of useful images on the web, including archives, news organizations, government agencies, and corporations. The web provides a rapidly increasing and rich source of valuable and up-to-date teaching resources.

    Communication

    The course will use the web for making images available outside of class, and for general course administration. Prototype course web sites are now in trial development for Architecture 403: Structural System Design and Architecture 721: Structural Design for Lateral Loads.

    In addition to distributing information and course materials to students, the web will also be used to collect information and feedback from the class and to enhance communication and interaction among the class. Homework 1 in Arch 721 illustrates a simple application of this technique.

    Interactive Analysis

    Computer-based analysis is essential for understanding the behavior of realistic structural systems. The figure below shows a sample of analysis results for a simple frame subjected to gravity and lateral loads. The yellow curves indicate internal force patterns in the members, and the movements of the structure have been magnified 20 times for visual clarity.

    Using computer projection equipment in a lecture setting, it is possible to analyze realistic structures and to vary their properties and perform analyses in real time in response to questions from the class, so that the lecture becomes as much exploration as presentation.

    Conclusions and Acknowledgments

    The project seeks to create a harmonious marriage of information technology and sound teaching methods, particularly methods that promote interaction among students and emphasize the mapping between rigorous theoretical models and the real world.

    I would like to acknowledge the support of the Teaching and Technology Initiative, and the Lilly Teaching Fellows Program, and the advice and assistance of several people, in particular Marva Barnett, Randy Pausch, Celia Liu, Duncan Kincaid, Polley McClure, Daphne Spain, Peter Waldman, and Ken Schwartz.

    Last updated Thursday, March 21 1996, at 10:19 PM
    Copyright © 1996, Kirk Martini
    Please send comments or questions to Martini@virginia.edu