Using NING

About BORDER CROSSINGS Border Crossings is an on-line collaboration which uses a social network platform to bring schools of interiors, textiles and jewellery related disciplines together in response to a shared design theme. It involves art & design institutions from six nations; USA, Scotland, Finland, Netherlands, Canada and Slovenia.

*first started January 2012

The international partners are:

About NING NING, resembles many social network sights, but is more secure, free from ads and provides an archive of students work. NING is where students share insights with international peers. NING lets you upload content directly from your computer, insert weblinks, embed Youtube, VIMEO and can link to FLICKR, *TWITTER or *FACEBOOK *we tend not to use all of these.

About BORDER CROSSINGS? Students’ still operate from their home departments and follow their individual approach to the shared design theme. Students’ share, compare and contrast their individual approach to this task by engaging, and maintain a dialogue using NING with international student peers from a similar discipline.

This is an example of what NING looks like……you will get an email inviting you to become a member Professors and students get their own NING page ‘MY PAGE’….[see RED] The only item on the top menu bar students’ cannot see is the ‘MANAGE’ tab……Only Professors can use this as each is an administrator

You can add content, of your own design work or inspiration such as blog posts, discussion, photos and video…by clicking the orange text [see RED] All content appears under your profile photo…[see BLUE] You can see all posts by selecting any profile picture [see GREEN] This year we’ll have 200+members from 3 disciplines & 6 nations

You can ‘LIKE’ ‘COMMENT’ or enter a ‘DISCUSSION’ on other students’ or professors posts at any time…..[see RED] This is great way of offering peer support, encouragement or constructive criticism…… how you ‘phrase’ that feedback needs to be sensitive……

To upload photos, either follow the top menu bar…..[see RED]…or select the orange text [see BLUE] To upload from PC….you get the BLUE dialogue box letting you upload 4 images at a time…try to tag your images To use top menu bar, choose PHOTO, then select ‘+ADD’ you get a different dialogue box [see RED] and go to a file on your PC

To share, link and upload via TWITTER…just select the icon shown [see RED] it then asks you to CONNECT [see BLUE] …..then just sign in to your own TWITTER account [see GREEN] There are similar steps to do FACEBOOK …or FLICKR but we tend not to use either

To upload video go to the top menu bar…select VIDEO [see RED] …then select the orange ‘+Add’ button [see BLUE] The ‘ADD A VIDEO’ dialogue box appears. Go to YOUTUBE, VIMEO or HULA website and either copy the URL or copy the embed code….add to the box and choose ‘ADD VIDEO’ tag your videos

You can also upload video by opening your own picture profile and selecting the orange text ‘VIDEO’ [see RED] An ‘ADD A VIDEO’ dialogue box appears [see RED] ….. Simply paste a video URL or add a video embed code Just choose ‘ADD VIDEO’ when you are ready tag your videos

You can start a live chat as an individual and / or contribute to a group chat by either selecting CHAT from the top men bar [see RED]……. or by clicking on your picture profile and activating CHAT on the bottom left of your screen

Students’ or professors, can add research items through BLOGS, or DISCUSSIONS This research ‘SEVEN MILE HIGH BOOTS linked into the digital paradox of being both ‘HERE’& ‘THERE’ in the Border Crossings collaboration…….. An objectives is to raise students’ awareness of ‘research’ outside your discipline

About NING We use NING to provide space for creative dialogue between students’ from similar disciplines, to share, compare and discuss those shared design themes across one of three parallel discipline streams of: •  Interiors to Interiors •  Jewellery to Jewellery •  Textiles to Textiles

on NING

What is your role on NING?

to become a CRITICAL EDITOR of your own design work as you upload & develop a dialogue

help you become a CRITICAL FRIEND to another international student peers own creative work

http://bordercrossings-imprints.ning.com

Where is NING?  

when you logout, this is how you would login again so keep email and password details safe…do NOT let anyone else use these

Your email is sent automatically and should look like this [right]… But check your SPAM FOLDER in case your school’s email system thinks it’s a bogus email When you are ready just select the ‘click to join’ button

You then see a CREATE PROFILE ON BORDER CROSSINGS dialogue box Under FULL NAME please do the following name_discipline_city as shown [right] Choose a gender [optional] Choose a country In WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED just type Dundee, Texas, Ljubljana, Rovaniemi, Ontario or Amsterdam In ARE YOU PART OF INTERIOR, TEXTILE OR JEWELLERY DESIGN just type one of those disciplines the select JOIN

Enter your official college email Enter a password Repeat the password [TAKE A NOTE OF IT & KEEP IT SAFE] Enter BIRTHDATE Enter the caption CODE hen simply SIGN UP

After you select the button ‘click to join’ you should receive an email like this confirming you have become a member. It then asks you to click on any of the blue hyperlinks to 1.add content [images etc.] 2. add profile photo 3.tell your Twitter followers 4. set up your profile

Once you do that you should see the following screen shot You should see your profile name [see BLUE] Add a PROFILE PHOTO [see RED outline] add a real image please. Add some CONTENT-ideally recent work to get others interested [see GREEN] ignore ‘ADD APPS’ Start a BLOG POST or upload IMAGES [see PURPLE]

Please make sure that you select item 2.“Add a profile photo’ but make sure it’s a human face rather than a cartoon. It helps to put a ‘human’ feel to a digital dialogue. follow all the other ‘get started’ instructions but leave Twitter  

By clicking on your new PROFILE PICTURES [see far left] you can easily start a BLOG POST DISCUSSION PHOTOS [add upload] VIDEO [add upload] Just select the orange text [see RED]

here is an example of a simple BLOG POST dialogue box which appears [see RED] You can add a mix of IMAGES, VIDEOS, WEBSITES We suggest that you always place an IMAGE ABOVE TEXT so that others can better decide to look at your BLOG

when you become a NING member you get your own NING page…… This is like a website within a website you see everything on the menu bar…. except the option of ‘MANAGE’ which is only available to professors [admin]

You can upload images of your creative process but also upload final presentations You can also get ‘informal’ peer feedback… good for your morale… but all about building relationships beyond those who happen to be in your class

students can easily go back and see every post, image, video and blog chat by simply clicking onto the students main image [see RED] You can navigate images of your own or others work too

students can easily go back and edit work too or add new items or create a new photo album by clicking on MY ALBUMS on the top menu bar and then selecting ‘+ADD’

Final presentations will still happen in your home institutions using the same ‘on-land’ set up you always had…… all we ask is that you share those final presentations on NING by Fri 03 APRIL 2015 or very soon after…. we ask that you take time to offer some feedback alongside your schools exam

In DJCAD Interiors, for example, students’ present final proposals butalso include some creative process…

You can share insights linked to the shared design theme You can add lecture materials [just get permission of the author] which each discipline is exploring….they can also share videos, photos, their own works in progress…….

Kaela Hogg JEWELERY DJCAD Dundee

You can view images from your international student peers …. simply clicking on any uploaded image can let you view it large scale….. how you each generate design ideas might be varied… this can help you to reflect on the creative processes you use or now need to work on

Isobel Jones INTERIORS DJCAD Dundee Jan –Apr 2012 Dundee shows EMOTIVE OBJECT 1 expressed through a painting study of Linlithgow Palace and its selection as a setting for a fashion. We deliberately open up the topic of ‘identity’ and encourage expressive2d and 3d media

You can see how other schools or the the same discipline approach a SHARED DESIGN TASK through different creative approaches……

Christie Mitchel TEXTILES DJCAD Jan –Apr 2102 looking at traditional Arran and Fair Isle knitting traditions as inspiration for a series of knit experiments

In this digital age it is also helpful to see how skills such as freehand sketching, mixed media and other ‘analogue’ skills are being used Its is helpful to see how your international student peers from the same discipline might present final work in very different ways

Emma McCluskey TEXTILES DJCAD Jan – Apr 2012 looking at west coast Scotland obsession with football A GAME OF 2 HALVES…designs in a menswear setting and designs with reactive dye prints

students’ can view the final presentation from their international student peers ….. how you each express your final design ideas in your disciplines and schools might be varied…this can help you to reflect on how you and your school ‘define’ professional quality…. vital in a global ‘graduate’ market

You get the chance to see how an idea evolves from sketch to final presentation.. Just make sure that you have at least a weekly upload of works in progress… Don’t just upload and walk away; give some thought to the text..

Emma McCluskey TEXTILES DJCAD Jan – Apr 2012 looking at west coast Scotland obsession with football A GAME OF 2 HALVES…designs in a menswear setting and designs with reactive dye prints

NING Time Zones BORDER CROSSINGS hints at a reality of creative industries where the portfolio of a company is often international. Companies often have to adapt to different time zones and needs of their international clients. So, rather that think of your international student peers as ‘students’ try to imagine them as ‘clients’. So be flexible and sensitive to time zone issue

-6hrs Texas USA +1hr Ljubljana SLOVENIA +1hr Amsterdam NETHERLANDS +2hr Rovaniemi FINLAND -5hr Ontario CANADA 0hr Dundee SCOTLAND

timeframe The project runs from:

Monday 23 FEBRUARY Friday 03 APRIL 2015.