Neighborhood Quality Assessment

Does your neighborhood provide all of the things that you think are necessary for living a quality life? If not, do you know what is missing? A quality neighborhood is a based on a combination of your perceptions of the design, safety, mobility, and community. This neighborhood quality assessment form empowers you to survey neighborhoods to discover assets and shortcomings based on your values. By answering this short list of questions, you can begin to understand what you like most about a community and what you think needs to be changed. The survey can also be used to decide between two different neighborhoods if you are thinking of moving. If you do identify a shortcoming, remedies are provided to help you understand what you can do to address it. If you need help, view the directions. If you would like understand how the scores are calculated, view the calculation process. For questions about this survey, please contact Kai Monast.Master of City and Regional Plannin

Volume 67 Issue 2 (Fall/Winter 2013)

2 People in the Water Planning Picture People have always had an impact on how water interacts with the landscape, but social scientists have long been absent from water policy discussions and decisions. Sociologist Douglas Jackson-Smith and his colleagues are working to change that and to shape our water future. 8 Designing Where the Water Goes Streets, sidewalks, rooftops and patios all affect what happens when the rain falls, and what happens to stormwater effects every community. The design of streets and other landscape elements has a big impact on this important part of the water cycle and can help or hinder how nature does its work. 12 Sustainability Matters Farm sustainability is far more complex than questions of organic vs. conventional practices. There is no question though that sustainability is impossible without healthy soil. 16 Putting Water Use on the MAP Water is a scarce resource, but most Americans rarely think about how much they use, what it costs or where it comes from. A new tool can give cities and other water providers a more precise picture of water use in their communities and help determine how and where to focus conservation education activities. 20 Synthesis: Science at Utah State 24 A Better Measure of the Salt of the Earth Remote sensing takes some of the backbreaking work out of measuring soil salinity, but it’s the math applied to the measurements that is making a big difference. 28 Utah’s Water Future Climate scientist Simon Wang offers his take on the future of water in Utah with a look at what the climate record says about the region’s past

Art to empower: designing and implementing a contemporary visual culture art education for urban elementary institutions with implications for classroom practice

The following paper offers a comprehensive historiography of the curricular trends and approaches for the teaching of elementary visual arts within the discourse of Art Education. The exploration begins with an overview of the modernist, Discipline Based Art Education curriculum, including its origins and implementation within the U.S., public K-8 school system. In this section I offer an assessment of DBAE???s curricular strengths and weaknesses. Next, the text moves into an examination of post-modern, contemporary curricular approaches to teaching visual arts, more specifically, the visual culture theory. With this, I introduce a discussion about the current reality of arts education within the urban, public school system of Chicago, Illinois. This section offers insight into current art education trends and exposes the discrepancy of resources for visual arts education among Chicago???s elementary institutions. Finally, I offer a sample visual arts curriculum designed to empower students to take responsibility for their learning and success

Discovering communities of social e-learning practice

Teaching and Professional Development Fellowship Report 201

Using the Co-design Process to Build Non-designer Ability in Making Visual Thinking Tools

This research is a case study of using co-design as a way of assisting the capacity building process for an Indianapolis-based community organizer. The community organizer seeks to develop a visual thinking tool for enhancing her engagement with community participants. Community organizers face a wide array of complicated challenges, addressing these kinds of challenges and social issues calls for innovative and inclusive approaches to community problem solving. The author hopes this case study will showcase itself as an example of leveraging design thinking and visual thinking to support and equip more first-line workers who are non-designers to do their community jobs with a more creative problem-solving approach

Getting Better by Design: Evaluation of a programme to support the voluntary sector in Scotland

Better by Design was developed in 2013 by the Big Lottery Fund Scotland in response to the complex and changing landscape for voluntary sector organisations delivering services on the ground with people or communities. It aimed to support a process of change, and prioritised organisations focusing on social care, employability, health and housing where intervening earlier or preventing needs emerging could make a real difference. The programme encouraged sustainability in the widest sense to enable organisations to meet the needs of their beneficiaries better now and in the future.The chance to learn in this way and the challenge to habitual ways of thinking and doing, have made a significant change to mindsets in a number of organisations and at times, brought a new quality of engagement in partnership settings. This report shows that design-led approaches do have a great deal to contribute in creating the new organisational cultures of collaboration and mutual learning necessary for public service reform

OULDI-JISC Project Evaluation Report: the impact of new curriculum design tools and approaches on institutional process and design cultures

This report presents research and evaluation undertaken by the OULDI-JISC Project (Open University Learning Design Initiative JISC Project) between 2008 and 2012. In particular, it considers the impact of new curriculum design tools and approaches piloted by the project on institutional processes and design cultures. These tools and approaches include tools for sharing learning design expertise (Cloudworks), visualising designs (CompendiumLD, Module Map, Activity Profile) and for supporting design and reflection in workshops (Facilitation Cards, workshop activities, etc.). The project has adopted a learning design approach so as to help foreground pedagogy and learner experience. Nine pilots have been completed across six UK universities

The Promise of Faculty Inquiry for Teaching and Learning Basic Skills

Shares insights from the Strengthening Pre-collegiate Education in Community Colleges project on how teachers' systematic and collaborative analyses of new approaches and practices foster innovation and improvement in basic English and math instruction

Higher Education Exchange: 2009

This annual publication serves as a forum for new ideas and dialogue between scholars and the larger public. Essays explore ways that students, administrators, and faculty can initiate and sustain an ongoing conversation about the public life they share.The Higher Education Exchange is founded on a thought articulated by Thomas Jefferson in 1820: "I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."In the tradition of Jefferson, the Higher Education Exchange agrees that a central goal of higher education is to help make democracy possible by preparing citizens for public life. The Higher Education Exchange is part of a movement to strengthen higher education's democratic mission and foster a more democratic culture throughout American society.Working in this tradition, the Higher Education Exchange publishes interviews, case studies, analyses, news, and ideas about efforts within higher education to develop more democratic societies