The main focus of this study was the inclusion of informal methods in the educational frameworks of architectural and urban design. The project used is based on the 3D representation of virtual models of new urban proposals in order to re-organize a local market in Tonalá, Mexico. Starting from a formal course, where the students had to develop solutions to real architecture and urban problems, a second phase was designed, based on feedback in an informal environment by the end-users (citizens and professionals). The key objectives of the experiment were to show students to connect and receive feedback through technology, evaluate how these interactions can define new informal ways of learning, and discuss how this informal data can be incorporated into an academic curriculum. The results confirm how the informal interaction constitutes a great contribution in the improvement of student's skills, even considering that the incorporation of informal data into their evaluation still remains challenging.
The configuration of urban projects using Information and Communication Technologies is an essential aspect in the education of future architects. Students must know the technologies that will facilitate their academic and professional development, as well as anticipating the needs of the citizens and the requirements of their designs. In this paper, a data mining approach was used to outline the strategic requirements for an urban design project in an architecture course using a Project-Based Learning strategy. Informal data related to an award-winning public space (Gillett Square in London, UK) was retrieved from two social networks (Flickr and Twitter), and from its official website. The analysis focused on semantic, temporal and spatial patterns, aspects generally overlooked in traditional approaches. Text-mining techniques were used to relate semantic and temporal data, focusing on seasonal and weekly (work-leisure) cycles, and the geographic patterns were extracted both from geotagged pictures and by geocoding user locations. The results showed that it is possible to obtain and extract valuable data and information in order to determine the different uses and architectural requirements of an urban space, but such data and information can be challenging to retrieve, structure, analyze and visualize. The main goal of the paper is to outline a strategy and present a visualization of the results, in a way designed to be attractive and informative for both students and professionals - even without a technical background - so the conducted analysis may be reproducible in other urban data contexts.Postprint (author's final draft
En el presente artículo discutimos los resultados de evaluar el grado de motivación, el perfil y el nivel de satisfacción de los estudiantes en flujos de trabajo que utilizan la visualización aumentada de modelos complejos en 3D. El estudio muestra los resultados de experimentos realizados con alumnos de grado a lo largo de los dos primeros cursos de Arquitectura y el actual grado de Ciencias y Tecnologías de la Construcción (antiguo grado español de Ingeniería de la Construcción, y con cuyo nombre se reconoce a nivel europeo). Hemos utilizado un método mixto que combina el uso de técnicas cuantitativas y cualitativas de evaluación de la respuesta del estudiante, con el fin de completar una visión más global del uso de nuevas tecnologías, dispositivos móviles y métodos visuales avanzados en campos académicos. Los resultados nos muestran cómo los estudiantes partícipes de dichos experimentos han mejorado sus resultados académicos y su implicación con la materia, un punto clave en el actual marco educativo compuesto por estudiantes nativos digitales y un gran número de aplicaciones y dispositivos para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje
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