BBCi – Leonardo – Homepage
Watched a superb documentary on Da Vinci last night. It was a fascinating, well put together documentary and the first time I’ve made notes while watching TV for a while.
There are two reasons for posting about this program. Firstly, the pedagogical interest in what made Da Vinci tick. Secondly, the way the beeb presented both the programme and it’s accompanying website is very interesting. So without further ado;
Leonardo’s Lessons…Da Vinci vs. education – Da Vinci lack traditional schooling (he was the illegitimate son of a local bigwig and this, for some reason, meant he wasn’t allowed access to a classical schooling)
* Visualisation
This meant that the young Da Vinci had an inability to express himself in writing and so visualised all his thoughts and ideas into sketches – a powerful medium for carrying his ideas hundreds of year into the future – they even had a guy dropping from 10,000 feet in an exact replica of his parachute sketch! If he’d written his ideas instead, would they have the same resonance across cultures and time?
* Disregard for existing wisdom
He had far less knowledge of existing theories and schools of thought. This forced him to consider everything from afresh, without the constraints of exisitng perceived wisdom. Da Vinci confounded existing (fallacious) theories directly as a result of his reliance on his own experiences and observations, discarding existing schools of thought and regaridng with disdain those who simply quoted others. Indeed, his mantra was “…experience will be my mistress…”
* Art & Science
The insight into the Renaissance really bought home to me the intellectual rigour of creative artists and their involvement with the science of their creations. Da Vinci is of course a stunning example of that mindset, but perhaps less reliance in workplace structures on division between engineers and ‘creatives’ would be a fabulous idea? It might not produce the Santa Maria cathedral, as it did back then, but you never know…
* Research
Da Vinci was always researching and going off and looking for experiences and inspiration away from his work. Whilst painting the Last Supper he drove his patron crazy by zooming off for 6 hours a day looking at people, sketching ideas and so on. This idea of research is a common theme across the creative rulebooks – in fact it’s a tenet of the excellent book on creativity in advertising ‘a technique for producing ideas’, and it’s so bloody obvious, that it often passes me by. Easily sounding pompous, but note to self: get out *there* more – look at games, read more novels, look at people talking, watch tv, list is endless.
The BBC Website…
The BBC’s Da Vinci website is a stunning example of a self-directed educational website. There are games, a ‘what kind of thinker are you?’ test all the way through to links for Open University courses on Da Vinci.
It’s an excellent idea – build on the resources and effort of the TV programme by, once capturing interest and enthuisiasm (hey, it worked for me!), give people the chance to dive off and learn as much or as little as they like.
E-learning could do with some lessons here – why not stick all that budget and effort into some really compelling video or other linear narrative and then whack learners into a variety of slef directed resources and opportunities for conversation. I reckon you’d have far more effective, long lasting learning when compare with ‘spreading’ development of multimedia effort over a number of web pages.
I think people respond well to strong storytelling, but then want the freedom to select their own learning paths through content.
Don Norman’s Things That Make Us Smart talked about the success of film and other entertainment to capture attention. The BBC has an actual strategy for doing this – I think the Leonardo TV show and website is proof that this strategy is working brilliantly.