Logograms: Memory Aids for Learning, and an Example with Hearing-Impaired Students

摘要

This paper describes a methodology for teaching design based on the use of a set of memory aids named logograms. Users' experiences involving the usability of logograms as a teaching support are being registered throughout empirical research during the last ten years by the authors. More recently, the technique was applied with success to hearing-impaired students. The material described here includes phonographic and iconographic elements aiming at the organization of a logographic system that, in addition to sign language, supported a more inclusive education. Some of the logograms presented refer to stages and procedures of the design process, and were converted into LIBRAS -the Brazilian Sign Language with the intensive participation of the users (interpreter, students and teacher). The process consisted in: establishment of keywords; denotative and connotative analysis of keywords; search of applicable signs within LIBRAS; creation of new signs when there were no codified signs for design technical terms in dactylology; validation by the interpreter and student; systematization of use through photographs; verbal description of the agreed gestures. The logograms are perceived as innovative ways to teach product and graphic design in undergraduate and graduate courses, and their use can be combined to software programs and Internet resources in new curricular approaches.