IN-PERSON MADRID FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY. SECTION B

Abstract

This presentation examines an experimental approach to teaching foundational print design within virtual classrooms while centering multilingual inclusion and platform-based creative economies. As scholars of online learning have argued, digital environments require pedagogical redesign rather than mere content translation (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000). During the COVID pandemic, design educators faced a central paradox: how do we teach tactile print processes without physical studios, presses, or shared material space? In response, I developed a remote project in which beginner-level students conceptualized, wrote, illustrated, designed, and self-published children’s books using print-on-demand platforms. Through structured Zoom-based instruction in color theory, typography, layout systems, and production workflows, students translated foundational design principles into market-ready publications. Across three US universities—and including an international branch campus in South Korea—over sixty books have been written, illustrated, and published. Several books are bilingual, reflecting an asset-based orientation toward linguistic diversity aligned with translanguaging theory (García & Wei, 2014). These works span English paired with Chinese, Vietnamese, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Bahasa, and American Sign Language, positioning multilingualism as design capital rather than deficit and challenging traditional monolingual classroom practices. Finally, the project situates design pedagogy within contemporary platform capitalism, where young creatives increasingly rely on contingent and entrepreneurial labor structures (Fiers, 2024; Srnicek, 2017). By integrating print pedagogy, multilingual authorship, and self-publishing infrastructures, this model reframes the virtual classroom as a site of material production and economic agency—preparing Gen Z designers not only as cultural producers, but as participants in evolving gig-based creative economies.