Goals for graduate school:

• Develop new skills that will be invaluable as a school leader.  I want these skills to be both in the language of education and the language of business.  I want to be a translator between the business side of school, fluent in debt issuances, marketing techniques and the education side of school, fluent in project based learning, teaching for understanding and Vigotsky.
• Develop my self awareness and skills as a leader.  Going forward I want to lead schools and other institutions.  In doing so I want to be aware of my strengths and weaknesses as a leader.
• After gaduate school I want to being a new style of thinking to education leadership.  A style that is fully immersed in education yet still has one foot in business and other secotrs.

 

Goals for this class:

• See how I can apply my knowledge of educational theories in a design perspective/manner
• Gain practice at thinking about the learner when developing a learning space.  As a school administrator I will be helping to build/remake a middle school.  Down the road I hope to be a Head of School that builds great learning spaces for my students.
• See how different people at Stanford think and approach learning challenges.  I can't wait to see the different perspectives and the diversity of thought that I see.  I want to think about how to get this diversity in my future work.

 

How do I see them intersecting:

• I can absolutely see myself using my new skills as a leader in the group project and get feedback in that group.  This will be a great experience because the group will be more diverse than many I have worked in here at Stanford.
• I will get to bridge education and another field (design) through the projects.
• I will gain practice and skill in a way of thinking that is going to absolutely impact the work I will be doing over the next few years.

 

Sarah - I really like your goal of thinking about the learner when developing the learning space. This made me think about focusing on the end goals for the learning space, such as what skills or knowledge we want the learner to come away from the learning space with, when designing it.

 

Dan - Thanks for these thoughts Andrew.  I appreciate your interest in not only the final product that we might get out of this class but also your interest in learning from the community of people who make up this class.  I hope that this 'class portfolio' that we are building here  can help you make connections between the diversity of experiences that we have in this learning community with the diverse work experiences that energize you.  I'll use this comment as a reminder for both of us to check in throughout the quarter on our ability to connect the different approaches that people at Stanford take for teaching and learning.

 

Rolf - I think that your intersecting goal of 'gaining practice and skill ...' is right on. From my experience in the class last year, one of the biggest takeaways was the experiece of contributing to the design of a real learning space, while still having the freedom to think big and creatively. Adding to Dan's thought above, definitely keep thinking about this idea of a community of learners - both in our classroom, as well as in the spaces you design.

 

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What I have learned in graduate school...Being the guy who suggested changing the goal from learning to understanding I am going to answer, "What do I understand because of graduate school."

 

What I Understand

Concept	When	Where	How I know/Performance of Undersatnding
Thinking on the margin	Fall 06	Micro Econ	In thinking and writing in other classes I have starting asking questions not about averages but about marginal value.  I have also been applying the concept in places that do not traditionally consider thinking on the margin such as in school admissions.
Confrimation Bias	Fall 06	OB	I regularly identify decisions and statements that might be affected by confirmation bias.
Normal Distribution and Standard Deviations	Fall 06	D&D	Instead of glossing over these pieces of information, I regularly not only look at an average in a set of data but also the SD.  I then visualize a normal distribution and try to see its shape.  I also find myself asking people if we are moving the mean or are we simply changing the SD.
Architecture, Routines, Culture	Winter

WOW is this going to take a long time.  Let me try this--way more my style.  I have learned that working in mind maps is really helpful for me.  Key for how I know I understand is color coded on bottom right panel...

 

Dan - Great work here, Andrew thanks for pushing both conceptually and thinking creatively about how to make technology work for you instead of being constrained.  This is a great example also of documenting your work - I especially liked the way you shifted from a table to mindmap, kind of a meta-process here.I especially liked your color-coding scheme - it helps me understand what you have learned.  It is fascinating to me that the specifics that got the most checks were in your electives and extra-curricular nodes. 

 

 

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Walking into the y2e2 building I was hoping to find information panels describing just how "green" the building is. I imagined signs pointing to a louvered ceiling that allowed fresh air to circulate through or a monitor showing how little energy and water was being used.  I did not find any of that (okay, fine Hannah's photos she took while we were there prove me wrong--there was one sign--

 

.  While I am still concerned I was not looking in the right place, I came away far more inspired by the space than I would have had it had these placards touting the environtal sustainability.

 

In each of the 4 major atria a massive mural covers the walls.  Our group of three was initially drawn to this both because of its design and because it had a placard.  Ahh learning!  What I found on the placard was far more interesting than what I had expected and set up my visit to the building.  The placard described how the mural is a representation of all the different people in the building and the different research projects they are working on.  Outer nodes represented people, inner nodes represented projects.  Reading this and then looking all around me, I understood the point of this building, to bring a wide range of scientists together around the study of the environment.

 

With this understanding of the building we began to wander.  Though we were not intended users in the sense that we are not scientists working on one of the projects, we quickly became users and learners.  Rather than having labs that are closed off, each lab had huge windows that allowed us to peer in.  We even went right into a lab with a wave pool where they were studying fluid dynamics.  I could see how the space invited collaboration.  Walking down the halls, thinking about X, a graduate student might see a wave machine in use and realize the potential for chaning her experiment.  If we, non scientists, were drawn into the spaces, I can only imagine what it would do for scientists.

 

Throughout our exploration of the building our group kept talking about how bright and open the space was.  The space also reflected the intent of the building.  We talked about miroring this congruence in the hospital school.  One of the most exciting revelations for me, though, was with that initial mural.  We have brainstormed a virtual community learning space where bed-ridden learners could still feel like they were part of the school.  This connected those students in their hospital rooms to one another but it did not connect the students in the school space with them.  I imagined a digital mural in the classroom that would show avatars of all the students throughout the hospital as they were working in their independent rooms.  As different students "talked" through the virtual space lines would connect them.  Our goal, establishing a community, would be met.

 

Leaving I had a few questions...Does this excitement about connection and creativity remain when people use the spcae on a regular basis or is it like Stanford--so beautiful for the first few months and then just normal?  Can they measure the creativity?  Are they collecting any data to show the cost savings from an h.r. perspective?  This would help generate even more reasons to build green.

 

 Dan - It is nice to hear that so much of this building made sense to you and that the specific mural idea might be valuable for your team project.   I also like your question about how sustainable is the emphasis on connection and creativity?  for me, the answer to that one depends on the programming of the space and here that means to what degree do creeative, interdisciplinary projects get funded either from Stanford or from foundations to support these projects.  Glad you found it valuable. 

 

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Visiting the Stanford Math Library

 

reflect a little on what kind of learning happens there, what kind of learning could happen there, and what some roles of libraries could or should be?

 

In my undergrad years I had heard about the math library.  I had seen an amazing photo taken from a patio there.  Time to go check it out.  Entering the Math and CS Library is like going back in time.  Back to around 1963.  I wanted to don a pair of polyester pants like these:

 

and get a pair of glasses like these:

and pull one of the dusty books off the shelves.  There was a sign saying no food that was printed on black foam board.  The sign had been up there so long that it was sun bleeched to almost white and curved from being there so long.  THere was a series of glass cabinets telling the history of some math at Stanford most likely update in 1983.  One newer sign touted new titles such as "Exotic proofs of theorems in the ceramic math field." 

 

INside the library, stuffy air made a few clearly feel at home.  Their disheveled looks fit the space perfectly.  Physical appearance was secondary or even tertiary to thinking--and sleeping in the case of two people on orange, faded stuffed chairs.  It seemed to be their space.  Me, an education and business guy who thinks about the clothes he buys (not hard, but thinking does happen) felt OUT OF PLACE!  So what is this library.  A place for math books, obviously.  More importantly, perhaps a place where some feel comfortable and can do their thinking.

 

Following a stripe on the carpet around the bend, the library has some old sliding glass doors that open onto a gem of Stanford.  Three metal tables and plenty of seeting in the shade.  Views of the red tile roofs, Mem Chu and the Dish.  Even in the bright, mid-day light it was remarkable beautiful.  I am going back with my camera soon during prime light hours.  Sitting out there and reading a case for an upcoming class, I fit in.  So did the guy who had a book that had more symbols I did not recongize than letters.  It was a place where we were both comfortable to do our thinking.

 

A Stanford gem and a great insight into the different worlds that exist on this campus--the math library.

 

Dan - Thanks for sharing this one too.  I like your connections between the users and the space.  What did you observe people doing in the library? Was it crowded?  What was the role of the library staff?