May 20, 2008

Field Trip @ Palo Alto Children’s Library

 

This Tuesday, the Art Library team went to the Palo Alto Children’s Library to have a field trip. Because we arrived there at 1 pm, the librarian told us that most of the parents bring their kids to the library after 3 pm. Although we didn’t see as many users as we expected, we spent more time observing the learning space itself.

 

 

The first thing I like about the Children’s Library is its interior design and the atmosphere. The target audience of the library are mainly kids and their parents, therefore many setting details are designed to attract children’s attention and the visual effect is especially strong. For example, the cartoon monsters for the returning shelfs, the dolls among the book stacks, the art paintings on the wall in the“Tree Top Room”(a space for collections, story times, and curriculum programs for the youngest child), and hanging decorations such as origami and so forth. I think the atmosphere of the library is one of the most essential elements to extend users’ time spending there and increase their studying efficiency. Consequently, we would like to enhance the artistic atmosphere of the Art Library. For instance, add comfortable coaches and expand artistic exhibition areas to attract readers.

 

 

I also like that fact that the signs in Children’s Library are big and the instruction is clear. The categorization of the books in alphabetical order is clear and definite to help readers to find books easily.

 

 

Additionally, I was impressed by the multimedia facilities and its accessibility for children. Notice that there are three areas providing computers for child and their parents to use the library database, search the online resources, and play games together. The accessible little chairs and tables are especially designed for young kids. Furthermore, every space is “functional” and designed for certain purpose. To illustrate, the Tree Top Room is for the youngest children have storytelling time and programs there, and the reading room providing with round tables and comfortable coaches is for pre-school kids to read and interact with other learners. This reminds me of considering the “functional purpose” for each learning space when redesigning the Art Library at Stanford.

 

 

 

 

Dan - Nice reporting and observations here and good job connecting with your team project.  I also enjoyed hearing about your interactions with the librarian, what else did they say?  These pictures help me understand what you saw and I hope that they help connect with the art library project.

 

May 21, 2008

Observation @ Stanford East Asian Library

 

Stanford East Asian Library is located in the 4th floor of Meyer Library. This was the first time that I came to this library. Because of my background- being born and raised in Aisa, this library seemed to be extremely friendly and familiar to me. I spent an afternoon there from 2 pm, but there were less than 15 users (included the librarians) in the library.

 

 

Based on my observation, there were no open discussion areas for students and the individual studying areas were limited. Only two long tables and one rounded table are provided. Furthermore, the magazines, books, journals collection from east Asia were not as many and updated as I expected. Nevertheless, the library is very bright and uses a lot of natural light thanks to several big windows. As for our project, we would also like to use natural lights and bright colors of walls to enhance the studying atmosphere in the Art Library and extend users’ time spending there.

 

 

Dan - Nice reflection here, I'm glad you were able to go to this library.  What would you say are the key missions of this library? I liked the observation about natural light, what are some ways that might support collaboration? Thanks again.

 

4/16/2008

What have you learned in graduate school? How do you know?

 

Design thinking -- I have taken several project-based design classes during Fall and Winter quarters including Web-based Technologies in Teaching and Learning, Human Computer Interaction, Curriculum Construction, and Interactive Media in Education etc. From the weekly readings and hands-on experiences I learned the concepts of backward design, multimedia design principles and user-centered. I come to realize that it is essential for a designer to put him/herself to users' shoes so as to design friendly user interfaces and products.

 

Applying learning theories to real situations -- From Winter quarter, I worked as an intern at LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. - a toy company developing innovative technology-based learning products . In order to help parents understand how their kids learn, our team wear in parents’ shoes to observe children’s learning behaviors in the daily life. We used various learning theories such as Dewey's learning by doing, Vygotsky's egocentric speech, Piaget's imitation theories and so on to analyze kids' behaviors from a large number of streaming videos. I feel excited to have such a great chance to apply the learning theories to real situations!

 

Teamwork -- I have plenty opportunities to work as a team. For example, class assignments, the master project and the internship. The teamwork enables me to learn from others’ advantages. I especially like the process of brainstorming with the peers, because every time I felt that I have learned a lot from the team members.

 

Network of people -- Teachers and students are really creative and hard working at Stanford. Individuals have distinct talents and skills. The LDT cohort hold study groups or informal workshops such as Flash to sharpen our technical abilities from time to time. I appreciate the opportunity to learn from the peers and to study in such an energetic and cooperative learning environment!

 

 

4/9/2008

1. What are your goals for graudate school?

My goals for graduate school are to use new technologies to support future learning activities.

 

2. What are your goals for this class?

I am interested in designing, and I would like to learn the concept as well as the process of design.

One of my goals for this class is to learn creative design thinking and to implement tehchologies into formal and informal learning spaces.

 

3. How do you see them intersecting?

I think the class can help me apply one or more learning theories that I have learned into real situation and learning spaces.

 

Dan - Thanks for the comments Annie. Do you have any particular topics that are of interest to you? One thing we will try to do in this class is to let the activityies that we hope to accomplish drive the design process for space and technologies.

 

Whitney - I am excited to take this class with you and I look forward to getting an international perspective on designing learning space. How has your education in Taiwan impacted how you look at physical learning environments? What have you learned at Stanford that will help support learning?

 

Rolf - Nice questions, Whitney. There seems to be a trend in people's comments and goals involving learning from eachother. Annie, have you thought about which might be more appealing to work on - formal or informal learning spaces? I worked on a museum project last year that was a lot of fun. Many of the students last year with long-term goals involving school work chose school-based group projects with great results as well.