What are your goals for graduate school? What are your goals for this class? How do you see them intersecting?

This is my fifth year at Stanford (I did my undergrad here) so it'll be strange leaving this year. I decided to stay another year for grad school because I didn't feel ready for the "real world". I wanted to develop some more skills and also just figure out what really excites me. During this year I have more of an idea of what I want to do after school, but I hope to continue to gain the skills I need to find a fun and fulfilling job.

I am interested in Human Computer Interaction and Design stuff so the design and creativity aspect to this class intrigues me. I attended the Zoo brainstorming session last quarter and really enjoyed it so I am looking forward to doing more collaborative design work in this class. I definitely feel that brainstorming and idea generation is a skill, so it'll be good to work on this. Additionally, prototyping and using technology to portray my ideas is especially important so doing some more of this would help me not only practice but also build on my portfolio.

Here's to a good quarter!

Dan - Thanks Claudia. I'll challenge you to refer back to his possting throughout the quarter to see if you are meeting these goals, especially with respect to improving your idea generation expertise. I also think your experience in HCI can help guide the team project so be sure to think about how your experience in one field can be applied to another.

Paitra- Hi Claudia, Thank you for sharing your learning goals. I really enjoyed reading about your interest in the design aspect. I am in the POLS program and do not have a lot of opportunity to do design but also find it very interesting and hope to expand on my abilities. I also really appreciated your attention to brainstorming and how generating ideas is a skill. I think many people forget that and take it for granted, so thank you for reminding me.

Rolf - Claudia, I totally understand wanting to stick around Stanford for an extra year to do more exploring. I would say definitely think about ways to integrate HCI into the learning spaces that we work with in class. I personally love thinking about digital interfaces in public spaces, so I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts in class.

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

So far in graduate school, I've definitely learned more about designing educationally oriented products and learned some practical skills in developing facebook applications and instructional websites. I think the most important thing I've begun learning though is about what I type of work I enjoy doing and the type of people I enjoy working with. The many group projects this year have definitely been challenging, but they have been great experiences.

Now how do I know that I've learned these things? Well, I can tell primarily by my thought processes. I can expand my idea generation now that I know more about learning theories. I also can more accurately design a facebook application and website now that I've had hands on practice and experience developing it. Aside from being able to do some physical programing skills now, most of the learning is all internal and I know I've learned when I find myself recalling information from classes in other classes and activities.

Hiro - Claudia, thank you for sharing your thought! I think you have learned a lot of things and you have been enjoying very much! I also have had a great experience from some group projects and believe it will contribute to my business career. I believe everything you learned so far is useful for your future career as well. Don’t worry! I think you are definitely right on track (: Also, hope we have much greater experience in our group project!

Lynn - Hi Claudia! I love the way that you articulated how you know you've learned. I look forward to taking a look at your portofolio at the end of this year! ;o)

Field Trip to Yang and Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building

When Lynn, Hiro, and I first entered the Y2E2 building, we were greeted by a cozy looking sitting area and an abundance of natural light. I was intrigued by the red walls and really tall skylight (which I learned from Lynn was called an atrium), but I wasn't sure based on this first look what exactly we were supposed to learn here. For my team at least, we were excited to look for things that we could use for our own project. We liked the sofa chairs that you could put together for larger chairs, and the foldable, accordion-like glass wall of the conference room to the left. These two examples reflected the type of "space altering" we want to capture in our project.

As we ventured in further, we saw a plaque that described the purpose of this building and explained the prevalence of glass walls for the study rooms: to promote collaboration and unity. I thought it was helpful to be able to see from a quick glance upwards whether or not rooms were free, but I could definitely see these open spaces as being very distracting. If I started spacing out, I could see myself being curious and looking at other study rooms to see what they were doing. The study rooms themselves were pretty nice. My team especially liked the whiteboards that stretched across two parallel sides of the room. One thing I wasn't sure of was the positioning of the lights (see image below). I thought the could get in the way of writing on the wall, but Lynn brought up a good point that it might be pretty helpful to have them so close to where someone would be presenting.

While my team definitely picked up some aspects of the building that we wanted to adopt for our own learning space, I didn't fully understand what type of learning was supposed to be done here (aside from the CEE classes and projects that were probably held here). We talked about this question in our group, trying to flesh out an answer, and thought that maybe, as visitors, you would learn about the collaborative process by being able to look into different learning environments throughout the building. Much of the time, I felt like a visitor in a museum, where I could potentially also learn about what made this building green by observing the different characteristics of it, like the abundance of natural light, recycling receptacles, use of material, etc. I think the huge ceilings and doors added to this museum like feel, so while it was a very welcoming space, it was still quite formal feeling.

Dan - Thanks for documenting this so well.  I especially like your last comments about it feeling like a museum.  I wonder what students, staff, and faculty think about the place and its formality too?  I wonder what they might think in a few years after it has been lived in for awhile. 

Library Visit: Music Library

One thing that stands out automatically when thinking about a music library is the absence of music. Libraries are represented as places that are quiet and very serious, but as a music library, I wonder if this idea could be experimented with. Looking at what type of learning happens here, I guess this idea might be hard to implement without annoying users.

The music library overall is actually pretty small in comparison to the other libraries around campus. At the entrance there are several computers and two tables in the middle that seat four (though given the quietness of the library I don't know how often they are used for group work). In the back there is a closed off area with various reference materials. At first glance, it may seem that this is the extent of the music library (which would be sorta sad) but to the left there is a set of stairs that lead to even more stacks of books and desks. The desks on the bottom floor are cool because they all have some sort of technology - like cd players, keyboards, even record players. It's assumed that each occupant of the desk will have their own set of headphones as they listen, hence my comment above about having music playing in the library being distracting. It'd be great if there was some sort of listening materials at the desk already so for people who are studying to explore different music without having to search for it themselves. I could see that as being a fun learning method that the librarians could arrange and switch up every so often. Handouts could be provided to let users know what they can listen for in the records, like different instruments and melodies.

Overall, given how quiet the music library is, I feel as though learning is very individualized. Even the technologies seem to only have one headphone jack, which is unfortunate (although perhaps they have splitters at the front desk.) What would be cool is if they had several glass rooms (like the video viewing room they have in the back downstairs) where music majors could play and others could listen in. Even having multiple headphone jacks would be great to allow multiple people to work together. Somehow learning about music in a music library makes sense, but currently, it is up to the individual to find it on their own. If the library facilitated that somehow and promoted collaboration, the role of the music library would change from quiet study room to engaging learning space.

Dan - These are nice reflections about connections - or lack of - between the subject matter (music) and the space (library).  How do you think this might be different if instead of calling it a library, the place was a "resource center" or "archive" or "collection".  Is it enough to just change the title of the space or do you need more for a cultural change?