What I have learned in the graduate school and How do I know I have learned?
Stanford is a lot different from my college setup. Culturally, it presents a diversity of races, languages, and religions. In classes, I have many chances to exchange ideas with people who are not the same I’ve used to converse with. Some of them might be many years older than me or from different parts of the world. Because of this amazing diversity, I have re-comprehend the world in a different manner and learn to analyze things with critical eyes. In terms of teaching and learning methods, I feel a sense of respect to be a student here. Professors always encourage students to speak up. They always care about whether students have gotten something out from classes. If students have any question, they are willing to work on problems with students instead of telling them what to do. Asking questions is always seen to be conducive for enhancing understanding. I remembered that when I was preparing HCI mid-term last year, I tried to finish all my readings alone before the test. But Dana, one of my LDT classmates, started asking me several questions which forced my to recall what I have studied earlier. A dialogic feedback loop had been launched. We took turns asking and answering questions and by constant reflections, we found out what we have learned and what concepts we’d better review. It was one of the good examples that explained how I knew I have learned something. Generally speaking, I would test my learning outcomes with the following tips:
1) Whether I can convey ideas explicit to others
2) Whether I can accomplishing a certain task with the skills I have gained
Annie- Hi Evelyn, I can't agree with you more! It is always good to be concerned, whether by the professors or by the peers. I enjoy the learning atmosphere here as well - everyone is encouraged to express his/her own ideas and being respected. I also like your learning tips! I am sure they will be helpful to assess how much I have learned.
Lin- Hi Evelyn, as you mentioned, I also like the learning atmosphere here in Stanford. Although I sometime feel those cultural differences are very challenging to me, I think I have grown a lot going through the language barrier and adjusting myself to the new environment. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
My goal at Stanford and 303X Class:
I did my undergraduate in Taiwan with a major in Journalism and Mass Communication. Because of my multiple interests, I also took classes in advertising, management, and IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication) in college. From these experiences, I have witnessed the changes in media technology and how these changes have impacted the world to accesses and assimilates new information. I want to be at the forefront of this wave. Academically, I want to learn the integration of technologies into many formal and informal learning spaces. I will start from learning pieces of technologies such as wiki, blogs, and so forth and then evaluate their pros and cons for future improvement. Afterwards, I want to redesign current learning environmnets with futuralistic scenarios.
I belive that creativity and futuralistic scenarios should establish on reality. That is, I have to firstly know what we have in present learning environments and how much we could do from this current point. By doing so, I can come up with "revolutionary," but feasible solutions to remove learning hurdles. Since I have several opportunities to examine current learning spaces in this class, I want to brainstorm ideas with my teammates and come up with creative and practical ways of redesigning learning spaces. Furthermore, because we are going to work with a real site, hopefully, our proposal can be implemented by it.
Hiro Hi Evelyn, I like your word, "revolutionary". I also believe that creative senarios can breathe new life into learning environments. As you say, we need to evauate pros and cons cautiously... but I also think revolution often requires extraordinary ideas. Probaby, it takes more than good theories or ideas to bring revolution. Let's think boldly and with flexibility! That is true for me as well, though :-)
Dan Thanks for sharing Evelyn. I'm excited to hear more about how your experience working with the cross cultural rhetoric project can support what we are tyring to do in this class. I also want to challenge you to think about how feasibility can be an opportunity instead of a barrier. Glad to have you with us.
Rolf - Hi Evelyn, Great thoughts. I'm curious to hear more about your interest in new media. Are there aspects of tools such as blogs and wikis that can be adapted to physical learning spaces? I don't know what that might look like, but maybe we'll be able to come up with some ideas through the class.
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Palo Alto Children Library
On May 20 afternoon, our art library team: Scott, Lin, Annie, and I visited the Palo Alto Children’s Library. As soon as I arrived, I was amazed by the interior design of this space. It was not super spacious, but comfortable. Many decorations such as toys and art pieces were well-displayed and lightened the atmosphere of learning. After renovation, this library has been reopen since last September. Land and collection were all expanded. A one-story library was mainly divided into four learning areas: 1) for the age of 3-5 school kids, 2) pre-school kids, 3) kids start to read, and 4) the tree top room for babies. (See Pics )
Area for age of 3-5 kids Pre-school kids
Kids start to read Tree top room for babies
The time we arrived was around 1pm. Only a few of visitors were in the library. A librarian told us that in the morning or at around 3pm, more kids would gather here. Usually, pre-school kids would come in the morning. Thus, we decided to pick up a spot and sat down discussing our final project. A little later, a Korean mother brought two kids to the Tree Top Room. They were using educational software that enabled kids to colorize a rabbit on a computer. After that, another kid accompanied by his nanny also headed for it. His nanny said they came to this library once a week and whenever they came, they would follow a certain pattern of activities. First, this two-and-half year old kid would play this software for a while and then asked for his nanny to tell his favorite story about a dog with a spot.
Korean Mom Nanny with a 2-and-half old kid
What I felt most interested was that based on my observation, most kids had the same learning behavior. As long as they liked a thing, they would do it repetitively. For example, if they like a particular story, they tended to listen to that story again and again. It seemed that they might not actively learn new things unless their parents or nannies force them. In addition, in terms of assessment, I was also wondering what kids could really learn from playing with that rabbit-coloring software. It seemed to me that kids chose the color just randomly. However, I was not saying that this software was therefore useless. Since kids loved it, they might have reasons for that. If they were able to say them explicitly, educators could tailor their needs. Otherwise, teachers or software designers were always experimenting.
What I learned from this field trip was as followed:
1. Organized book categorization; readers could find what they wanted immediately.
2. User-Centered Design:
1) Books were supposed to be accessible. Sometimes, books were placed on higher level of book shelves where readers were hard to reach. As for this, the Palo Alto children library did well. For example, in the Tree Top Room, there were a couple of cabins to place children books that were easy to reach for kids. (see pic A)
2) Every facility was supposed to be accessible for kids. There was a drinking fountain in this library. They placed a chair for kids to step on. (see pic B)
3) Baskets were supplied for visitor to shop around the library. (See pic C)
3. Managing harmonious and pleasurable of learning atmosphere. For example, in the Tree Top Room, kids could play with toys. (See pic D, pic E)
Pic A Pic B Pic C
Pic D Pic E
In terms of our final project, we aimed to create excellent quality of learning atmosphere in the art library. Basically, we want to have it become more artistic by exhibiting art pieces and students' work. We also want to increase a space for a coffee shop and some hospitable environment for group work and individual study. Also, we would like to provide art-majored students with advanced technology facilities.
Dan - Thanks for these comments and the pictures. I like the way you have organized your pictures here as well as some specific details of what you learned in this trip. Your reflections about whether or not kids will seek out new material without the guidance of parents is very valid, and I think absolutely applicable to your tema project with just a small change. To what degree will art and art history students at Stanford seek out new material if not explicitly told to do so by the instructor? Can encouraging that exploration be embedded in the physical space?
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Law School Library
When I was in the English summer school at Stanford last year, a few of my friends had been telling me that the chairs in the law school library were super comfortable. I was motivated somehow to check it out even if it was almost a year later. And the chairs there were indeed super comfortable!
Once I stepped in the law school library, I could tell this place was designed for law school students because it was quite and solemn. Unlike the green library where people in the lobby might chat with friends or talk on cell phones, people here were concentrating on their studies. A little cough might bother them. The individual study space on the first floor was placed orderly. The only place for relaxation was a small area for reading magazines and playing the western chess. It surprised me because I did not see any entertainment facility except media rooms in other libraries. The reason to have the western chess there seemed to be to provide law school students an opportunity to train their logical thinking rather than for pure fun. Almost everyone studied text books and few people used computers. Not much interaction was going on. This kind of learning environment was similar to what I had seen in libraries in Taiwan. This was definitely a good place for studying law, history, and subjects students needed to memorize.
I am not a law school student, and have no ideas what law schools are teaching. But in my sense, students might need some places for discussing case studies, or even practicing debates. I saw some rooms for group meeting on the first floor, but did not know what was happening there. In addition, although there were many computers in the library, students did not have a place for watching films. I was thinking it would be cool for them to get some inspiration from law-related movies.
Although study rooms in the law school library are confined to law school students to use, other places are still open for students with different majors. However, it seems that students other than law school will want to visit it because they cannot get much useful information. What I would suggest is that if librarians can help students in different disciplines tackle law issues by showing them previous case studies, or creating a section for displaying these files, it would be contributive. Otherwise, for non-law-majored students, law seems a recondite subject and they would never be able to touch it.
Dan - This sounds like it was an interesting visit for you. I appreciate your recognition of just how different the activities and perhaps the culture of the law school are from the other disciplines you are familiar with. Your recognition of the changing roles of librarians is also relevatn. How might librarians in the Art Library benefit from your insights here?
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