Lynn's page

 

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Michiko Lynn Powers

MA Learning, Design and Technology '08

Stanford University School of Education

 

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My learning goals for graduate school are...

 

-To learn how to design learner-centered and user-friendly interfaces

-To gain basic technical knowledge such as graphic creation, website development, as well as e-learning tools in order to create intuitive visual representaions. 

-To understand how to apply solid learning theories to my creative approach in order to develop innovative and compelling learning experiences

 

 

My learning goal for this course is to gain an ability to...

-To identify users' needs and design constraints which dictate certain design parameters

-To layout innovative design considerations accommodating the needs and constraining factors to enhance and maximize users' experiences in different learning settings

 

 

I believe this course will help me train myself to have a flexible, dynamic and open-minded approach to design, and enhance my knowledge and view of learner-centered design.  Moreover, having opportunities to apply thories to design for learning environments will be a great exercise for me to think how to create practical and tangible solutions in an intuitive visual format.

 

Dan I hope that this course can meet your specific goal of applying theory creatively.  Your expertise in visual design will probably be valuable in this course, I encourage you to push others to express themselves visually in our course.  I think our learner-centered approach here can be useful for you but be sure to keep in mind teh role that community plays in learning.

 

Carrie - Hi Lynn, I am also interested in visual/graphic design but have a limited background in it, so I'd like to learn from you in that respect. I think visual design is very important to any type of learning because so much of what we learn on a daily basis is dependent on what first grabs our attention and draws us into the message.

 

Barnard I feel the same way about making learning "user-friendly."  The person creating the learning environment often has motives or interests outside of that of the learner.  My most recent practical discovery is trying to always see things through the lens of the other person- in this case, the learner.  This can be done both practically (crawling around on the floor to see what a toddler might choose to look at) and theoretically (brainstorming about what other people may feel about a subject using what you know about them).  I think exercises like these open our minds while welcoming new ideas and innovations.  I would also hope to learn some visual design from you while we both develop more flexible minds and approaches to design.

 

Dave I too would love to improve my technology skills.  I look forward to learning from your experience and enthusiasm!

 

Annie - Lynn, I am also interested in designing learner-centered and user-friendly interfaces! I think that there are very few spaces put emphasis on these aspects and designed from users' perspectives. I wish we can learn the related design theories as well as the technological knowledge during the quarter!

 

Annie A - Hi Lynn, sounds like you have a great impression of how this course will be useful to you.  I also think that your experience in creating intuitive visual formats could be extremely helpful to your team in creating a dynamic interface to communicate your final design solutions.  I hope you bring some of that technological expertise to your team's project as well as achieve your goals of using the design priniciples in your future work.

 

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

 

 "What I hear I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand."

-Lao Tse

 

I've learned how to effectivly visualize concepts and ideas through creating various prototypes and design proposals in the project-based courses that I've taken such as Human-Computer Interaction, Computers & Interfaces and Interactive Meida in Eduation.  

 

My final product/idea prototypes using Keynotes, Pages, Photoshop, Illustrator, or iMovie articulate my design thinking which went into the production process.  They are tangible representations that indicate that I've learned and internalized key learning theories and key design concepts.

 

 

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Individual Project

 

 

 

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Field trip - Y2E2 (The Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building) - Visited on May 7th, 2008

 

 

I love the quote above; it captures the dynamic nature of the building!

 

(Source: http://environment.stanford.edu/initiative/eande.html)

 

 

 

 

 

 (Photo taken on May 7th, 2008)

 

 

The moment visitors step into in the building, they get blown away by the beautiful space filled with natural lighting and welcoming atmospher.  Visitors feel good by just being in the space because they can clearly sense that they are part of the movement and feautres that are good for the environments by being there or working inside of it appreciating the space.

 

I was impressed by the four atria and the big glass windows/walls/ceiling that lets in sky light throughout the whole building - every room/office/staircase (even on the basement level) - and the gray-water system that is used for the restrooms.  I was also blown away by the building's level of detail: the shelves, railing bars, tables and benches made out of bamboo, huge bulletin boards made of recycled cork, and translucent plastic panels used as a big section of the walls right outside of the offices letting natural light pass through into the hallways.  All these little things combined make the Y2E2 building so unique and environmentally friendly by keeping its ecological footprint small. 

 

 

The Y2E2 building is also such a specutacular space in terms of creating an efficient, collaborative learning environment.  It exceeded my expectation by far in the following aspects:

 

 

I.  User centered design (conference room and study rooms)

 

       - big white board which practically coveres the entire wall/walls

       - light switches are placed on the white board for letting the speaker/teacher control the lighting condition of the room

 

II.  Collaborative learning space design

 

                   - Couches and chairs on wheels - users can arrange the learning space on their own by moving them around

                   - Most of the walls of all the study rooms and conference rooms are made of glass and what's happening there can be seen from outside - this is creating an open, collaborative atmosphere

                     (It could be distracting a little...)

                   - The two sides of the walls that are made of traditional wallboard are entirely covered by a white board allowing multiple people to effectively engage in brainstorming simultaneously on both sides of the room

 

What we observed and learned from the Y2E2 building definitely connects with our team project (designing the new GSB building's study rooms) in the sense that we can emulate its user centered design and collaborative learning space.  We can also incorporate the technique/system of maximizing natural light to brighten up the rooms as well as make them energy efficient.  

 

 

 

 Dan - Thanks Lynn for sharing this.  I especially liked the ideas that connect so explicitly with your team project.  One of the challenges of any learning space is balancing the tradeoffs of attractiveness for inviting folks in for a first visit and functionalism for keeping them there or encouraging return visits.  I think the GSB project offers a good opportunity to explore these tradeoffs.  I also liked seeing langauge like user-centered design in your write-up.  Well done.

 

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Library Visit (East Asia Library) - Visited on May 16th, 2008

 

 

 

Left: Chinese challigraphy

Right a Japanese painting seemingly portraying the culture of the nobility in around AC 900's

 

 

 

 

 

(Beautiful Chinese vases placed in every corner of the library)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left: Taiwanese Temple Wall Figures (18th-19t century)

These ceramic Temple Figures were originally installed on the roofs and facades of temples in Taiwan. They represent Taoist and Histroical Novel figures.  They are all hand molded and hand glazed clay figures which were produced locally by Chiayi craftsmen, in the tradition of the Shiwan potters of Foshan in Southern China.

Gift of Dr. Thomas Hsu, M.D.

 

Right: Wen Zhengming (1470-1559) Chinese painter, calligrapher and scholar

This piece of caligraphy in running style was written in srping 1558 on the "Preface to the Lanting Collection of Poems" composed by the great Chinese calligraphyer Wang Xizhi (303-361), in which he described a summer outing at Lanting in 353.

 

 

 

The East Asia Libray is located on the fourth floor of the Meyer Library.  The library's combined holdings in Chinese, Japanese and Korean make it one of the top ten such collections in North America. 

 

The library itself is small (probably about 6000 sqf), but doesn't feel confining, probably because unlike many other libraries on campus, there is an atrium in the middle and it has large windows and big glass porch doors which let in the sky light and plenty of sunlight throughout the whole space creating a welcoming, comfortable atmospher. 

 

Learning that happens here: Increasing indivisual knowledge base in a given academic arena through reading or doing research with books/journals/newspapers/dictionaries

 

Learning that could happen here: In addition to increasing indivisual knowledge base, learning about various aspects of Chinese/Japanese/Korean cultures from displayed cultual artifacts could happen.  Displayed human-made objects can give viewers information about the culture of their creator and users and help increase their interest level and knowledge base in the most tangible and visual way.  

 

The Taiwanese temple wall figures and Wen Zhengming's calligraphy are the only artifacts which had an information placard explaining what they are, who made them, etc.  The other pieces displayed on the library floor did not have any background information on them.

 

I talked to a librarian on duty and tied to seek more information about the pieces without placards, but the only answer that I got was: "Those things were donated by someone... I don't know who or when...  They are mainly for decoration, though."  Well, those artifacts might be merely used as exotic "decoractions" but we can certainly learn some interesting cultural insights from them.  What a missed opportunity this is!

 

 

Dan - Wow, interesting interaction you just described with the librarian.  I wonder about what kind of training differnet staff people need to leverage the resources of innovative spaces and the opportunities that so many differnet people bring in there.  What training if any, will the GSB need to create for their new campus?