What are your goals for graduate school?

My goal in graduate school is to explore new ways in which kids can learn by having fun, being creative and thinking critically. I am interested in integrating educational games into the school's curriculum to give kids the ability to learn by being immersed in playful virtual learning environments. I am also interested in learning interactively in museums. As part of my internship, I am creating an educational computer game which will be displayed at the Tech Museum.

What are your goals for this class?

In this class, I would like to get a deeper understanding of how spaces can turn into fun learning environments. I am especially interested in exploring how children's museums can be made more educational where kids don't just go around playing with stuff but also learn something throughout their fun experiences.

How do you see them intersecting?

I believe that this class will help me look at the world with a different point of view, realizing learning opportunities in different settings. My aim is adapt this point of view in designing virtual environments or museum experiences in my further studies.

Dan: Thanks for these reflections, I hope that this class will help you consider different settings and users for who you are designing. I am interested in hearing your thoughts on how to connect physical learning spaces with virtual spaces, be sure to check in with Rolf about this too, he has quite a bit of experience with this.

Evelyn: I agree that designers should think deeply about how to have kids not only go around playing with stuff in museums but also learn something throughout their fun experiences. Although I am not good at designing games, I hope to learn to create interactive learning spaces for kinds and inspire their motivation in further studies.

Dave: I also think that learning should be fun... and if it always were, it would be that much more effective. I actually have a strand of interest within me that loves games and designing games and have always been one to make up rules for new games, Calvinball style, on the fly. Sometimes they work, sometimes they dont, but it is almost always fun trying. I think the kids you influence will be glad that you took this course.

Dana That is an interesting point about wanting museums not to be places where kids "just go around playing with stuff." I would love to hear more of your ideas about how to make that happen. I have to confess I was one of those kids who went around playing with stuff at the science museum... the exhibits definitely lend themselves for touching and creativity, but I don't know if I *learned* anything.

Annie A Hi Nesra, I also love your focus of learning through play. IWhile many talk about making spaces more fun, espcially museums through having kids "play with stuff" instead of just looking at it, but I think you hit on the insightful concept that the learning may sometimes be missed. Your emphasis on making sure that they are learning through their fun experiences is a great focus. Keep in mind how tailoring a space to different learning styles might help reach that goal.

Tirzah Nesra, your point about kids engaged in meaningful learning at museums is a great one. One museum that I LOVED growing up is Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. It just has tons of cool, kid-friendly exhibits, and some of them totally stuck with me. One was about how babies develop in the womb (actual 3D casts of fetuses), and one was about the effects of alcohol (we literally put on "beer goggles" that blurred our vision and messed up our balance). If you're ever in Chicago, definitely check this museum out--it could be even more fascinating given the technology at our disposal!

What have I learned in graduate school, and how do I know?

During my experience at Stanford, I think I have learned a lot some of which I believe I will come to realize in the future. I think it's sometimes hard to say what you've learned at that moment, it becomes more clear in the future when you actually start using the knowledge you acquired in different settings. Yet, I know that I have learned about design thinking from my d.school class. I learned about the process of observing people, finding their needs, coming up with ideas to serve their needs and doing user testing for human computer interaction. I have also learned (I am still trying to learn) programming and making games and animations in Flash. This is easier to tell since I had no idea about Flash when I came to Stanford, and now I am able to make small animations and games (but I still have a long way to go to become proficient). I have learned different learning theories which can be integrated into educational games. I am not sure how much of these theories I will remember in the future but at least I know how I can refer back to them and where I can find them if I want to reuse them. I have learned how to make a conference presentation by participating in the IEEE Virtual Reality conference in March. I know that I have learned this, because before the presentation I had no clue about how an academic presentation should be done and I was really nervous. Now, I feel more confident that if I have to present in another conference I will not be so nervous. Apart from the academic work, I believe I have learned how to live on my own (since it was my first year that I moved away from home). I have learned to deal with issues like how to clear a clogged sink and what I should do not to get it clogged again:)

Dave: Nesra, I look forward to working with you on our group project and picking your brain on your learnings from the d.school. Those observation skills in particular will be useful as we explore learning options and effects on visitors at the childrens' museum.

Dana: Those are great. I will do more Flash lessons this quarter!

Library Visit:

For my library visit, I went to the Green Library. Although I had passed by it several times, I had never gone inside. I first stayed at the ground floor for a while. There were a lot of desktop computers that people were working on. It was very silent. People seemed to be studying on their own, not as groups. There were tables that people were sitting at with their laptops mostly and working. There were some book shelves, but I didn't see any one taking books. Yet, I saw that there was a part for magazines and newspapers which seemed to be in higher demand. I saw people taking magazines and reading them on the couches. I felt that computers had taken the place of books, but still people liked reading magazines and newspapers pysically rather than online. I liked the way the floor was surrounded by windows, allowing all the sunlight to come in. Yet, when I went to the second and third floors of the library, I was really disappointed to see that there were very few windows. It was very dark and dead silent. There were a lot of bookshelves that were very tall which nobody seemed to be using. These tall shelves blocked all the sunlight and gave the library a depressing look. There were a lot of desks for studying but they were quite different than the desks on the first floor. These were cubicle desks with high walls which did not allow any interaction with others around. I felt that I would not be able to study well in an area like this. I liked the ground floor better, because it had more sunlight and allowed more interaction while still being quiet.

Dan - I'm glad to hear that you went to several different areas within the library to find ideas.  Interesting that you saw the most people reading periodicals that they could get online just as easily at home.  What from this visit can be useful for your team project?

Y2E2 visit

I visited the Y2E2 building for environmental studies with my group. I think that the building was very well designed and structured, considering many different things. The first thing that drew our attention was the glass ceiling. It allowed the sunlight to come in and made the building very shiny. As we were wondering if the glass could opened to let air in, an environmental engineering student started explaining to us that the panels in the ceiling were designed in such a way that they would open at certain times in the day to let the rising hot air go out.

In addition to the ceiling being made of glass, it was interesting to see that most rooms in the building had glass walls. There were a lot of study rooms for group work surrounded by glass walls all around. These rooms had a lot of white boards all around. Aside their cool design, I felt that privacy might be an issue in these rooms and I wondered if the noise inside would go out.

There was a big open space in the middle of the building which gave it a very open and refreshing look. The study rooms on different levels of the building all opened to this space. It was interesting to see that there was a door opening to the space on each floor (opening into space!). We wondered why they would open those doors, and why they had made them doors instead of windows.

I really liked how each section of the building had a different color assigned to it, making it easier to find your way around. The walls had a fabric over a soft material at different parts of the building with the color assigned to that section. I wondered if these walls were made special for absorbing sound.

I also liked the big bulletin boards incorporated onto the wall near the rooms of the faculty members. They could pin any thing they wanted people to see from the outside. I really thought this was a convenient design idea.

Overall, I believe this building was very interesting in design and could be an inspiration for different projects. Our main take-away for the CDM project I believe is the way they have managed to take the most advantage of the sunlight without making it disturbing.

Dan - I like your final sentence here, distiliing a single takeaway for your team project.  Regarding one of your observations above, how might privacy be thought of differently in these new spaces?  When and where do people use privacy for learning?