Q: What are your goals for graduate school?

I orginally started in STEP (Stanford Teacher Education Program) last year, with the intention of becoming a high-school math teacher.  However, after I was assaulted* by a student at my teaching placement, I decided to switch out of that program and into LDT (Learning, Design, & Technology).  My original goal was to teach for a few years and then maybe start designing multimedia educational material for math students.  I'm still thinking of teaching math at a private school after graduating and developing my material in my free time.  STEP was a very regimented program with no electives; LDT is LDT is very different because it's given me an opportunity to take classes outside of SUSE, including computer science, communication, film studies, and art.  It was like being an undergrad again...

 

 

* Technically the legal term for being attacked is "battery," and "assault" means to but someone in imminent fear of being battered, but if I tell most people that I was "battered by a student," they will think that I was involved in some kind of cooking accident.

 

 

 

Q: What are your goals for this class, and how do you see them intersecting?

When I was in STEP, we talked a little about the physical layout of classrooms.  One of the general themes was how to make students feel like the classroom was "their" space, such as having student work on the wall, whether to let them feel free to write on the board (as opposed to seeing it as "the teacher's space"),   There was a big divide between people who thought that students should be sitting in rows (like traditional classrooms) and those who thought students should be sitting in groups.  (I was definitely in the first category on that one.)  One odd discussion was about whether it was appropriate to have a couch in the classroom.  Some people said that it created an informal atmosphere, which, depending on their perspective, was either good or bad.  Others said that it promoted "class distinctions" because some people might be privileged to sit on it and others might not.  Me, I just wanted to focus on teaching math.  The truth is, I've never really wanted to be anything but a teacher.

 

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

Since starting in SUSE, some of my favorite classes have been outside of the School of Education.  I took a class in the Communication Department called "Digital Media and Society."  This class really affected my understanding of the nature of technology, helping me see beyond the hype of surrounding the latest consumer electronics and Internet fads to see that many "new" things are new only in a superficial sense.  One really significant way in which the class changed my way of looking at things was to challenge the popular assumption that technology fundamentally influences the nature of society, rather than the other way around.  For example, the idea that computers have been a "liberating" experience and have created a culture of freedom and independence from hierarchy has been part of Apple's corporate mythology for years.

However, back in the 1950s, computers were associated primarily with the military and large corporations, and they were thought of as an imbodiment of impersonal, authoritarian control.   Frank Herbert's novel Dune, written in the mid 1960s (before the Summer of Love), took place about 10,000 years after human civilization had freed itself from rule by "thinking machines."  They had created a neo-Medieval society and outlawed computers in order to "free" themselves.

Even the "liberating" Internet was originally created for military use. In this sense, it was changes in society that determined the course of development for computers, and they became liberating because we wanted to be liberated.  Unfortunately, this sensibility has put me at odds with much of the message that I've been getting while in LDT, which tends to promote the idea of technology influencing society.  Along these same lines, I chose the book The Myths of Innovation for the Book Club because I'm really into books with a "The Myth of..." theme that challenge the way most people see things.  In my free time, I'm currently reading a book called The Myth of Ability: Nurturing Mathematical Talent in Every Child, by John Mighton.

Dan: Thanks Scott for sharing these reflections.  The divide that you mentioned in the second paragraph here is a very real experience in middle school, high school, and higher education, but is not the issue in K-6 and preschool.  Many things change between elementary and middle school - one is the emphasis on individual performance as opposed to some group-facilitated discovery.  I hope that the book club book that you chose is interesting enough to grab your attention.  One thing that I like about Berkun's book is his strategy of highlighting just how laborious innovation is through debunking some popular myths.  

 

 

Trip to the Palo Alto Children's Library

 

 

My project group chose to visit the newly remodeled Palo Alto Children's Library.  The library is located in a cluster of child- and family-centered resources that include the Lucy Stern Community Center, the Junior Museum and Zoo, and Rinconada Park.  The cluster itself is tucked inside of a quiet, pleasent residential neighborhood far away from the University Ave. commercial district, which is possibly the ideal location for a library.

 

 

Because I grew up in Palo Alto, I had been to this library before, but this was the first time I had seen it in its current form.  This was back when the idea of a library was that it was place where they had books.  Now, apparently, a library needs to be part playground and part dayglow-colored-toy respository.  Fortunately, the books were still there, and despite my not being part of the target audience, I actually enjoyed browsing through some of the ones that were put on consipuous display.  Of particular interest was a book about "gross" things that various animal species to, like the exploding ants.  I also thought that the highly detailed Wizard of Oz action firgures were really cool.

 

 

I think that I've gotten so used to the free and anonymous access to "juvenile" forms of entertaiment cartoons and child literature on the Internet that the nature of brick-and-mortar institutions seems restrictive to me, especially ones that are supposed to be targetted to a specific audience.  In other words, while I consider myself to be a "kid at heart," it can sometimes feel awkward to actually be in a "space" that is designed for kids (especially because the chairs are so small).

 

 

Still, I think that it's important to have well-decorated places like the Children's Library because it will encourage children to become interested in books.  A "boring" library that has nothing but rows of books can seem kind of off-putting to a child.  The Children's Library offers an inviting, safe environment for young kids to learn to appreciate reading.

 

Dan - I like your last paragraph in particular about the importance of getting kids interested in books in the broadest sense.  I wonder how that general interest in books gets translated for gradaute students in education or in art?  Do the library spaces that we have on this campus invite a general love of reading?  I'd say the Bender Room in Green Library does, but I'm not so sure about the others.

 

The Hoover Library

 

Because I grew up on campus, it was hard to find a library that I had not been to.  I chose the Hoover Library because it was an interesting contrast to the Art Library, especially since it was right next to it.  The Hoover Institute is a controversial "think tank" on the Stanford campus, commonly thought of as being "conservative."  Because of this, it has a kind of "icky" stigma among much of the student body at Stanford.   (our contact at the Art Library, seemed bothered by the fact that the Hoover Institute was taking over the old Art Department buildings)

The Hoover Library has an extensive collection of books about political science and political philosophy.  Because the Institute is associated (at least in people's minds) with a certain political orientation, the library's collection is susceptiple to being viewed through this lens, and people may assume that because the library has a certain book, that the Institute is endorsing its contents.  The Hoover Library could probably do a better job of explaining that it is important to possess "controversial" books because people need to have access to these materials in order to study them.  For example, I browsed through the collection of "right-wing" conspiracy theory literature, including the John Birch Society's Blue Book.  The authors of these books are obviously nuts, but these resources are invaluable to someone who wants to study the effect of conspiracist fringe movements in our society.

Dan - It is an interesting place where the associations with the word 'Hoover' are perhaps stronger than with the word 'library'.  What did you notice people doing in there?   Does the Hoover library have any mandate beyond being a repository of interesting things?  the answer may be no, which is a contrast to the art library which to some degree is trying to create a place where people will want to do all kinds of work.