• Clarify my short and long-term career goals (my accident forced me to reevaluate)
• Learn how to develop and grow a successful and sustainable business
• Learn how to design learning spaces by taking into account learning theory and practice and the needs of the various stakeholders (students, teachers, administration, staff, donors and the community)
• Learn about sustainable development and how to create healthy environments for people

• Gain a better sense for how learning theory can be applied to the design of learning spaces
• Develop a methodology for incorporating the diverse needs/wants of users into the design process
• Learn how the identity of a community can be reflected in the built environment
• Gain first-hand experience by working on a designing a learning space

 

Annie- Whitney, I am so glad to take the class with you again! I really like your goals of learning business strategies while also learning how to design learning spaces. I hope that I can hear more stories from you during the class and learn from your experiences! :)

 

Annie A - Hi Whitney, Thanks for sharing so much of your experience.  I didn't know how much of a life-altering experience the accident was for you.  I think that your goals for this class are right on target with what the class is designed to teach (e.g. implementing design theory, developing a methodology).  However, I think another main goal of the course to keep in mind centers around using design thinking (e.g. brainstorming, ideation) to reach creative solutions.  Hope you enjoy it!

 

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

 

Professional Development: The primary reason I chose to attend graduate school was for further my career through a general management education.  Looking back, my primary take-away has been to learn how to drink from a fire hose.  I have learned how to process tons of information and extract relevant material and apply this in practice.  I know I have achieved this skill because it now takes me less time to gain key insights from course materials.  On a practical note, I have learned about finance, accounting, economics, marketing, organizational behavior, higher education, play, nonprofit management and much more.  I know I have learned something because I constantly retrieve information I leared in classes.  On reflection, I have learned what I want to accomplish in my professional life and have developed tools to achieve my goals.  Only time will tell if I can achieve these goals…

 

Personal Development: More importantly, the last two years at Stanford have provided me with the opportunity to learn about and from an amazing group of people.  The emphasis on teamwork and collaboration has been a great experience for me.  I have also been challenged to share my views with large groups of people.  I have also learned how to maintain balance despite a very busy schedule.  I know I have learned this because I seem to make time for the things in my life that matter most.

 

Alcatraz – April 2008

 

 

 

Overview

Alcatraz Island (aka The Rock) is a small island located in the middle of San Francisco Bay. It has served as a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison, and a federal prison. Today, the island is a historic site operated by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is open to the public.  

 

 

Learning 

Visitors to Alcatraz learn about the rich history of the place.  Upon arrival, a park ranger welcomes you to the island and encourages you to watch an educational video.  The video breaks down the history of Alcatraz from its beginnings as the first permanent fort on the west coast to the most feared federal prison in the US to the location of a Native American occupation in 1969.  This video guides the viewer to consider different perspective – such as what it was like to grow up on the island as a child (the families of the wardens lived on the island).  The various exhibits in the educational center provide glass encased artifacts in a text rich environment.  One exhibit asks the visitor to test their knowledge through True/False questions.  The most engaging part of the experience is the tour of the prison.  The audio guide provides narration from a number of perspectives – wardens, criminals, and a woman who grew up on the island.  This provides greater depth to the experience as well as more information that available through text.  The narrators guide you throughout the facility and tell tales of the prison breaks and more.

 

Audience 

The primary audience is visitors to San Francisco.  It is also visited by people that live in the bay area (families in particular).  In general, I was part of the target audience because I visited Alcatraz with friends from out-of-town. 

 

 

 

 

The Experience

The use of the introductory video and the audio guide limits the interaction among visitors.  Despite this, visitors are given the opportunity to pause the audio and explore the island at their leisure.  I found that we stopped to discuss the audio only when we went outside.  The interiors were too crowded for interactive discussions.  I found that our discussion revolved around what we didn’t know about the island (the close quarters, the segregation, the families, the Native American occupation, etc).  We also discussed the two sides of being in a prison with such gorgeous views of San Francisco.  You were close enough to see what you were missing but it might be advantageous to a prison in the middle of nowhere.  

 

Team Project

This visit was useful to gain perspective about designing learning spaces.  A prison is a not an ideal learning environment but I was surprised to find a library with great open space and natural light.  This reinforces the concept of using natural light and space to promote learning.  I also took note of the recreation yard.  Everyone – including prisoners – needs an outlet to play and it would be ideal to incorporate this into the school at LPCH.

 

Assessment 

The only assessment on the tour was a simple exhibit that prompted the viewer to answer True/False questions.  I was sent an email questionnaire a day after the tour but it was not specifically designed to test learning. 

 

Dan - Nice observations here of such a famous spot.  I really like reading about the intersection of guidance from a live person - the park ranger, the audio tour, and the group that you visited with.  I also like the detail of the recreation yard and how that might intersect with LPCH.  Perhaps that is an issue that can be framed differently to support more outdoors time for students there. To what degree is PE a part of the state curriculum? I really like your including ideas about assessmnet.  The basic true/false activity is more than most places - interesting to read about the email follow up, did you do anything after receiving the email? Were you supposed to?  Nice work documenting what you did here.

 

Stanford Library Visit

 

I spent the afternoon in the Lane Reading Room in Green Library.  In my work on the design of the new campus of the business school I have heard great things about this space.  See diagram of the space below:

 

 

 

Observations

- Activities: reading, studying, chatting, laptop work, napping :)

- Great natural light

- Very quiet but poor acoustics (noise from people moving in their desk chairs and leather chairs and walking in flip flops was transmitted throughout the room).

- Space encourages individual study in a group setting

- Wispering is the "norm"

- Several people were taking naps (it was warm from the heat wave!)

- Overall: great "reading" room and study room

    - variety of seathing (soft/hard)

    - great lighting

    - view of outdoors (trees, hoover tower)

    - aesthetics encourage study/learning (books, library feel)

 

Team Project

- variety of seating enables different activities to occur in the same space (provides flexibility)

- natural light is key to creating a healthy learning environment

- storage/book shelves can be functional and also create an environment that promotes learning (aesthetic appeal)

 

Dan - Nice description of what actually happened here and paying attention to what pepole were doing.  I also like how your observations of natiural light complement the ones that came from your group's visit to Y2E2 - I'm looking forward to seeing how that comes together along with your flexibility comments in your final project.