Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Week 16 - Dec 3

There will be no more assigned readings --- except one! I have posted articles on personas on Blackboard that gives background and use information (thanks Monica for your help!). Because it took so long to post them, you are not responsible for reading them - they are provided as an fyi. I hope that this will free up time for some well thought out final projects (hint hint).

We will use the last two weeks of class to explore the persona idea as a way of synthesizing our discussions and exploring implications for design education. For December 3rd the focus will be on creating personas of instructors and students and using these to "design" educational experiences. For December 10th the focus will be on using personas of instructors and students to assess or validate a set of assessment tools from Denny Davis (see TIDEE).

To prepare for class on the 3rd:
  • Imagine a "typical" design student - think of information that may be useful to understand the needs of this student in terms of what they already know or do, and what they need to learn or be able to do. Remember to ground your ideas in what we've discussed in class (or perhaps something in another class). See if you can create a story about this student with this in mind.
  • Imagine a "typical" design education instructor - think of information that may be useful to understand the needs of this instructor in terms of helping his/her students learn. Remember to ground your ideas in what we've discussed in class or perhaps something in another class). See if you can create a story about this instructor with this in mind. Remember, don't assume that an instructor is a design expert! Be willing to explore the full expert-novice space!

Getting feedback for your final project:
  • December 3rd bring a brief overview of your ideas (e.g., a storyboard, an outline, a 1-2 page description) I'll give feedback on these by December 5th.
  • December 10-12th I will set aside time for people to have one-on-one sessions with me about your project (we'll do sign ups December 3rd).