Last week I met with Sarita who is the graduate student that I am working for this summer. At our meeting Sarita told me about the project I am working on this summer and what I need to work on. The project I will be working on this summer is developing a class to get high school students involved and interested in computer science. So many students use and enjoy the products of computer science like cell phones, computer games, websites, etc., but most seem to think that the field of computer science is boring. Our theory is that computer science is not being presented to students in an interesting way. So the course we plan to teach this summer is an introduction to Human Computer Interaction (HCI) for high school students. The students will be thinking about and learning how to develop interfaces and devices so that anyone, especially themselves can use them.
So this week I began working on the project. My first task has been to flesh out the syllabus for the course we will be teaching the students this summer. I was given an outline of what the students should be thinking about and learning each day. I took those 3 or 4 lines for each day and expanded them to about 3 pages of information for each day. Though I have to admit, I did include graphics. My primary resource for filling in the brief syllabus has been college HCI course pages on the Internet. I have finished writing out details for the first 4 days of the course (at least until someone revises them).
So now I'll write out a snapshot of what the students will be doing in the first 4 days of the course. The first day we will be discussing the goals of the course and what HCI actually is. In order show the students how important HCI is we'll talk about what classes you can take, what jobs you can get, and current projects within the field. Day 2 will be a lot of brainstorming. We'll talk about how old technologies have been developed. Then we'll compare a good design and a bad design for a current day technology. At the end of class, the students will brainstorm about their major class project. On day 3 the students will learn the basic rules and etiquette of working in groups. Then they'll break up into teams and get to know one another with an ice breaker game. Then they'll brainstorm how to create a movie suggestion application. Based on what they learn about one another through the ice breaker game, they'll pick roles for each person, Group Manager, Writer, or Designer. Then they'll brainstorm some more about their major projects in groups. The last lesson plan I created this week is for day 4 in which the students will learn about interviewing. The students will learn to determine who their user is, how their technology will be used, and what questions to ask a user during an interview. They'll use these concepts to brainstorm ideas for creating a digital picture frame and ideas about their major project.
Well that is most of the work I have done this week, though I had many other things to do like filling out paper work and running it to the other side of campus. Since I am new to the area, I did some tourist things over the weekend like visiting the botanical gardens at Piedmont Park, CNN Headquarters, and Olympic Park. I also spent some of my free time exploring campus and the surrounding area. I also did some practical things like finding the nearest grocery store, the nearest Catholic Church, and the nearest coffee shops... All very important places in my opinion.
Week 1
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Week 2
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Week 3
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Week 4
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Week 5
Week 6
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Week 7
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Week 8
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Week 9
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Week 10