2022-2023
Learning Design and Technology
Master's Portfolio
Stanford Graduate School of Education
About Me
Brief Introduction
I taught high school science and technology in Oakland and San Francisco for 6 years. I also enjoy teaching math and am passionate about improving STEAM education. Science became a significant part of my life in high school when I worked on algae research with my biology teacher, which led me to pursue nutritional sciences in college. Currently, I also support high school teachers connect with technology.
Why LDT?
I am passionate about bringing better technology integration into K-12 spaces. I hope to develop tools and design new systems that help teachers connect and learn about edtech tools and physical technology in the classroom.
Fall 2022 Quarter
Course List - Exploring the Landscape
EDUC 229A LDT Seminar | EDUC 254 Digital Learning Design Workshop |
EDUC 445 Entrepreneurial Approaches to Educational Reform | EDUC 421 Powerful Ideas for Learning Sciences |
LAW 7806 Redesigning Dispute Systems
Finding and learning to work on a team
Learning to Interview
What is the goal? What is our design challenge?
Learning Sciences
Finding and Learning to Work on a Team
The Challenge
Finding a team with a connected idea.
How We Met
We were placed together in a group of 6. Every single person in the group came to LDT with a goal in mind with differing ideas on what they wanted to achieve. After a few weeks of working with Yehao and Fabiana, we decided to team up.
What I Learned
I learned how to let go of certain aspects of what I imagined my project to be. I also learned that working on a team allowed for more creativity that brought out better ideas.
Learning to Interview and Needfind
The Challenge
Figuring out how to interview properly with experts, especially in the beginning. We didn’t have a good direction about our design challenge.
What We Achieved
We created a set of generic questions to help us through our interviews, but we didn’t actually use most of them. We also clarified our design question and our project idea. We completed 5 interviews with experts and 7 teachers.
What I Learned
I learned that it’s important to listen to the interviewee and ask follow-up questions to understand the reasoning behind their answers.
What is the goal? What is our design challenge?
The Challenge
Defining our design goal.
What We Achieved
We decided to create a teacher review site for edTech tools. Teachers will share how they interact with their tool and how they’re integrating the tool into their classrooms.
Our design challenge we want to solve is teacher’s struggle to connect with technology tools and finding tools.
What I Learned
I learned determining the pain in our challenge is really difficult and takes a long time to make it meaningful. Also my team is great! They really help us stay focused on our goal.
Learning Sciences
The Challenge
Finding how to connect our design challenge to learning. How do we help teachers learn how to integrate edtech tools without it being too much work?
What We Achieved
We needed to understand who our learner was. My meeting with Karin helped identify how the teachers will learn from our platform, but we also needed to decide how to connect our platform to learning theories. There are two learners: Searcher and Reviewer. Both are contributing to a community of practice and through participation of reading and leaving reviews, teachers are learning through expertise.
What I Learned
Incorporating learning theories into our platform elevated the impact of the platform and supported how we have been designing our platform for our learners.
Winter 2023 Quarter
Course List - Diving Deeper
EDUC 229B LDT Seminar | EDUC 398 Core Mechanics of Learning |
EDUC 315A Introduction to Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning | EDUC 200B Qualitative Methods in Research |
EDUC 254 Digital Learning Design Workshop | EDUC 215 Internship Workshop
Prototyping Thubly 1.0
Learning from Prototypes & Experts
Pivoting Thubly 1.0
Internship with SFUSD
Prototyping Thubly 1.0
The Challenge
Testing Thubly 1.0 Edtech Review idea with teachers and confirming there’s a need for this product.
What We Achieved
We created sample reviews and gathered feedback on what kind of reviews were helpful. We also tested to see if teachers were willing to leave reviews when provided a template.
What I Learned
We identified reviews that showed application and provided templates were the most useful to teachers. However, these types of reviews required a lot of time and effort on the teacher end. They will not be intrinsically motivated to share.
Learning From Prototypes & Experts
The Challenge
Learning to accept not positive results from prototyping and criticism from experts.
What We Achieved
We attempted to post on various edtech online groups to encourage teachers to write some reviews. We also met with some experts who did not seem excited about our “teacher learning community” and edtech review idea.
What I Learned
We learned to accept our unsuccessful attempts to sell a “teacher learning community”/review idea. We were at a roadblock, and it was difficult to overcome this hurdle. The team decided we needed to pivot.
Pivoting Thubly 1.0 to 2.0
The Challenge
How do we make edtech tool integration in teaching practice easy and efficient? Revision what Thubly will look like for teachers.
What We Achieved
We pivoted to creating expert edtech posts that show how tools are utilized within the classroom. We are building value for teachers by providing downloadable templates for quick use. Teachers will also be able to engage with the posts further by commenting and sharing in various ways in the expert posts.
What I Learned
Pivoting is hard and accepting criticism is even harder! But after pivoting, we feel that the product is stronger than ever. Our project also feels much more focused than it had in the past.
Internship With SFUSD
The Challenge
Balancing the immediate needs of teachers and school.
What I Achieved
Throughout this quarter, I’ve been working at the previous high school I was teaching at. Teachers and staff struggle with understanding, utilizing, and connecting to technology. I have done my best to support the needs as best as possible by going on-site at least once a week and providing one-on-one direct support to teachers. This quarter, I have also organized relocating a staff copy room on campus and making sure the new copy room is equipped with the proper technology and electrical hook-ups. We also needed to clear the room of e-waste.
What I Learned
School staff are really struggling with the fast changing technology. They also have difficulty making technology decisions that would support the school needs. I wonder how we can support schools with technology going forward, so they’ll feel less stressed.
Spring 2023 Quarter
Course List - Fine Tuning
EDUC 229C LDT Seminar | EDUC 234 Curiosity in AI | PSYC 223B Topics in Neurodiversity |
EDUC 215 Internship Workshop
Conducting a Learner Study
ASU/GSV Conference Networking
Applying Universal Design Learning
Thubly Blog
Conducting a Learner Study
The Challenge
Develop a learner study that will show our theory of change is effective in helping teachers learn and integrate edtech tools into their class.
What We Achieved
We made sample expert template and post slides to present to teachers to test our Thubly 4-step process: Search, Plan, Adapt, and Share.
What I Learned
Through pre- and post- surveys we found teachers overall felt more confident about the tools we presented. Teachers all found ways to adapt the templates into their own classes. These results are promising for teacher learning for the Thubly process.
ASU/GSV Conference Networking
The Challenge
There were a few challenges at ASU/GSV. One is feeling confident in my achievements and the projects I’m working on. Second is learning to present myself well and make good connections.
What I Achieved
Through ASU/GSV I found a new momentum of how to reach out to new people and learning about their experiences. Some of these new connections will potentially support my LDT project.
What I Learned
People are interested in my projects! And they’re extremely supportive of Thubly in particular. Edtech leaders definitely observe a need to bridge the growing edtech tools and teachers ability to learn and connect with
Applying Universal Design Learning
The Challenge
How can I support all teachers with learning technology and make the Thubly process easier to use for the average person?
What I Achieved
This quarter I was able to align all the work for Thubly with the UDL guidelines.
What I Learned
In PSYC 223B, I learned various design elements that may help users with autism, dyslexia, and ADHD. We also extensively utilized the UDL Guidelines to help design our prototypes. It was a new experience for me to think of designing products with UDL. I’m more familiar utilizing UDL in designing lessons for my students.
Thubly Blog
The Challenge
Create a blog with various edtech tool templates to understand how people will navigate the platform. We also need to figure out how to categorize the various templates to make it easier for users to find what they are looking for.
What We Achieved
We created our first version of the thubly.wordpress.com blog. We also prototyped with 6 teachers to understand different kinds of categories for teachers.
What I Learned
We’re still working on the best way to categorize the activities, but we learned teachers generally categorize the activities by the 5 categories shown in the chart above.
Summer 2023 Quarter
Course List - Sharing Out
EDUC 229D LDT Seminar | EDUC 211A Maker Tools Learning Lab
Thubly Project Video
Final LDT Master's Presentation & Expo
Final Thubly.com Demo
Finished Makery Projects
Thubly Project Video
The Challenge
Develop Thubly's Project Video. It needs to give a sense of the problem Thubly tries to solve and our solution.
What We Achieved
We used the program Animaker to develop our animated video. I supported with developing the script and recorded the voice-over for the video. Through iterations of script and video edits, we developed a short but direct project video that relays our project quickly.
What I Learned
This is an LDT assignment I felt I didn't have a lot of confidence in completing well. However, we discovered various video making software that made this process much easier. It also took us some time to develop the script and figure out how to best relay the information. The script is just as important as the visuals.
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Initially, we had utilized an auto-generated speech to text function, but through feedback learned that recording a real-human voice sounded much more natural in the video.
Final LDT Master's Presentaton & Expo
The Challenge
Prepare a 20 minute Zoom presentation for our panelists and guests that showcases all the work we have completed this past year. We also needed to prepare a booth to demo our project during the LDT Expo.
What We Achieved
1. 20 Minute Zoom Presentation Video Recording
2. See the above image of our booth! We prepared designed stickers and flyers for our booth. We also created our very own Thubly Expo Markers for educators.
What I Learned
Our final presentation and demo booth were great opportunities to showcase our work for the year. I had a great time presenting and meeting new people. I was also very proud of the work we had achieved because this past year has been a wave of up and downs. We had pivoted various times based on feedback and criticism of our prototypes and everything came together to make a even stronger final product. It was the end of LDT, but it feels like our project because people were very excited about the future of Thubly!
Final Thubly.com Demo
The Challenge
Develop a working demo that showcases the idea of Thubly. This is developed based on the research, prototyping, and design iterations.
What We Achieved
Please visit Thubly.com to see more! We hope to provide an fast and easy way for teachers to adapt, learn, and utilize new edtech tools on the market by providing them with templates and examples of use.
What I Learned
Making a good project is difficult! But also a lot of fun!
My team and I spent hours debating and developing ideas. We all love Thubly in all the shapes it took throughout our LDT year.
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My biggest takeaway is that without my teammates I don't think Thubly would be were it currently is. Great teammates are needed to bounce ideas off of and debate the crazy ideas that you might bring to the table. I also appreciated my teammates the most when we went through lows during our project because we were still doing it together!
Finished Makery Projects
The Challenge
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What We Achieved
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What I Learned
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