Dynamic Learning Process

OVERVIEW

I received my MFA in interaction design from the Dynamic Media Institute at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in the spring of May 2011. My thesis research focused on the dynamic learning process and the creation of an interactive learning tool for students with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD). In the development of my thesis, I used an ethnographic approach to observe high school students with APD in a classroom setting. Students engaged in an analog exercise enabling me to observe and document their experiences to inform my design practice. The tools I created provided a multi-sensory, collaborative, and kinesthetic learning experience through writing, reading, and drawing. 

ROLE

Authored and designed an MFA thesis to document students' learning process. My main thesis project "WRD3" was an interactive learning tool for high school students with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD).

Infographic

Prototyping

While prototyping my ideas around how students retain information, I used a blend of analog and digital tools where students would write stories, hear them aloud, and draw them using a interactive, digital environment. These stories were then passed to the next student to see how they were reinterpreted and they might change, visually, from one student to the next.   

Digital Tool

The next stage was to develop a digital tool using Processing (an open source programming language & environment) to create an interface that allowed the students to record their voice, write and draw. The process went as follows: student 1: write & read out loud; student 2: hear & draw; student 1: reinterpret story with drawing; student 2: hear & draw story again. By going back and forth with audio and text, it allowed me to interpret and iterate on the designs based on how different students learned. 

Envisioning an Environment

The final stages for the project were to envision and create an environment that utilized both the analog and the digital forms. As with most students with learning disabilities, especially with ADP, a tactile environment allows them to learn by doing and to interact with their fellow students and with surroundings.