Week 3 Reflections
I like the article by Allen which talks about the design of the Exploratorium. I would like to consider the first two design considerations (Immediate Apprehendability and User-Centered Design)as the basic premise upon which all designs of learning spaces need to take into account of. In a learning process, unnecessary cognitive overload should be reduced to a minimum to free up the energy needed for more complex learning. It is interesting to note that "comfort factors" on learning is just as important, if not more -- page S24 (Falk and Balling showed that children on school field trips showed higher levels of learning if they were given a pre-visit orientation based on the layout of the museum and opportunities to eat and make purchases from its store, than if they were given an orientation based on relevant biological concepts). Though I am not sure of how the study has been conducted and whether the inferences are accurate, instinctively, I thought it makes a lot of sense if understood in terms of Maslow's hierarchy of needs: satisfy the basic needs first!!
Allen's description of the tension that can arise between designing exhibits to support scientific content versus scientific inquiry processes (page S26) resonates strongly with me, a science teacher. Isn't this the same struggle science teachers face? How much content to be delivered in a didactic mode and how much room for inquiry to incorporate? Which first - investigation then theory or vice versa? How to create that balance in teaching and in the design of exhibits are parallel issues. He also talked about conceptual coherence and diversity of learners in the next 2 design considerations. Again, aren't these the exact same considerations that all teachers take into account of? I really feel that learning space designers need to have a strong background in teaching and learning too -- a good understanding of how different individuals learn as well as how the discipline can and should be approached are very important. This has given me some confidence in learning to be a designer in this course -- perhaps I do have some pre-requisite knowledge afterall :) Having said that, of course, now the challenge is how to make that learning environment speak for itself -- unlike a teacher who speaks to students explicitly, the learning space can only invite learners to interact with it in certain desired manner. How this can be achieved is really a science and art which I hope to get myself acquainted with in this course...