My OperaThesis update
Thursday, December 8, 2005 5:00:15 PM
Dec 7th 2005
I had a phone conversation with my thesis supervisor. It went well. We discussed a number of issues and built on directions I should be perusing. The thesis is still broad but by the end of the conversation I think it needs to be narrowed to. I have a large number of components that I am trying to incorporate into the thesis but the main focus needs to be on design issues. I am designing a training systems or aid to help design students learn design software. Considering it will be online it will deal with interface design issues. I don't need to reinvent the wheel here. There is already loads of work that establishes what a training systems does and what feature sets it contains so it is not that I have to redesign that. What I have noticed is that a number of training systems are not aesthetically interesting. So, with this on the table my supervisor and I began discussing how aesthetics effects credibility, motivation in learning, interest, and other cognitive factor around learning. We talked about learning peripherally, how learners learn for a large number of components in the systems. For example, how learners can learn from the context the teacher delivers, the medium the teacher delivers information, the design of the information presented, and from the teacher as a vehicle for knowledge.
In the end I see a areas that still need weeks of thought and review. By the end of December I will have started my synthesis of literature reviews, my two ethics applications, and mapping out the terrain diagrammatically, and arrange more meetings with my supervisor. Lots to do and Christmas too.
Crazy
I had a phone conversation with my thesis supervisor. It went well. We discussed a number of issues and built on directions I should be perusing. The thesis is still broad but by the end of the conversation I think it needs to be narrowed to. I have a large number of components that I am trying to incorporate into the thesis but the main focus needs to be on design issues. I am designing a training systems or aid to help design students learn design software. Considering it will be online it will deal with interface design issues. I don't need to reinvent the wheel here. There is already loads of work that establishes what a training systems does and what feature sets it contains so it is not that I have to redesign that. What I have noticed is that a number of training systems are not aesthetically interesting. So, with this on the table my supervisor and I began discussing how aesthetics effects credibility, motivation in learning, interest, and other cognitive factor around learning. We talked about learning peripherally, how learners learn for a large number of components in the systems. For example, how learners can learn from the context the teacher delivers, the medium the teacher delivers information, the design of the information presented, and from the teacher as a vehicle for knowledge.
In the end I see a areas that still need weeks of thought and review. By the end of December I will have started my synthesis of literature reviews, my two ethics applications, and mapping out the terrain diagrammatically, and arrange more meetings with my supervisor. Lots to do and Christmas too.
Crazy
