Q1KateStarbird

Document Q1KateStarbird

1. Your Name

Kate Starbird

2. Your field of study?

ATLAS - technology, education, society

3. In which semester of study are you?

4th

4. Why are you interested in taking this course?

I hope that this course will inform the design of my dissertation project. I plan to use social networking sites as educational spaces for extra-curricular learning in adolescents and teenagers.

5. What courses / work activities / background knowledge do you have which might be relevant to this course?

In addition to the Digital Social Systems course, I have taken a course in User Interaction Design and a survey course in Human Computer Interaction. I have also taken qualitative research methods through the School of Education.

6. Indicate your own digital literacy / fluency:
6.1. Describe your programming experience (languages, projects)

My undergraduate degree is in computer science. I am proficient in C++, Ruby, MySQL and OpenGL. I have some experience in Java. I am, for the most part, a Mac person.

6.2. What applications are you familiar with (e.g. Photoshop, Canvas, Dreamweaver,...)?

I have used a few different 3D modeling platforms. But most of my experience in end-user graphics is outdated.

7. Give a brief description of the most important book / article which you have read with respect to the topic of the course.

I have been thinking a lot about the book, "Diffusion of Innovation" by Everett Rogers as it applies to internet technologies along with the seeding/re-seeding model proposed in the DSS class. A potential problem lies in the rejection of an early software prototype, where users are disinclined to try a later version of the same project. Especially as we consider end-user content generation as vital to building a successful Web 2.0 product - how do we introduce an early version and start building the content, without risking early (and final) rejection?

8. What do you hope and expect to learn from this course?

I hope to learn more about how to produce a novel and creative design - as well as how to provide tools that allow others to be creative. I have a specific project in mind (social networking and education), that I am building towards, and hope to make progress towards the design of that through this course.