Human-Centered Technology Design

As the title suggests, human-centered design seeks to build solutions to human problems by placing people at the center of the design effort. My training in Human-Centered Technology Design stems from the techniques and educational philosophy of Stanford's d.school, and my focus on education has been primarily in the use of leveraging tech to build solutions for both teachers and learners.

understanding the needs of neurodiverse students

When neurodiverse learners who have attended private institutions find themselves facing a transition to their local public school, they often find the process rocky. Neurodiverse learners, along with their educators and community, need better tools to facilitate their transition from full-inclusion schools to public institutions. Working with Open Mind School, based in Menlo Park, CA, our Learning Design team crafted and prototyped an online platform with dynamic messaging functionality for students, teachers, and families to build more meaningful, collaborative relationships as students mainstream to their local public schools. 

empowering women to become master public speakers

Women, especially those working in the field of technology in the SF Bay Area, need to be valued for the contributions they make to their work. Often, however, they are not afforded the same opportunities as their male counterparts, especially when it comes to leadership positions. Working with Women Talk Design in San Francisco, our learning design team developed an online course for women technologists to learn and improve their public speaking skills. Training in core skill areas, in addition to real mentor feedback and feedback implementation strategies are the key components of this online course. 

the future of feedback: mapping teacher annotations across portfolios 

Teachers often report that they provide the same feedback to students time and again on their writing, with little to no effect. At the same time, student report that the purpose of teacher feedback is to tell students everything they did "wrong" on their paper, and also often do not know how to effectively implement the feedback they receive from their teachers. Carlo, a web-based tool, aggregates teacher feedback and provides meaningful visual displays for teachers and students to use to assess progress over time that is relevant to building long-term core writing skills. Carlo is the focus of my research and design work at Stanford, and will be the focus of my work in the future.