EVAN RUSHTON'S
LDT EXPERIENCE
Events by Quarter
My experience as a teacher turned me into a metacognitive student. I noticed this upon arrival to Stanford in 2013 during my Summer Graduate Student Institute (SGSI) course Designing the Professional and immediately knew that school would be much more rewarding this time around. I crafted personal goals for each course and implemented a strategy to achieve them. Pertinent reflections from each quarter are included below each course list.
My Goals for LDT
1) Develop relationships and discover opportunities
2) Design games/tools to support learning
3) Infuse my teaching experience into learning designs
4) Answer the question: How do you measure learning?
Fall Quarter 2013
COURSE LIST
CS 106A | PROGRAMMING METHODOLOGY
EDUC 200B | QUALITATIVE METHODS
EDUC 229A | LEARNING DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR
EDUC 281X | TECHNOLOGY FOR LEARNERS
URBANST 131 | VIP: VERY IMPACTFUL PEOPLE
EXTRACURRICULAR
D.SCHOOL POPUP: CHOCOLATE HEADS-SPACE
REFLECTION
In my Fall LDT seminar reflection I stated my goals for seminar as “a positive attitude, a critical mind, emotional support, and creative ideas… to create something new and interesting.” This chart I made at the time illustrates my mindset:
Winter Quarter 2013
COURSE LIST
EDUC 229B | LEARNING DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR
EDUC 333A | UNDERSTANDING LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
EDUC 215x | LDT INTERNSHIP WORKSHOP
EDUC 328X | LDT: CORE MECHANICS FOR LEARNING
CS 106B | PROGRAMMING ABSTRACTIONS
EDUC 180S | ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK SEMINAR
EXTRACURRICULAR
D.SCHOOL POPUP: DESIGN THINKING FOR SCHOOLS
REFLECTION
In my Winter LDT reflection I stated my goals as “building relationships, strengthening connections with those already formed, and building real products to be used by real people.” My mindset can best be described by this passage from the same document, “do your own shit, believe in what you do, and share widely... I urge classmates to pursue their beliefs and to question their assumptions. I encourage mistakes and value different perspectives. I came here to learn, and don’t equate that with grades. I came here to build, and remind others that they came here for that reason too.”
Spring Quarter 2014
COURSE LIST
EDUC 229C | LEARNING DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR
EDUC 239X | EDUCATING YOUNG STEM THINKERS
EDUC 269X | THE ETHICS IN TEACHING
EDUC 180 | DIRECTING READING: DAN SCHWARTZ
EDUC 215X | LDT INTERNSHIP WORKSHOP
EXTRACURRICULAR
SF STARTUPEDU: NEW SCHOOL MODELS
REFLECTION
My Spring LDT reflection discussed how I split my time during the quarter and highlights the goal of each focus:
“Educating young STEM thinkers... Qualitative research
CS 142…………………………………......... Web development
Chocolate heads………………….……. Dance
Motion Math…………………………….. Formative assessment with games
Master’s project………………………… Teachers and CCSS-M
Schwartz sessions…………………….. Core mechanics of learning”
My mindset hadn’t changed, but this passage from that document highlights what I was thinking about at the time, “I was overextended and often gave less effort than I would like in order to balance my commitments… CS142 was an experience in self-directed learning, teaming with Kerri has been an experience in constructive collaboration, and our weekly group meetings in seminar were a reminder that teachers are good leaders.”
Summer Quarter 2014
COURSE LIST
EDUC 229D | LEARNING DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR
EDUC 190 | DIRECTED RESEARCH: SHELLEY GOLDMAN
EXTRACURRICULAR
REFLECTION
My final LDT reflection highlights how my goals changed during my time at Stanford. I substantially increased my network, learned a user-centered design process, successfully built a web application, incorporated my previous learning as an educator in supplemental materials for Motion Math, and gained insight around the limitations for various measures of learning.