Category Archives: #SBUdisrupt

Weekly iPad Reflection Chris W

After almost a full semester of occupying the iPad, I don’t know how I am going to live without this thing.  All my assignments and a majority of my internet browsing are done using the iPad.

Stony brook University uses a website called Blackboard to distribute assignments, post grades and weekly reminders, and have the students interact with one another. I navigate blackboard exclusively form my iPad. The layout is nicer. The design is nicer. Everything is nicer on the app end of Blackboard.

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Web version of Blackboard

imageApp version of Blackboard

The main difference between the two is the active panel the app version has. It is easy to navigate the different tabs as well as see exactly where you are.

Right Shark Design Challenge for "Critique"

Challenge: Design a mobile app that supports peer critiquing using gamification elements.

Restated from original: “How can we create a mobile environment that supports peer review and feedback through gamification?”

Process: This challenge was chosen after carefully evaluating the positive and negative attributes of each of the suggested challenges made by team members. Our evaluation included the following discussion:

What stood out about each idea?
Kate’s idea is good for faculty and students.
Chris’s idea is simple.
Ken’s idea seems like something people could use a lot, and use to make some income in an unstructured and unstressed way. It’s like Cuddle for the whole campus.
Shady’s idea has a lot of potential for presenting information visually through maps and reports, and create serendipity through GPS and potential for online discussion around events.

Are there patterns or areas of overlap?
Kate’s and Ken’s ideas could be somewhat combined for critiques and collaboration in the same app.

Are there areas of multiple interest in the ideas?
Kate’s idea could potentially be used as a portfolio site or for networking.

Strengths, weaknesses, needs, constraints.
Shady – mapping multiple events in the same building could get cumbersome
Chris – app doesn’t really do that much

Identify who each idea is for (audience)
Kate – faculty, artists, art students, possibly app developers and other students.
Ken – students, faculty working on projects
Chris – students
Shady – students, campus clubs, administration

Are the ideas focused on solving their problems?
Yes, each one will work to resolve specific problems for the intended audience.

What we know about the challenge we chose:

Students can benefit from feedback on their work
Gamification can be effective in incentivizing behavior

What we don’t know:
What methods of gamification can work for this application. Since it’s similar to Quora, we can perhaps analyze their methods.

What are the limits to the types of projects that can be critiqued?

Research Questions and Methods:
How can this be built as an app, from a technical perspective (i.e. what language or platform(s) to be used)
How can this be marketed?
What’s the budget?
What’s the target audience?

How is it supported?

Will the audience be willing to integrate it into their work flow?

Kate's Weekly Create

Reese & Roxie
This week’s create involved using the Slate app to tell a story. Since I used slate last week, I wanted to try something different from what I usually do and though I had several ideas that I will be trying on my own time, I decided it would be interesting to see how slate could be used by students to help the community. I volunteer at a local animal rescue center and wanted to use the platform to feature the story of their adoptable pets. After visiting the dogs, hearing their background, and making a few paintings for a personal touch, this app is fantastic for quickly putting together a finished product and I could see this being very useful for student work. I was able to produce everything including the watercolors on the go which was really helpful. My only issue with the app is that though I love the one option that allows you to have the window move over the image, it’s height depends on the screen dimensions which is not always obvious if you are doing it on the iPad. This may make the content not look right on all devices or orientations. I would love a bit more flexibility.

 

Too Disruptive Design Challenge for InteGreat App

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Too Disruptive Design Challenge:
How can we create an engaging social media platform / campaign called InteGreat, which will promote cross cultural events and activities at Stony Brook that encourage the diverse community at the university to develop an easy appreciation of, and deep respect for cultural differences within the community?

We are convinced that through social interaction, people from different socioeconomic backgrounds can get to know each other and at the same time participate in a nationwide movement to increase awareness that communities across America need to engage in activities that improve race relations.

We decided to focus on this app after discussing the pros and cons of the other app ideas put forward by:
Richard – Educational App to replace Blackboard
Katherine – App to airdrop notes to other students in close proximity
Chris – Task manager app that allows delegation and progress reports

One reason we decided on InteGreat was that the other three apps have certain areas that overlap, but we could not figure out how to combine these common features to create a compelling design challenge phrase. InteGreat seems like the most feasible app to create, and it has practical applications that are needed in the SBU community and in American society on a large scale.

Regarding INTEGRATION at Stony Brook, this is what we think we know:
SBU is an extremely diverse campus (but not necessarily integrated).
The diversity extends beyond each category into tons of sub-categories.
Students at SBU come from a wide variety of socioeconomic backgrounds:
– Variety of ethnicities – the percentage of each ethnicity that attends SBU.
– Variety of countries.
– Variety of places within those countries.
There are dozens of USG-funded clubs / groups based on religion, origin, interests, music, sports, art, academic areas, gender issues, politics, etc.
Number of members and funding that each club has and which clubs are most popular.
Integration is different than inclusion.

Here’s what we DON’T KNOW:
What efforts to increase integration at SBU already exist?
Do students, teachers, staff at SBU perceive a problem with integration?
What is Student Activities doing? Office of Cross Cultural Affairs? Study Abroad? International Students Services? Faculty? Advising (undergrad. colleges, ATAS, Honors, WISE, Scholars, Athletes)?
Are certain academic departments more aware of the state of the integration situation? Sociology? African Studies? Philosophy? History? Etc?
What is EOP doing (Educational Opportunity Program)?
What events have gone on in the last year at SBU to promote improve race relations?
What events are planned?
Have these events had an impact on individuals/communities and their integration within the community?
What is the general feeling of the SBU population to how different groups interact and work together?
What is the actual turnout from these events and is there any follow-up built into these types of meetings?
Do people want to break out of their shells and meet others?
Is the problem segregation or exclusion? These are two very different, but somewhat related terms.

This discussion and brainstorming is guiding us as we develop specific research questions, goals, and methodology.

Ken – Student App Idea

My app idea is an online marketplace, basically like Fiverr or oDesk but specific to Stony Brook. People could do small freelance jobs for each other in exchange for credits, which they can cash out or spend on hiring people to do jobs for them. Some examples might be designing a resume site for someone or making a logo for their app. I imagine many departments could use this a lot, for instance if the music department needs a programmer or the computer science department needs an artist. Basically it would create a market for trade within the campus.

I feel that limiting it to the campus would increase the quality of work over other online freelance marketplaces, and offer a greater degree of accountability since you might know somebody who knows the person hiring you. It could be integrated with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Yammer to use already existing social connections, allowing you to vouch for someone or find a friend of a friend with the skills you need. It would also provide an opportunity for networking or friendship among students by working on each other’s projects, and experience delegating parts of their own projects.

iPad reflection – Shady – Week 10

This is going to be tricky, because I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar already exists.

I would like an app that would show me a map of all campus activities going on per day. I.e. when I would open the app, I would see a map with push pins, i.e. one at the stadium representing a soccer game at 6pm today, and that at Staller there will be a play at 8pm.

I would also like it to have different color pins, i.e. green representing events today, blue representing events tomorrow, yellow representing events in the upcoming week.

The app would also provide alerts when you are near an event. I.e. Soccer game 100ft ahead in 1 hour.