StudioMIT: Learning Communities in Design Education

Dates

September 2000 — December 2002

Principal Investigators

Professor William Mitchell (Dean, Department of Architecture)
Susan Yee (Department of Architecture)
Lili Cheng (Microsoft Research)

Goal

Design, implement and maintain a comprehensive online environment that supports a community of students, staff, faculty, alumni, and prospective applicants for MIT's studio-centered professional degree programs.

Overview

StudioMIT provides crucial infrastructure for a creative learning community that produces and accumulates intellectual products such as architectural designs, images, course curricula, and research papers. More than mere online delivery of content, the system includes mechanisms for producing, managing, sharing, and adding value to these intellectual materials.

The core of the system is an open-ended collection of digital images, workspaces, exhibition spaces and communication capabilities. These interactive personal workspaces also allow members to represent themselves and their work to other members of the community. In addition, there are extensive facilities to support discussions, individual work, group work, and the exchange of news allowing distant and local participants to communicate, collaborate, share resources, and develop their own community practices and spirit.

In collaboration with the Social Computing Group at Microsoft Research, StudioMIT is also developing StudioBridge, a joint research project designed to promote and enhance communication among members. StudioBridge leverages two technologies from Microsoft Research: Victor Bahl's WISH technology, a radio-frequency based system for locating and tracking users on a wireless network, and the Social Computing Group's Bridge project, which graphically publishes real-time location information over a building or campus map. StudioBridge focuses on stimulating social interactions within the MIT Architecture community.

More Project Details from the Principal Investigators

StudioMIT explores a new approach to educational technology — one that emphasizes creative learning communities. StudioMIT provides crucial infrastructure for a creative learning community that produces and accumulates intellectual products such as architectural designs, digital images, course curricula, and research papers. More than mere online delivery of content, the system includes mechanisms for producing, managing, sharing, and adding value to these intellectual materials.

The core of the system is an open-ended collection of continually updated searchable databases. All community members have individual workspaces which provide them with consistent and personalized entry points to digital image collections, community and class workspaces, exhibition spaces, and communication capabilities. These interactive personal workspaces also allow members to represent themselves and their work to other members of the community. In addition, there are extensive facilities to support discussions, individual work, group work, and the exchange of news allowing distant and local participants to communicate, collaborate, share resources, and develop their own community practices and spirit. We anticipate that the StudioMIT environment will grow in value over time as it captures and preserves the contributions of faculty and of successive generations of students and expands and strengthens the MIT design community.

"StudioMIT provides a powerful mechanism for students and instructors to interact. Coupled with the use of wireless laptops, StudioMIT not only allows students to access course content in a very dynamic way, but it also gives a real opportunity for students to participate in critical discussions, contribute creative work, and create a sense of community that supplements the traditional learning practices in the classroom." — Franco Vairani, Instructor, Architecture, 4.209

"We think of the studio environment as very much a community, a community of learning in which things happen at a lot of different levels. It's been traditional since the 19th century." — Bill Mitchell, Dean of the Architectural Department

"StudioMIT uses educational policies to build on the strengths of the studio method and the design community. The strength of the studio method is its focus on design problems that are ill defined and don't really have a right or wrong answer. It's about creative synthesis and establishing a critical discussion about and around work. And that's how we geared our web site. It becomes a place where students and faculty can put their courseware, where students can put out their design work and we try to build discussions around them." — Susan Yee (former intern at Microsoft Research, now responsible for the day-to-day management of StudioMIT)

Project Output

Presentations

Susan Yee, "Emerging Pedagogies Workshop-Online teaching: threat or opportunity." At the 90th ACSA (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture) annual meeting, New Orleans, April 2002.

Links

creativity and learning using digital media @ mit