Sunday, November 20, 2011

Building Design Treasure Hunt feedback

Building Design Treasure Hunt feedback

Class Focus Group, Wednesday, ‎24 ‎May ‎2011, ‏‎9.30am (one week after trial)

Ignoring all the issues on the day, what do you think of the concept in principle?

  • · Waste a lot of petrol going around to all the houses, has to be a car involved. Besides that, great idea because seeing stuff straight up front. Get idea of texture of house that wouldn’t get off photo.
  • · Would be better if lot of it situated on one street that has variety of house styles
  • · Privacy perspective: issues with students turning up outside houses in a group? Residents would be a bit freaked out? (Teacher: used to it? We do this already)
  • · Could be centred around a few streets or a block. Areas where could walk from one to the other
  • · Do it in a warmer season? (Facilitator: project had to be completed by June; no choice this time!)
  • · Using our own phones a bit difficult. Could there be a supply of phones that are already charged? (Facilitator: logistics of project: sudden doubling of group numbers led to phones running out). After 3 hours of using, phone power runs out for some, need to use it for rest of the day.
  • · People used various phones, had varying speeds of downloading and responding etc

How could it be done better?

  • · Need to double check that things are in the right spots (teacher: Google lied to me about some locations) (facilitator: lesson is that anything involving geography, have to go there in person beforehand, next time should do it together so get tech and subject knowledge at same time, we can’t assume knowledge of other)
  • · Do it on bike? (some disagreement in group; how to carry all the stuff?)
  • · Have options such as ABCD, not just A and B; most of answers were A so were just selecting first one (facilitator: was technical slip, have adjusted system for next time)

What are benefits with doing this with phones and GPS, assuming everything is working fine (or just as good on paper with photocopied map)?

  • · With paper, can check and have details, server crashing etc won’t be problem
  • · If no tech issues, phone/GPS is easier. Can just touch option, don’t have to spend time writing down answers.
  • · Would have been easier to incorporate GPS into next address (don’t have to search yourself for address, does it automatically on phone, tells you how to get there, rather than having to get Melways out)
  • · In today’s society, technological stuff is so much more used than paper. (Facilitator: feel more comfortable with phone and piece of paper? Answer from one student: yes)

If you just had a list on paper to circle without having to write anything down, would that have made it easier than using the phone or as easy?

  • · With paper, will still be same order for everyone. With phone, can randomise, more challenging, be harder than everyone having same order. (Can swap notes; find each other).

Did people use own phones with Google Maps to find their way around? If so, did it work?

  • · I used GPS device in car
  • · Would have been nice to go backwards - once put answer into device, that’s it, couldn’t change it, couldn’t go backwards
  • · Yes/no buttons – easy to press wrong ones. Buttons too close together, can touch other one by mistake.
  • · You needed a group in car (more than two): one person to hold the textbook, one person to have phone, one to have GPS, one to drive

Would you have liked it to be a competition?

  • · Would have been good, but can’t do it in a car
  • · Walking would have been good as a competition – challenging, funny. Only have 10-15 questions, reduce number of styles (facilitator: yes, one thing we’ve learned is that it was probably too long, and took longer than we thought to get to places and get answers)

Any other thoughts?

  • · Use the GPS to help get around.
  • · Let us choose next location to go to – there were times you would have to go back from street no. 50 to no. 40 (facilitator: if design was such that you didn’t have to go back and forth, would that solve this? Student: probably)
  • · Even tell us how many we’ve got left to go, which one we’re up to.
  • · Yes, be nice to know how we’re going, even to have score up in the corner. Or a progress bar.
  • · There was one point where the address was on a corner and we got it wrong because house was on opposite corner. Maybe choose houses where numbers are in view so it’s not so confusing. (mentioned another example of confusion with house numbers)
  • · Need to have address and quiz options with right question on the same page. ). Address used to disappear once went to question option screen. (facilitator: has been fixed)
  • · Instead of style of house specifically, could ask about different elements of styles, such as roof elements. (teacher: could be quite challenging, love to be able to identify things straight up, but suspect would take a longer)

If were walking, would having text book with you be a challenge, juggle phones, books etc?

  • · In groups, would work.

We were wondering if to do this in groups or individually

  • · Too hard as individuals. Can’t hold everything.
  • · And individually there’s nothing to challenge you to learn (teacher: they learn from each other).

What’s an ideal group number if walking?

  • · Four or so. Could always have six. But then would be more arguing so takes longer.
  • · And if driving would need to take two cars.
  • · Three wouldn’t work if driving if have GPS separate from question phone and text book. Someone to hold book, someone to direct driver to address, someone to drive, someone to relate questions.

Teacher: idea of app for text book. What do people think?

  • · General consensus it’s a good idea.

Project facilitator note:

· Need to note: unexpected/unforseen combining of two groups on same day due to sudden timetabling changes. This doubled student numbers, caused issues with availability of phones and server loads, hence crashing of server. Hence also caused significant delays for groups – staggered starts meant some groups didn’t leave till 4pm. We were lucky that these students were very mature and patient. Lesson: try to make sure there are no surprises on the tech front caused by sudden changes at the program end.