Last year you might recall how thrilled I was to start teaching as an adjunct professor at NYU, in their Educational Communication and Technology department’s Learning Technology and Experience Design program (formerly known as DMDL). Drawing inspiration from my new new book on digital design in museums, I have inherited a course from Leonard Majzlin, who first taught it 30 years age. The course is called Media for Museums and Public Spaces (and it might now, under me, be called Lean UX in Museums).
This week I started the course for the SECOND time, with a wholly new set of students. And following the process I teach in the course, this is also a fully new iteration of the materials – for example, last year I only got through 1/2 of the content I had planned for the first session. This time, I made it through 75% of the way (maybe next year’s iteration can get us to 100%…).
Last year all of my 14 session had to be developed in advance. I was trying out new systems – for communicating with students, for how grades would be determined, for how we might manage field trips. And I was trying out new activities and projects, unsure which would work better than others. And I was, frankly, unsure how it would feel being back formerly teaching in a college (I started at Pratt in the late 90s, but that was a LONG time ago). It was exhausting but rewarding, and I collected feedback all along the way.
Going in to the first course this week I was so much more relaxed. I could focus instead on the new students, and getting to know them and their needs, as well as nurturing the new emerging group dynamic so all could feel a part of the class. It was more fun for me, which meant I could connect with them more and be flexible on the fly with the curriculum (note above’s untouched 25%).
It was also great to “collect data” on pieces I have now done TWICE, such as the 10-minute bit of immersive theater where I turn into a guide at a future museum that has recreated NYU for them to visit. (Turns out the building – the old MTA center at 370 Jay Street – is where all the city’s money trains once went to empty their chests of nickel treasures!). This activity is all about looking at the performative aspects of museums. Not how museums use performance but how museums are themselves a performance – and to help students learn to identify those elements and consider what happens when those techniques are used in other settings (like in a store) to summon “museum” experiences in their spaces.
Here are some photos from it below:
