Milestone Three - Personas

February 14, 2007

Persona: Jane Smith

Elementary School Teacher, Ann Arbor

Jane Smith, 31, is a teacher in the Ann Arbor Public School. She teaches the 2nd and 3rd grade. Jane grew up in San Jose, California and got her under-graduate degree at the San Jose State University with a major in English. She moved to Ann Arbor 5 years ago when she married Michael and has been teaching at the AAPS ever since. They have a son, Jason, who just turned two.

Jane is not a very tech-savvy person and prefers minimum use of electronic devices and gadgets. Nevertheless, she spends at least one or two hours a day using her computer; either at home or in school. She often browses the web to look for information that would make lessons easier and more interesting for her class. Her work on the computer is generally restricted to MS office applications and e-mail.

As extended learning, Jane often takes her 2nd and 3rd graders to the Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum for field trips. She feels that the kids get highly stimulated by the interactive nature of the exhibits at the Hands-on Museum. These field trips not only trigger the inquisitive side of the child's mind but also help to promote group activities amongst children. She has noticed that most children like pushing and pulling the various knobs and buttons on the exhibits but don't actually read the text that explains the phenomenon. She feels that a better interface like an audio-guide would improve this learning experience. Coming from San Jose, she often visited the Tech Museum of Innovation, and feels that they do a good job of explaining everything.

Often, she covers topics in the lesson plan through interactive workshops conducted in the Hands-on Museum. She gets in touch with the folks at the museum in advance and talks to them about the lesson plan and the class requirement. The children enjoy these workshops and understand and remember new subject matter with relative ease.

She feels that the Hands-on Museum has tremendous potential to play an active role in a child's learning experience. She has also taken her son to the museum once. Though little, he enjoyed playing around with everything within his reach.