Below are the Twitternotes that I took based upon some of the content of Sierra's address at the Oopsala conference in 2007. I'm struck by a few details of the message that she shared with programmers and businessmen: First, her message seems as applicable to those of us in education as it was to these conference goers. You can easily substitute the words App Developer for Teachers, Community for Classes, and Users for Students. It's a powerful message--to redesign a class in terms of user experience. I think she's right on, despite the personal trainer language that she uses throughout.
You can find the full hour long keynote address at:
http://www.oopsla.org/oopsla2007/podcasts/invited-talks/keynote0102-kathy-sierra.mp3
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*No one is passionate about something they suck at. -- Kathy Sierra
*Once people pass over the suck threshold, they're happy doing things the old way...the way that no longer works.
*1ce users cross the passion threshold, yr off the hook 4 helping them, that's when they start finding ways to get better on their own.- K.S.
*No one really cares about your tool (read: subject), they're only really interested in what your tool supports (read: life).-- Kathy Sierra.
*"What can I help my users kick ass at?" -- Kathy Sierra. That's a great question to help teachers re-envision themselves.
*"Anything that we feel, any little thing that causes a reaction 2 wake up the brain is going 2 B something our users pay attention to"- K.S.
*Motivation depends on 1) student's idea about future w/this ability, 2) a clear path for getting there, & 3) a relatively easy first step.
*"We need more human interaction with the user (read: students)." --Kathy Sierra.
* Csikszentmihalyi's concept of Flow is essential for keeping learners motivated through the suck and barely adequate phases.
*We need to strike a careful balance of encouraging a community to give students knowledge/skill and the actual challenges of the task.- K.S.
*"Out-teach the competition, you don't have 2 out-spend them. Just make yr users kick ass. Yr community will do all the marketing work." KS
*"If you have a community that is going to help your users advance, you need to convert the community from askers to answerers." Kathy Sierra
*"Where there is passion, there is a tribe." - Kathy Sierra.
*Our brains are wired to tell stories about people. There has to be someone in your community who has an interesting story. Use it. - KS
*"If someone doesn't hate what you do, it's probably mediocre." -- Don Norman. Sure, there needs to be some love, too.
*People in Flow report these experiences to be the happiest of their lives. This is the opportunity we have 2 give 2 users (read:students).
