Welcoming our new members!
We are so excited to welcome 12 new members to the Snow Day Learning Lab! Find out more about them below:
Top row:
Marcus Cheung, Maria Lopez-Delgado, Chenyou Wu, Yichen Yao, Ziyue Li, Yuxi Huang
Bottom row: Anisa Bora, Ayşe Unal, Blake Danzig, Feiyi Sun, Renato Russo, Anqi Wang
Marcus Cheung is a first year doctoral student in Instructional Technology and Media program at TC. As a researcher, he finds answers at the intersection of HCI, information literacy and edtech. As a learning experience designer at Columbia, his strength is developing learner-centered on/offline solutions to leverage learners' motivation and learning efficiency using cognitive science theories. As an award-winning edtech entrepreneur, he works on cryptocurrency games, educational NFTs and other digital product development.
Maria Lopez-Delgado is a recent graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University's Design and Development of Digital Games Master’s program. She is very excited to be back at TC for one last semester to complete the Creative Technologies Certificate and continue learning more about art and making. Also, while completing her master’s, she started a passion project that now became another adventure - a small 3D-printed jewelry brand, Combinatoria.
Chenyou Wu has worked in diverse in- and out-of-school settings on Chinese literacy development and educational equity issues. She is passionate about adopting a design-thinking mindset in creating inclusive learning environments and community-based learning experiences.
Yichen Yao is a Master’s student in the Instructional Technology and Media Program. He is interested in informal learning and how to make learning a meaningful experience to engage with in daily life. Yichen really appreciates constructionism as a learning theory because he believes that learning can happen anytime, everywhere and he wants to create artifacts and environments that are intuitive, innovative, and inspiring to learners.
Ziyue Li is a second-year Master’s student in the Communication and Education program. During her undergraduate studies in Human-centered Design and Engineering, she worked on multiple research projects in the areas of misinformation and disinformation, participatory design (with UW KidsTeam), playful technology and HCI education. She sees design education as a fruitful formal learning space for students to be reflective and critical about their information consumption, worldview, and beliefs. She is interested in supporting novice designers’ identity development and creating meaningful learning experiences for them to engage in the process of remaking society.
Yuxi Huang has been studying Instructional Technology and Media learning for more than a year. In the past, she studied English Language and Literature, worked as a UX designer, and published fan-fiction. She believes that education and design are tools to break inequality, and in the future hopes to participate in design for inclusivity.
Anisa Bora is currently an MA student in the Computing in Education program. Her interests include project-based learning, curriculum design, and inclusive teaching. Her previous experience includes serving as a curriculum designer and educator for informal STEM education programs, building capacity for a school-based makerspace program, and managing projects for an education nonprofit.
Ayse Unal has been directing, producing, and creating mostly animated content until she started a doctorate in the Instructional Technology and Media program. She is interested in learning through play, and in how digital learning experiences can be a gateway back to nature & real life and may be used as an agent for social change.
Feiyi Sun earned her Bachelors degree in Psychology and is currently a Master’s student in the Applied Statistics program at TC. She is passionate about leveraging the power of science and technology to motivate and inspire children to learn happily, actively, and efficiently. Her hobbies are playing the ukulele, reading self-help and magical-realism books as well as keeping a journal.
After studying Advertising and Psychology at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Blake Danzig launched an experiential marketing startup, which spurred her interest in playful learning spaces. She then took a position at Smithsonian National Museum of American History in the only space on the National Mall dedicated to learning for children under seven years old. Blake is currently pursuing her Master’s in Instructional Technology and Media at TC.
Renato Russo is a father, Brazilian educator, and doctoral student at Teachers College in the Instructional Technology and Media program. Prior to joining TC, Renato completed his Master of Arts at Stanford University’s Learning, Design, and Technology program. As a graduate student at Stanford Graduate School of Education, his coursework and research focused on culturally sustaining pedagogies informed by the learning sciences. Before Stanford, Renato’s educational background includes formal training in design thinking at HPI d.school (Potsdam, Germany); a Business Communication degree, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication. Renato’s research interests encompass constructivism and constructionism, equity in technology education, and citizenship in the connected world. He is the father of Flora, a cute and brave 2-year-old girl.
Anqi Wang is a Master’s student in Instructional Technology and Media program. She studied Public Relations during her undergraduate years, and has interned at seven companies, including Ogilvy, Nielsen, Shanghai International Arts Festival (Art Education), Bytedance (TikTok) etc. The industry experiences with Art Education and AR advertisements at Ogilvy ignited her passion for exploring emerging digital media tools in the education realm.