Borderless Classrooms, Fulbright Nominee, 2009:

In 2008, Jeannie Joshi earned her M.F.A. in Design and Technology at Parsons School of Design, New School University. Her graduate thesis, "Borderless Classrooms", was nominated for a Fulbright scholarship, and advocated hands-on teaching of design literacy to school children who use the Internet to communicate their own projects with other kids in different cultures around the world.

Literacy Through Design™:
Using the nature of creativity to find ways to combine knowledge, resources and capabilities, the holistic goal of this proprietary research methodology was to think across boundaries and change the complexion of the map by connecting children from different economic and knowledge domains and cultures. Based on extensive field research and inspired by ethnography, Literacy Through Design, is built upon the constructivist ideas of “discovery learning” and “learning by doing”.

This proprietary research methodology blends the roles of designer and ethnography to better understand the complexities of how design and creativity enhance and extend the visual and conceptual thinking of children while creating a space for forming original ideas.

The thesis components included both on-line and off-line components designed to appeal to the program’s target audience: middle school students. The digital component included a unique and interactive online social networking platform, which leverages the Google Maps API as the foundation for the interface. Offline components of Borderless Classrooms included playful, interactive, design-based hands-on learning workshops. through these tools, Borderless Classrooms provides student’s access to a global, interactive and culturally diverse audience, thereby encouraging them to see themselves as part of a larger, cross-cultural community.

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