EDU 6319: How People Learn | Case Study
Explore the Space
Our living space is a combined living, dining, and kitchen area in an 900 sqft apartment. We have one window in this room; it is to the left of the gallery wall of pictures (labelled #2). To the right of the cut off letter board near the right most bookcase is the hallway to our bedroom and bathroom spaces. If you stand precisely where the monstera plant is (affectionately named "Big Cheese,") you are in about the middle of the whole room. Behind the sofa is our dining table; the area to the right of "Big Cheese" is our entrance way, laundry machines, and kitchen (which you can see from the intro video).
Take a look at the image below for a better picture of the space and some details that Rob and I enjoy.
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Those might look like small suitcases or briefcases, but those are actually boxes for boardgames! With so many expansions packs to games, the two games eventually outgrew their cardboard boxes and would no longer close, so we found a new box for them.
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The artwork on the wall is a mixture of sketches from my great grandmother, Polaroids from our annual New Year's Eve parties, and a painting inspired by Miranda from The Tempest. They sit above a chair from my great grandmother which inspired the color palette for our space.
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Since we enjoy TV, movies, and video games, we opted for a large 65" TV for this space. It might be overkill for some, but we have enjoyed it so far. In the reflection of the TV so you can see one of our many plants on the left, and a bouquet of LEGO flowers on the right (something that Rob loves).
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You might recognize the "Mirror of Erised" from Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. That doesn't belong there; we found it at a thrift store to give to Rob's sister who is a big fan of the series.
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The ampersand binder has the iconic image of Dungeons and Dragons on it. Rob and I are both fans and enjoyed playing with our friends online, especially during the pandemic.
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There is indeed another TV hidden in this room. It was a small TV that Rob had in college. He meant to use it for a virtual tabletop for displaying maps and designs for our board games and Dungeons and Dragon games; nowadays, it has been used for when we wanted to play different video games (most recently I played Breath of the Wild on the big TV and he played Twilight Princess on the little one).
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This coffee table is a lift-up table. We use it to work from home, eat dinner while watching a movie, or to hold our snacks and drinks when we play a video game like Tears of the Kingdom.
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Please pardon our appearance during renovations: we are currently installing a new closet system in our bedroom, and some of the shelves have spilled out here.
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Our sofa is from IKEA and is about the depth of a full size mattress. The cylindrical cushions are actually reposition-able which means we can remove them to have some stay the night or reorganize them to fit whatever viewing position we want. In combination with the lift up coffee table, we can adjust the location of the cushion for proper back support as we work. If you lift up the cushioned seat from the frame, hydraulic hinges hide storage that spans the entirety of the couch. We keep bedding and extra throws in there.