Connecting from here to there

I recently joined BOPSource.com to gain additional insight into working on BoP topics. The site developer posted a video of an interview with a Nepalese man who worked in the Middle East. Curious, I just watched it at work (where I get YouTube connection). Sure, enough- the man worked in Qatar and did not have a good experience. The video brings a face to many of the stories my former colleague Silvia Pessoa and her Immigration Studies students discovered in their research. My own students in my 'Design for People and Planet' course investigated issues facing labors and documented further challenges they faced- high connectivity/transportation/living costs, contract disputes, health issues, abuse, and boredom.



I often wondered about what sort of life these Sri Lankan, Indian, Nepalese, Bangladeshi, Phillipino and other workers left behind (in terms of Sri Lankan, I can't imagine living with with the horror going on the island). Last week in Ehklaspur, I met two women whose husbands were off working in Malyasia or in another part of Bangladesh. Recalling that my students discovered that communication for workers back to their home is often expensive and they imagined that the worker's home village or family wouldn't have a mobile or computer. I found out that yes, it's cheaper to call from Bangladesh to Qatar than vice versa (~17 taka or .25USD a minute, vs. about 3 riyal or 1 USD a minute from Qatar). However, my students would be surprised to see how connected a village could be. This one woman had a mobile, as did multiple other villagers. She spent about 300-500 taka (4.35-7.25 USD) on her phone bill (or if she's BoP [earning <$2 a day] about 3-6% of her entire salary). The woman also quoted the per minute price to Saudi Arabia and Singapore, indicating that she had some familarity of situations with people working in those locales.

Much BoP communication work resides in mobile phone work, as they are portable, can be cheap and can provide built-in infrastructure for other initiatives, such as e-Health or e-Agriculture projects. GCC cites a study where mobile phones are only owned by ~26% of the population but a large of the population uses a phone. (will cite stat later when I can confirm it). How? People have businesses renting out their mobile for others to use- allowing more of the population access to mobile technology. In design school I wasn't as interested as mobile service design and application designs (especially so the privileged can more easily meet up with someone for a cup of coffee) but this mobile work intrigues me. Additional challenge of BoP mobile work: the issue of non-literacy or low-literacy. What to know what it's like to operate a mobile phone without being able to read? Change the settings on your phone (or iPod) to a language you don't know and see how well you do. Limiting, eh?

Opposites

Before my students complete their next assignment in a week (the infamous LAS Faculty Film Poster), I thought I'd share the most recent designs: 'Opposites'.

The students were randomly assigned two relatively opposite words. Their challenge was to visualize the meaning of each word, with each composition succeeding individually and together as a pair. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the solutions this semester. Remember- these are non-design students and for many, this is their first foray into the mean world of the Adobe Creative Suite (mainly Illustrator).

Enjoy.

Maryam Alsemaitt

Nada Mohsin

Noora Al-Mannai

Shaereen Vencilao

Amna Al-Hitmi

Asma Al-Kuwari

Aysha Siddique

James Harrell

Lawrence Tan

Some Feedback on the Sustainability Mini

Yes- I need to update (especially about India and Jordan!) and I'm thankful that Blogger now incorporates the ability to schedule future posts. That will be especially helpful while traveling.

I'm sorting through the piles of '51-276 Examining Sustainability in the Gulf Region' self-evaluations I requested of the students. I originally did not plan to request these self-evaluations but I was curious how they would rate themselves (and I was also unsure how to grade the students).

In going through the evaluations- I noticed a few interesting observations:

1) One student commented and wondered if anyone would honestly give themselves lower than an 'A' ? Actually, yes- some did. And interestingly enough, they were all non-Arab students.
2) One student (Palestinian) informed me that 'doing such evaluations is very hard for us. Our culture is more of community based rather than individualistic, so we tend to underestimate our work to favor community.' I'm going to email the student and hopefully get more of an explanation about this statement.

(On a related note- I've heard that it's hard to student groups to have true club elections- for students won't run against each other for fear of shaming the other person by beating them. I've also heard it's been hard to have a debate club on campus- for students don't want to shame the other person by pointing out the faults or errors in the other's arguments. Interesting.)

[Breaking News Alert- freak rain shower in progress here at 3 pm in May!]

Regarding the course, I received some positive feedback.
"I enjoyed this course very much. I learned about many solutions and systems that I have never heard about before. ...I would like to thank you for every thing you have done for us. Your feedbacks were very helpful and valuable to me. I hope to see you the next semesters."

"Thanks for the course again :) was fun thinking about the environment and not code design. If the same amount of smartness and work is put by students into environmental sustainability, there surely can be a change."

"I hope this course will continue and more students take it as its very interesting and fun learning at the same time. I found out very fascinating facts from the book we read and from class discussions."

"I really enjoyed the class and enjoyed doing the project"

"Thank you for the course , it was really [sic] benefical. "

"Thanks for a great mini course!!"

"I’d like to add that I really enjoyed the content and idea of this course, and wish it would have been a full semester course as that would have given us plenty more time to work on the final project. Thanks a lot for this course!"

I'll give my own assessment of the course when I have a little more time to think about it- but overall I think I achieved the original goal of having the students begin to recognize the importance and prevalence of systems in our everyday world.

Updates 2: Design

The students wrapped up their designs for the LAS poster series last week and I've delayed in sharing some of their work with you. Below are a selection of the final posters. Their finished size is an A3 sheet of paper. Needless to say, I was please and pleasantly surprised with the results. (Dan Boyarski- who sat in on 3 of the crits, was also pretty impressed). Many of them went light years beyond their original design concepts or what they would typically see in the hallways here). I didn't have time to scan in the 'before' designs for you so I'll just have to press this upon you- these posters were designed by business, computer science, and information systems students. Some of the posters are pretty decent to begin with but when you realize these are not design students, and that many of these students have been working with the Adobe Creative Suite for less than 2 months- that's impressive.

Nasreen Zahan

Nida Ilahi

Noor Al-Maadeed

Rana El Sakhawy

Amna Jassim

Bayan Yousef Taha

Eatidal Al-Qatami

Hanoof Al-Thani

Maryam Khalil

Amal Badar Al-Barwani

Updates 1: Sustainability

Spring Break started today- so that of course meant students were scrambling this week to get things done. And if there was a class to miss, unfortunately my courses were often the courses to skip. I don't take it personally; I recognize the situation.

For the students that did show up Wednesday (the afternoon before the big 'Professional Day' and the day before the huge 'regression' exam), I gave them a bit of a break. I had planned to show "The Story of Stuff" and then make concept maps of the systems mentioned in the video. However, with half of the first section missing, I didn't very well want to re-teach the material later, so instead I slashed my lesson in half, created a new assignment (1 page response paper to the video) and allowed the students present to orally give their responses rather than having to write them. (As many of the students are non-native English speakers/writers, they tend to abhor writing assignments. Their oral presentation skills tend to be much better than their writing skills). We actually had some good discussions, as it was nice to see a glimmer of comprehension and emotional response in even the quietest and more distant students.

Also on the sustainability front, I recently submitted a proposal to CMU-Q Dean Chuck Thorpe for the creation of a 'Sustainability Coordinator' position and to consider me for the job. Yep- that means I'm thinking of another year (or two. or...) The following excerpt is from my proposal:

"Sustainability Coordinator:
This individual would be responsible for spearheading new sustainability initiatives in operations and academics, support and monitor current environmental enterprises, and coordinate efforts both internal and external to the campus community. The SC’s duties and influence would break down into four main categories; academics, operations, outreach, and visioning. "

I go on to list possible duties, such as teaching a few course, advising the student environmental group LiveGreen, act as liaison to Pittsburgh, work with faculty to incorporate and foster environmental learning in other courses, and generally coordinate all the environmental activity of CMU-Q.

Hopefully I'll have some sort of response waiting for me after Spring Break.

Urban Myths

On Sunday, I emailed the students the details for a short 24-hour design charrette assignment. I challenged them to come up with an engaging story using only 3 images and no words. The first image was to be an object, the second image was to be an action, and the third image was to be the effect/result, arranged in some way on an A3 sheet of paper. They could take their own images or find them on the Internet.

The results varied in complexity, readability, jumps in logic/comprehension, and one or two presented cultural discussion opportunities (one included a rotting brain, a protester holding a sign of Bush & Hitler and the words 'Kill People', and then a dead Arab child in his mother's arms).

However the one that struck me the most was an image of Starbucks, then people holding a Starbucks coffee cup, and then a bloodied, wounded crying child with a bandage around his head. I was thoroughly perplexed and asked another student to explain this image story to the class. Without hesitation, she explained that the image was an injured Palestinian child, pointing out a faded image of a Palestinian flag imposed on the corner of the image. The class explained to me that the Starbucks CEO is Jewish and Zionist, and a portion of Starbucks profits go to support the war against Palestine. (The British-based Marks & Spencers' support of Israel also came up.) So- did everyone see that story in this series of images? Of a class of 18, only 3 people (myself included) did not see that story in the images. Some students reported that they do not purchase Starbucks coffee (of which there is a location in our building) because of this story. 'Why do other Arab students purchase the coffee then?' Perhaps it doesn't bother them as much was the answer.

Instead of focusing on the legitimacy of the story (because I had never heard this before and could not comment on its validity), I focused on the jumps of logic the image story required of the viewer and what the images actually conveyed. Later, I mentioned this incident to Darbi who works in Carnegie Mellon Student Affairs. She sighed and said that story was the result of a hoaxed email forwarded by another student last semester. The email was a hoax but many students saw it out of context and had strong responses to it.

This morning I did a bit of my own research on the topic and sent the following email to my students:

"Because it intrigued me- I did an Internet search on the issue of Israel and Starbucks and found the following links suggesting that the story appears to be an urban legend of sorts:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/israel/schultz.asp

Also- interesting enough- Starbucks does not have coffeehouses in Israel any more...
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-starbucks_israel.htm

So the particular picture story using Starbucks and an injured Palestinian child could reflect a spoof of a story, rather than a story itself."

I'll be curious to see how this image story gets revised for tomorrow's class.

What are the issues?

Before I began my two sections of 51-276: 'Examining Sustainability in the Gulf' last week, I gave the students a questionnaire, asking basic details about their background, expectations, and whatnot. However I also asked them to list what they perceive as the top 3 issues/problems/challenges facing 1) the world? 2) the region (or their home county)? 3) Qatar? 4) themselves? It was enlightening to see the answers and gives me hope that their interest will be sustained in the course.

What are the 3 biggest issues/problems/challenges facing...
the world?
peace; poverty; illness; hunger; global warming; terrorism; animal extinction; pollution; energy; World War III; America; self-interests & self-disputes; pharmaceutical companies; democracy; modern economic framework; world politics & corruption; inequity of wealth distribution; starvation in Southern African countries

the region? (or your home country?)
education; oil/petrol; America; labor rights; wars in Iraq/Palestine; population increase; unemployment; politics; money allocation; poverty; ethnic/social integration; goods smuggling; global warming; pollution; inflation; dust; traffic; illiteracy; development; economy; civil war; international intervention; high cost of living; religious intolerance; corruption; immigrants; ignorance

Qatar?
environment; education; labor rights; expats; roads/traffic; public transit; obesity; uncivilized behavior; global warming; pollution; population; cost of living; planning & development; liquid natural gas production; developing the economy; immigrants; health care; Qatarization; oil; ignorance; inflation

you?
programming; time management; laziness; pressure to study; lack of sleep; surviving CMU; shyness; desire to succeed; future career; Dean's List; low self-confidence; family pressure; finding like-minded people; losing weight; high grades; speaking problems; procrastination;

My Brother's Visit to Qatar- the abridged version

Feb. 29- Lunch with Dan Boyarski at the City Center Mall. My brother Henry arrives that evening in Doha. We unsuccessfully try to find a BBQ at Qatar Foundation Housing and then pass out.

Mar. 1- Bill Brown Memorial Ride early AM. I bike 46 km in total from Doha Golf Club to Simaisma Bridge. My brother- on the small loaner bike, rides 26 km to Lusail. See some pics from the event. Henry passes out and then goes to see 'Vantage Point' at the City Center Mall. I help LiveGreen (CMU-Q's student environmental group) prepare for the next day. I stay up too late preparing for my own speech.

Mar. 2- I give a ~20 minute presentation ('The Opportunities of Sustainability") 2 times at Qatar University's " Go Green. Change Our Future" كن صديقاً للبيئة. غير مستقبلنا Conference (Women only). I'm in at least 2 English papers and apparently some Arabic papers the next day (See The Gulf Times & The Peninsula). My brother heads back to City Center Mall with a student of mine, only to accidentally have my car keys in his pocket. We sort it out, do some food shopping, cook a veggie dinner and call it another early night.

Mar. 3- I give my presentation twice again (Males Only), teach my communication design class, teach my first section of 'Examining Sustainability in the Gulf', add another section of it, discover CMU-Q accidentally sent my textbooks back and we've now ordered them to arrive with the Pittsburgh students this Saturday. Henry and I play volleyball with the students, faculty, & staff. We then head to the souqs, Henry purchases souvenirs, and we have Iraqi food.

Mar. 4- I go to Arabic class, do some work at school, & swap my sedan with Darbi/Greg's SUV so my brother and I can go find the 'Singing Dunes'. I tell Henry I'm on my way home (we communicated via email, 2 American cell phones, 1 Qatari cell phone with mixed results). I leave Education City and pull into traffic too soon, getting slammed in the back, smashing up a little blue car driven by two Egyptians that don't speak English. We wait ~3 hours for the police to come to file a report. One tank of gas, one traffic department, 2 reports, 12 riyals, and 1.5 hours later and I'm finally back home to my stranded (and ill-informed) brother. In the fading light we attempt to find the Singing Dunes but no luck. Henry and I go with Greg and his visiting girlfriend Sophie to pick up Turkey Central. We eat at Greg's and then they watch movies at Greg's place. I work.

Mar. 5- We plan to get my brother to the Qatar National Museum for the morning and have him join me in the afternoon (after my classes). We have conflicting reports of whether the museum is open, closed, partially-open and can't confirm any details. We find the place deserted and later learn it won't be open to the public until November. After some phone calls- we learn the Weapons Museum is now open to the public and will be open until noon. We call, confirm, and then unsuccessfully try to find the place. Back at campus, we're given exact directions of how to get there- we head back out again and Henry books a cab for the ride back. We arrive- it looks nice- clean- legit. I bid Henry farewell and then he runs back, saying it's closed. I throw my hands up. At this point Henry begins to truly realize what it means to live in Doha and that while a decent place to live, Doha is not primed for tourists yet. I teach 3 classes (my sustainability course now has 20 students in two sections)- Henry relaxes. I secure a GPS from Justin & Marjorie and in the fading light Henry and I set out for the Singing Dunes again. 45 km from the city, we find the dunes and by flashlight we hike towards them on foot (as I have my sedan again and it would have not been happy on the rocks). It was eerie to make the dunes hum and vibrate at our footsteps and even eerier that we only had a flash-light at this point. We did see some fantastic stars.

Mar. 6- I skip out on Arabic class and Henry and I do tourist shopping. We purchase a photo book for Grammy and Henry picks up some foodstuffs at the Carrefour (as well as some helpful new sandals). We head back to City Center and pick up some carmel and stuffed dates at Bateel. We find time running short and Henry cheerfully suggests trying the 'McArabian' chicken pita-sandwich at McDonald's. I agreed because yes- technically it's a cultural experience. Like many McDonald's products- while initially tasty, the meal leaves us feeling disgusting. I'm done with McDonald's in Qatar. We're signed up with 5 others for an 8-hour desert cruise with QIA. Two others not from CMU-Q would also join us. We set up the night before for them to pick the CMU-Q folks up a little later due to other's time conflicts. The driver calls us up 45 minutes early demanding to know where we were. After some semi-heated phone calls and calls to the company, we clear it up and the 2 other tourists don't appear mad at us. We drive off, ride camels (20QAR each), bash dunes, feel like we're about to tip the car (it was our driver's first time- greeeeeeeeeaaat), collect sea shells, attempt to sand board (sounds like a better idea than it actually is) , hear a helicopter air-lifting someone who flipped their quad-bike on the dunes, have a BBQ on the beach, and then drive back in the dark.

Mar. 7- We got Henry to the airport (almost the wrong airport- Qatar is building a new airport and they already have signs up for it. Thanks Qatar.) by 6:30 am. I see him checked in, bid him farewell, drive home, and sleep for another couple hours. I think I plan to use this weekend to recover from his vacation.

Lessons learned:
-Very few of the students have environmental exposure.
-Give your expat host more than a week to plan.
-The tourist experience here leaves something to be desired.
-GPS in the desert is good.
-Wear sunscreen.
-Avoid McDonald's (my stomach still isn't very happy).
-Call. Confirm. But don't be surprised if things change.
-Always check your pockets.
-If you have to teach a difficult/boring/unpopular subject, offer it as a 4th quarter mini course so that students who fail other courses, drop those classes and then desperately need units pack your course.

Oh- did I mention?

...that Dan Boyarski (Head of the Carnegie Mellon-Pittsburgh School of Design) arrives in Doha tonight to participate in VCU-Q's 'Tasmeem' Design Conference next week? And he'll be siting in/TAing 2-3 of my Communication Design classes?

...that my 19-year old brother arrives tomorrow night to spend his first collegiate spring break in a dry-Middle Eastern country with his big sister? It will also be his first time in the Middle East.

...that I've been biking on Friday afternoons with a group of cyclists, through heat, sun, wind, and sand, riding on the loaner bike, which turns out to be the old bike of the renowned and sadly departed Bill Brown (CMU-Pgh and CMU-Q Bio Professor who died last July)? Or that I am signed up to bike 68 km (48 mi) from Doha to Al-Kohr in the
Bill Brown Memorial Bike Ride on his old bike this Saturday morning?

...that I've been taking two Arabic classes in the mornings, each 1 hour, each twice a week- with one class focusing on learning the alphabet (which I already learned at a class last fall in Washington DC) and the other on writing and reading sentences? (It's a little advanced and I would be entirely lost if I hadn't been working on Rosetta Stone)

...that I've been taking Spanish Level 2 classes here at CMU-Q? (The term 'taking' is used loosely here- the class meets 4 times a week and I often show up 2-3 times a week- although I only went once this week... :/ )

...that I'm giving a half hour presentation 4 times this Sunday and Monday at Qatar University's " Go Green. Change Our Future" كن صديقاً للبيئة. غير مستقبلنا Conference, presenting to a minimum total of 2,100 people?

...that the 'Examining Sustainability in the Gulf' mini course starts this Monday, and that I've had numerous inquiries into the course and received enthusiastic interest? I just received an email stating that "Me and my friends want to joing this mini course so badly, but unfortunately the timing is bad since others and I have a class that starts at 2:30". I responded that if the demand was high enough, I'd consider requesting to create another section of the course... Imagine that!

So- yeah. I didn't mention any of that? Sorry- I've been meaning to blog on that for a while now... :)

Examining Sustainability in the Gulf Region

So after the inability to launch 'Designing Sustainable Systems' at the start of the semester, I set about reworking the semester-long course into a half-semester 'mini' course (6 units). Re-titled 'Examining Sustainability in the Gulf Region', it will introduce the concept of sustainability, systems thinking, sustainable issues and solutions and how those solutions may be adapted or completely rethought to the unique environment and societies found in the Gulf. (Note that it's the 'Arabian Gulf', not the 'Persian Gulf'). This course will be half lecture (me rattling on) and half research/seminar. I don't know what sustainability means to this region; that's what I hope to learn along with the students.

My course already has at least 4 registered with at least 2-3 other considering it. That's not bad- it's roughly 2-4% of the student body. One has to remember the proportions and sizes are different here, changing expectations for class sizes. 2% in PGH that would mean a course of at least 100 undergrads. By comparison, my CDF course has 18 students, or roughly 11% of CMU-Q's student body. Wow.

Below is my current description for the course to be listed on the CMU Course Schedule:

"Over the last couple of decades, humanity has become increasing aware of the complexity and interconnectedness of our world. We now recognize that our actions impact the earth around us and this in turn can affect the planet's ability to support life. The challenge of our time is to balance human growth and development with planetary limits, considering how our societies and world will be sustained into the future. This minicourse examines sustainability as it applies to the Gulf Region, dividing the course into two main parts. The first half of the class will introduce students to the concepts and principles of sustainability and systems thinking, examining how ecological, economic, and social systems interactions are crucial to a sustainable world. Using readings, movies, and lectures, we will review key environmental/social issues and sustainable solutions from around the globe. In the second part of the class, we will examine and define key issues and solutions as they apply to environments and societies of Arabian Gulf region. Students will then pick a topic to investigate further, applying the design method to define, research, and develop a unique solution to a sustainability problem faced in the region. Students will refine their findings in the form of a final project to be presented at Meeting of the Minds at the end of the semester."

The class starts next week and runs for seven weeks. We meet Monday and Wednesday for an hour and half and I'm capping the class at max. 15 students (hoping for a few less- I'll be tickled with 8-10). I'm looking forward to it, as it's a new subject for many of these students and one that I enjoying discussing. I'm also extremely interested in their findings and how that information can be used in future projects. I'll keep you updated as the class develops.

First Major Assignment (Aka Rosie Learns How to Grade)

My Communication Design Fundamental students turned in their first major assignment last week and I just now finished my grading. Grading is confusing enough when you're a TA (do you have the authority to be harsh? Are you the good cop/bad cop?) but more daunting when you're grading on your own for the first time. Am I too harsh? Is this fair? How much will they care or compare? And I too easy?

As I design student, I only cared about grades for the first semester or so- afterwards I quickly realized grades don't matter and it was more the quality of my work/portfolio and how I present myself. However, that is not the case with non-majors, especially non-majors that have not taken this sort of course before. I'm expecting some responses and some concern from students- but we'll see.

Their assignment was to visually interpret the definition of a pair of words randomly assigned to them, using only letterforms or punctuation as illustration. The words were roughly opposite verbs, such as dodge/confront or clap/hiss.

In order to combat grading arguments, I presented them with a rubric beforehand, clearly telling them what I would be looking at and grading on their final work. The five main categories were: quantity/quality of process, use of letterforms/punctuation, conveys word meaning (we focused on showing the action of the word, not the noun definition), composition (of individual and the two designs combined), and typeface selection(s). Being a product of Carnegie Mellon Design, they received a process and an overall grade. For this assignmnet I didn't include the process grade in their overall grade but they could clearly see that a lack of process in the future will really bring down an otherwise great piece.

Below are some examples from the class. Remember- this is the first design class for many of these students and the majority of them are using Illustrator (or using it more thoroughly) for the first time. Since the class only meets for 1 hour and 20 minutes twice a week and we have 18 students in the class, we didn't have time to focus on the two compositions together- so some of the examples are only one of the student's two designs.

Education City in the NYTimes again!

Today's NYTImes featured another article on Qatar's Education City and included extensive quotes from CMU-Q students and faculty.

CMU-Q's Dean Chuck Thorpe points out that students in this country hadn't been challenged with critical thinking questions before or were hesitant to criticize. I had also read something similar in 'Understanding Arabs' by Margaret K. Nydell prior to my arrival in Qatar. After meeting with the language and academic resource staff at our new faculty- orientation at the start of the semester, I wondered and worried how my students would respond to the critique-style classes. Would they speak up? Would they think I was being too mean? Would they criticize each other's work? How would they move beyond 'I think it's nice'? Or would I spend a lot of time talking to myself and them staring at me? 

I pleased to say it hasn't been like that at all. They challenge my response. They have responses different from each other. We focus on the work rather than the person. I stress the critiques are to improve the work and that feedback is critical to creating better work. 'Ask others. Ask your peers. Try it out. See what happens.' 

They had an assignment due today and the final revisions and process book of their work due Wednesday- I'll post the better solutions later this week. We had a quick critique before moving on to discussing categories and hierarchy and I found them animated, opinionated, critical and encouraging. They were able to critically evaluate the effectiveness of the design solutions and weren't immediately seduced by software filters and tricks. They've begun to learn to edit, to limit the number of bells and whistles they employ. And some of them have done some really great work.

I realize I've fallen into the what I previously perceived as the annoying design professor trait of giving feedback without really answering the question, 'What should I do Professor?'. I don't tell them outright what they should do; I provide insight, suggestions, and alternative ways of approaching the problem. I do offer more software assistance than I ever received in college and I've found it helpful to keep print out of Adobe Illustrator and Indesign tool menu handy. I believe design software is a tool but can also be a hindrance. Especially when one is learning the software for the first time, one tends to create designs that one knows how to execute on the computer. By offering software assistance, I can help them focus on creating a better design than fretting about how they will create what they envision. Classical design education and software skills need to go hand in hand, something that I eventually realized over my own undergrad design education. 

Course Updates

I now have a week and half of school under my belt. I still mentally prep for my classes and make a rough outline of notes, jot down to phrases I'd like to use, etc. It helps to have a freeze-up back-up. That being said, I find that I probably have about 5-10 minutes worth of content beyond my time limit. One hour and twenty minutes is not a long time for a design studio/lecture course. Especially when you have ~20 students. Did I mention that? I had 18 students on my roster today, 3 didn't show, 2 additional students showed and 1 more asked to join the class just this afternoon. I don't even recall what the cut-off limit if for the class, but it will have to be 20. Any more and we won't be able to cover everyone during our critique classes. We have only 3 boys in the class (reminds me of Carnegie Mellon design- especially communication design. Side story- CMU designers visited Chicago one winter and the offices of SkinnyCorp, the folks behind Threadless. A SkinnyCorp guy saw all these females waltzing in and asked in complete seriousness, 'Is Carnegie Mellon an all-girl school?' Gotta love Midwest ignorance of the school). Thus far the students are willing to speak up and I hope to keep that enthusiasm and participation going throughout the semester. Critiques can quickly become quiet as the semester wears on.

Originally I was signed up to teach 2 courses here at Carnegie Mellon's Qatar Campus- the second one was titled 'Designing Sustainable Systems' (although they goofed up the name in the registrar). Problem is- no one signed up for it and only 2 students approached me about it in the days before class started. It later hit me like a ton of bricks why: they thought it was an Information Systems or Computer Science course. Every other course offered at CM-Q with the word 'systems' in the title is a CS course. CM-Q students certainly don't want to do programming in an elective course. The description was also somewhat vague- partially because I was still figuring out course details when they needed the description. In the context of a design curriculum, the description might have made more sense. However, here- with no other design exposure or smack-dab in the middle of Biz/CS courses, it sounded technical. Chalk that one up as a learning experience.... I also think the topic might have been a little advanced even for the Pittsburgh campus.

The plan now is to rework the class and offer it as mini-course for the second half of the semester, essentially seeking to answer the question, 'What does sustainability mean in the Middle East?' One can't simply plunk down sustainable concepts from the US (ex. increase access to public transit) and expect it to work here (non-laboring natives and expats wouldn't use it). I also made some contacts yesterday and today regarding environmental initiatives and opportunities here. More on those later-

I just taught my first class!

Call me a little excitable- but I just taught a full 1 hour and 20 minutes of the first class for 'Communication Design Fundamentals'. And I think it went really well- I didn't clam up- I commanded my tiny classroom and thank goodness- students responded and spoke up. I have to thank Dan Boyarski of Carnegie Mellon's School of Design for 2 reasons: 1) Turning to me last spring and saying 'Have you ever thought of teaching?' and 2) Exciting three of my students last spring when he taught a mini workshop on communication design. These students with design exposure in the mini were by far the most outspoken and knowledgeable about the topic. I think their talk encouraged other students to speak up as well. I was heartened to see students throughout the room chime in and even ask me questions after class.

I had roughly 10 students show up today, 13 were registered, 2 were not registered and 2 were out of the country. All but 2 were female. Many were Qatari but there were also students from Egypt, Palestine, Syria, & Bangladesh. We actually went for the full class time, which surprised me- I even had to rush to give out an assignment for Wednesday. (I'm cruel- I know). The assignment is aimed to get their creative juices flowing and introduce them to the idea of typeface personalities. It will also begin to introduce other design elements such as page layout, materials, intention, and critiques and lead the way for an introductory lecture on type history and typefaces options.

Assignment: 'Visualizing Your Personality : How to convey your personality in the writing of your name?' Make a list of 10 personality attributes, pick 3. For each of those 3, make 10 thumbnail sketches of how to convey that personality attribute in the writing/drawing of your name. Take your best from each set and reproduce full size on A4. (I am quickly becoming smitten with the Metric paper sizes) No computer or photocopiers allowed. We'll see what they come up with Wednesday. I think the creativity bug is ripe in them- I gave them space to do a quick small self-portrait on their questionnaire form. One portrait was of landscape shot of a stick figure dunning (dune bashing- aka driving crazily over dunes). I love it.

Side note: My package of warmer clothing arrived from home (before the 2 boxes of texbooks)! The textbooks were shipped Jan. 5th and the clothing was sent Jan. 9th. Those textbooks might be held up in customs. We'll see. Thanks for the warmer duds Mom & Dad!