Letter to Architecture Faculty

colleagues,

i thought i'd give you an update on the virtual studio which i am teaching remotely to students in clemson from colorado (genoa soon). i think it is going quite well, and i think based on the student's responses, i think they are finding it to be challenging and educational as well. beyond the temporary internet outages and other usual technical glitches, i feel like i am really there. i even attended the all studio meeting on the first day. students and i communicate primarily using Skype. Sype allows for video, audio and chat communication. Next week, we will begin using Breeze, which allows for all the same features as Skype, but we can share desktops, applications and draw, all in real time. there are some other new tools that we hope to test this semester as well.

the current project is to construct a small piece of furniture that allows them a quiet, comfortable place to talk to me one-on-one. the studio is much too loud and when they run-around looking for a place it just wastes time. not only will this project be useful, i could see it as a prototype for this type of education, a piece of furniture for distance learning. they have brought up some interesting issues that i think are relevant to a designed space as an important part of this type of education.

you can follow the student's projects on the studio web logs (blogs). the main studio blog gives general information and links to assignments and the students' blogs. an additional blog, MEGA BLOG, is the students' research made available to the world.

feel free to browse the blogs:

MEGA BLOG: http://cu-megablog.blogspot.com/index.html

STUDIO BLOG: http://megarael.blogspot.com/

links to the students' blog pages can be found there. their first project, is well underway.

Skype

Breeze