Finding Balance: The New Normal

College of DuPage Second Year Design Studio - Early March 2020

Just one month ago, I never really thought that I would be teaching studio for the remainder of the semester from a card table in my house. 

This has all escalated so quickly.

Over the next few weeks I plan to write a series of posts reflecting on this new (not so) normal of teaching design studio classes remotely.  This sudden and turbulent transition to moving all of my community college architecture courses online, and subsequent home isolation, will undoubtedly have lasting impacts. It will change the way we teach, impact our lives in countless ways, and shape the future of architectural education.  I suspect that we will not actually ever really get “back to normal”.  Yet the exact nature of the changes to our future remains unknown. 

Initially, my goal with these posts is to capture the moment.  These essays are journal entries, rough drafts, and works in progress.  They are not polished scholarly work.  I hope the process of recording observations and reflections in the moment will help me to understand all of this, see through the fog of the present, and provide at least a sense of clarity moving forward.

How will all of this impact they way I teach?  

(I think in the long term I will be a better educator for having lived through this)

What lasting impacts will this have on architectural education? 

Why is teaching through web conferencing so exhausting?

And a more pressing question;

How do I really teach a studio course (the ultimate hands-on experiential learning activity) remotely?

College of DuPage Second Year Design Studio - Late March 2020