In the last period many students appeared a bit overworked, and I learned that there were many deadlines. Courses like CA3, also due to my (apparently) more tolerant style, easily suffer from the pressure of other courses, since the topic(s) may (easily, but not tightfully IMHO) be dismissed as vague, and even irrelevant. Why worry about googlification whenyou can program arduino? Well, to my mind it is not only important to think about societally relevant topics and make the connection with practical work, but, in addition, it is perhaps even more important to think what can be done, both in terms of concepts/ideas and applications/technology to take part in a festival like gogbot, where art, science and technology are presented to a wider audience. Key phrases here are experience (on an individual level) and exposure (for the creative technology curriculum).

In the last period, many students fortunately got a new boost of energy, worked on group projects, and updated their personal portfolios. Also, a number of students submitted their essays way before the deadline, which is a good sign, and can be taken as a desire for feedback on there work, which sometimes was emphasized by the explicit question -- will I pass for the course with this essay.

In this course, I also experimented with asking the student for their aspiration(s), that is the grade they thought they would deserve, or wanted to deserve. In the future, I will make both the requests for grading, as well as an indication of student's aspiration(s) more explicit. I also made clear to the students that I would refuse to de forensic grading, that is collect all the evidence for grading myself, piece by piece. The portfolio should provide all the evidence, and it is the responsibility of the student(s) to present this in a clear manner, preferably with good style!

As a final remark, as some of the students remarked -- still communication is more key than imagination --, the jey to creativity she meant, I must remark that for many, with some obvious exceptions, the image quality is rather low, or perhaps I should say -- the interest in presenting their work with some drama and visual intensity. Another thing is that the responsiveness of students to both simple acts of communication as well as published deadlines is rather low. The need for such responsiveness should be more stringently brought to their attention.

At the end, the meeting with Kees and Viola went well, with enthusiasm from both sides, and a clear willingness of the students to continue their work beyond the boundaries of the have fun and play course.

And for me, after the grading(s), in which I gave the students, where their documentation was lacking, the benefits of my doubts, I am a year off. Pffh!

(C) Æliens 2014