Monday, May 7

 

 

This morning felt so hot that I left the house without a jacket for the first time this Spring. I cycled to the metro in a t-shirt and cardigan.

I started the morning by booking a room for a thesis presentation in a couple of weeks, and then making sure that everyone involved knew about it. I then conducted an extra session for Structuring Information in which students could ask for any help that they felt they needed to complete their final project. Eight students attended and most of them got the help they needed. One student, however, seemed not to have taken in anything at all during the entire course. I understood from both Jutta and Mirko that he had done the same in their courses. I resigned myself to this story having a complicated and possibly messy end.

I concluded the session at midday, and left to meet Mirko and Annika to have lunch with Kanak Ghosh, who arrived from Delhi yesterday in order to assess our export possibilities from the Indian end. We met and all walked down to Dylan, chatting as we went. A woman from EduNation, whose name I did not catch, joined us.

I begin the buffet with roast parsnip soup, while the others dive straight into the meats and salads. I sit watching them serve themselves from the long table, as I sip my soup. I realise that I have a perfect view, from a perfect height, and take a series of photographs as they explore the food on offer.

We will spend a long and interesting time at lunch discussing India, education, and how to position Arcada in the Indian education market. We will get the bus back because Kanak wants to try every form of public transport while in Helsinki. Annika has promised that they will go from Arcada to the centre by tram tonight.

When we get back to Arcada Kanak will request another meeting with me at 16:00, to which I will agree, and I will go back to my desk to write up some notes while he spends the afternoon with the Nursing institute.

I will meet with Kanak again and we will go through some possible course structures in considerable detail. At the end he will promise to contact me in 48 hours, once he has had time to speak to some colleagues in Delhi.

I will have a brief conversation with Scott, and promise to have a much longer one next week. I will then draw up some possible plans with Mirko who also has a keen interest in seeing what we can do with the idea of teaching in India. He comes up with a fantastic idea for linking a course in games design to the industry, by giving our students a chance to publish any games they make on the course. He will explain how this will work, and I will like the idea a lot.

I will cycle home happy.