framework for the implementation of a virtual design studio model in ...

the discipline of being part of the cultural aspect and finally the culture of
change. All of these aspects will be discussed in detail.
8.3.6 Students’ Background and Character
The students in the UAE “being a conservative culture” belong to a
conservative background themselves. The students‟ life style in the
UAE is not similar to any in the western world. As mentioned earlier in
the literature review chapter, the UAE society is a dominated one and
the freedom is limited to the traditions that are believed to be driven from
the Islamic culture, and consequently the parents in the UAE have
control over their children. The students in the UAE, being in their first
year of study having just left secondary school, had little control over
their studies. This made the students dependant on the lecturers and
limited their initiative. This factor limited the students‟ creativity as we
will see later in this chapter, but on the other hand it encouraged
collaboration among the students. Being a sociable culture the students
in the UAE did not have a problem collaborating with others.
Students in the UAE are not used to the mixed gender culture which
was a problem in the face to face communication and the female
students avoided collaborating with male students at the beginning. The
students preferred to choose the group to work with. They usually
preferred to work with the person setting next to them, which also
reflected their affection by the society, as the tradition in the UAE
encourages the importance of neighbourhood, and that the priorities
always go to the neighbour. The seating also was planned from the
very beginning as the students always sat next to friends and never with
a stranger.
At different points of the VDS 3 the students were re-arranged and
remixed to encourage idea-exchange and to encourage different kind of
collaboration. The students resisted the remix and showed their
unhappiness with it and in the new groups. The male/female
collaboration was minimal with girls being very conservative and the
boys under-estimating the girls‟ abilities. Later the students discovered
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