Dennis Cheatham

Week 28 2024

July 11, 2024

We leave for Utah tomorrow. My wife’s family built a cabin there in the mid-1970s, and we try to get back there once a year. I haven’t been since 2022 and am looking forward to the retreat. The cabin has no cell signal and no Wi-Fi, but it has a full connection with nature at a 10,000-foot elevation. While everyone below will be sweltering in 100-degree heat, it will be in the 60s on the mountain.

It’s one of my favorite places in the universe. I regroup there. I write in my journal, take in the silence, ponder reality, and take stock of who I am and what I need to change about myself. It seems that every time I leave the cabin, my phone has fewer apps, my journal pages are filled with ideas, and I have a renewed commitment to healthier attitudes. Retreats do that—they reset parts of our lives and change others. I’m ready for the refurbishment.

Week 27 2024

July 4, 2024

What a strange Independence Day. When I was a kid, my room featured three bold, 7-inch tall red, white, and blue stripes that encircled the room, only broken by my name, “Dennis,” in some kind of italic, bold typeface (I need to look up what that was!). I loved the United States. I loved being a citizen. I wept at the American Adventure at EPCOT Center and was a proud Boy Scout, ready to serve fellow Americans and anyone in need. I had such hope in democracy and freedom for all people.

Today, my “all” people includes even more people than when I was seven. I’m concerned, though, that not all people are listening to all the other people. People with different ideologies and positions too often refuse to listen to others—to consider different viewpoints and respect others even though they disagree. I still believe in the hope of our country, but I don’t think it can last if we keep calling one another names, blaming each other, and refusing to listen. Rhetoric like “fight for America” requires an enemy. To fight, you must have someone or something to fight against. In today’s social climate, opposition, not collaboration, is the default.

I love(d?) the United States because it is a partnership of states that symbolizes working together despite our differences. We’ll all look up at the same fireworks tonight. I wish we could look at one another as co-builders of a place where everyone is free and has what they need. I’m working toward that goal. I hope you will, too.

Week 26 2024

June 27, 2024

I turned 49 years old today—one event in a packed week in which I facilitated a reading group, gave a talk for UX Akron, participated in a grant review, and am oh-so-close to finishing work on the Design Workbench website network rebuild. All these activities make me feel simultaneously grateful and concerned. Am I doing too much? Am I neglecting relationships? Am I overworking and neglecting crucial rest that, if ignored, can cause some serious health problems?

Yes.

Am I energized by building things, writing, and learning new concepts that remind me why living is so rewarding? Am I humbled that folks are interested in the work I am doing? Do I look forward to reading more, making connections, and working to help others have more useful, usable, desirable, and memorable experiences?

Yes.

Growing older is a strange thing.

Week 25 2024

June 22, 2024

“…if needed.”

It’s another softball weekend—my daughter plays on a travel team, and we just finished a full day of games. Tournament weekend usually follows the format where the first day is pool play—when teams play to establish where they will be placed in bracket play—and bracket play, where if you win, you continue. If you lose, you’re out (in a single elimination format).

The bracket format of “win and see when we play next” means I enter all possible times my daughter’s team will play next if they win into our digital calendar. I added a lot of “Game if needed” entries to the calendar.

There’s something profound about “…if needed.” I mean, isn’t most of living “…if needed”? Things happen—a car breaks down, a wedding, food poisoning, good news about a raise, finding peace about a health diagnosis, and everything after these events are “…if needed.”

It seems the takeaway here is, don’t plan on all of the “…if needed’s” happening. There’s no guarantee. Play the game you’re in right now. Field the grounder, make the throw, celebrate the stolen base. The “…if needed’s” will be waiting when you get there.

that is, if you get there.

Week 24 2024

June 13, 2024

King’s Island may be my new favorite place to work. I’m at KI today with my daughter and her boyfriend. While I usually spend the whole day riding rides, and I’m here, I decided to bring my laptop into the park with me to continue working on the redesign of the Design Workbench website. We have season passes and drink passes, so I have been hopping from one spot of shade to another with a fresh drink and work progress. Around five or six tonight, I’ll put the laptop away and ride some rides.

Coffeehouses are often popular places to work because they have a din—a kind of low noise—that supports focus. I am pleased to report that carneys, laughing families, and screams at the top of roller coaster drops create the same energy. It’s a lovely place to work, and the weather today is crisp and warm (but not hot).

I’d better get back to work so I’ll have time for a few rides on Mystic Timbers and The Beast!

Week 23 2024

June 6, 2024

I have been married for 25 years (and one day) as of today. Wow. 25 years! Living with someone that long teaches you a lot about yourself. For me, it has taught me a lot about my selfishness. When you consider someone else in every decision, it shapes how you think and it shapes who you are. No decision is made without your loved one in mind, so someone else is part of that process when things come up, from building a deck to planning dinner. When I was single, I could make decisions without a care in the world for someone else. But after 25 years of co-deciding (I have not always done this well), I am better at considering my decisions’ intended and unintended consequences.

Being married is hard, and I have not always been the best partner. But being married to Amy has made me a better person. I hope she recognizes that—and how I want to continue becoming a more loving and thoughtful person.

Week 22 2024

June 1, 2024

Following the last few weeks, my wife and I took a trip to German Village in Columbus, Ohio. A good friend introduced me to German Village a month ago, and I was blown away by its quaintness and, yes, by The Book Loft (23 Rooms!). I left pledging I would return, and I made good on that this week. If you haven’t been, take a few hours (or days) to explore German Village. It’s so charming!

Week 21 2024

May 23, 2024

Conferences are so inspiring! After a whirlwind week at the UCDA Design Education Summit, I’m in the Mesa, Arizona airport, filled with ideas. My to-do list and sketchbook are dotted with notes like “try this next semester” and “look up this person’s work” for me to discover. Discussions between sessions, at lunches, and yes, even at Organ Stop Pizza reminded me of the ingenuity and care faculty all around the United States put into their teaching. I learned so much from these brilliant educators!

Week 20 2024

May 15, 2024

So, here it comes. The next few weeks will be a gauntlet. I will…

Shoot a video presentation on teaching AI for Perusall Exchange 2024
Wrap up semester final grade reporting
Travel to Mesa, Arizona, to facilitate a workshop on behavioral theory and design at the 19th annual UCDA Design Education Summit: Immerse
Design two workbooks for use in elementary through high school engineering summer camps

It promises to be the most challenging few weeks of the year. See you in week 22 (if I make it).

Week 19 2024

May 9, 2024

It’s our last week of classes at Miami, so I’m contemplating the semester. Most notably, I’m reflecting on my AI course, Creating with Generative AI: Shaping the Future. Reading through the students’ final written reflections, I am pleased that many share that they have a hopeful view of AI they did not have when we started. Yes, there’s a healthy dose of skepticism, and students recognize that these technologies have their weaknesses. But in all, students have hope thatGeneratibe AI tools can assist people and extend our ability to impact some of the most pressing problems of our time. That’s all a professor can hope for, huh?

Week 18 2024

May 4, 2024

I attended a retirement party yesterday. Very few things put your work into perspective. Three faculty members in Art and Design—two of them hired after I arrived—wrapped up their careers with cake, appetizers, and a bunch of us celebrating their work.

One of my favorite moments of the year is coming up—when classes wrap up, and all that’s left are final project grading and students moving out. There’s an air of accomplishment. Everyone feels that sense of “whew, we made it.” But for those who retire, this is the big “whew, we made it.” I’m a ways off of retiring, but yesterday made me think forward to that moment. I imagine I will feel relieved, but at the pace I have been working, will I have any energy left to enjoy retirement?

retirement

Week 17 2024

April 26, 2024

I responded to a colleague’s post about worldbuilding this week in our department Slack. It was worth sharing here in my reflection for the week.

“If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There’s nothing to it.”
Willy Wonka

Let’s expand this.

I introduced causal layered analysis, disruptive hypotheses, futures studies, and developing alternate realities in my AI course. I’m asking learners to create futures (worlds) that are impossible (preposterous), possible, probable, and preferred to visualize ideal outcomes (better vacation planning, deeper parenting relationships, reduced substance abuse, ending environmental decline). We’re using AI to help us dream this stuff up as a training wheel to stretch students’ imaginations for what’s possible.

I can see how world-building skills—making them real and telling possible stories within them—have expansive implications for creating interventions that make those worlds more likely.

Not that everything has to impact areas like healthcare or climate change, but storytelling has the power to inspire and enact change (and create delight and memories, yes!)