Don't judge me for the title, I've had that song stuck in my head all day.
There's only one week of classes left so now it's time to look back on my semester in Digital Media and discuss its different aspects.
What Worked Well?
I really enjoyed all the creative energy that was put into Lori's lectures. You could tell she was interested in the material and didn't want to present it in a monotone boring way. Having all the tutorials for the labs online was handy in case we were expanding on a previous week's lesson and forget a step or two. It also came in handy when I was working on my flash since I was able to work ahead and learn stuff before we did it in class. It was neat in the labs when Jeff would go beyond the tutorial and show us how to do some other cool things with the programs that we might not have learned otherwise. It added more to the experience.
What Needs To Be Changed Or Improved?
For me, it's more the structure of the classes that needs to be changed. To me it always seemed like we were stretching it to make it to the full two hours in the labs, and the class was organized in a way to fill time rather than to get the most work done. Since the class is arranged in a way that when you're sitting at computers you can see the projector screen, I would have rather worked along in the tutorials at the same time as Jeff was doing them on the screen. It always seemed like the demonstrations went on way too long and had most of us shifting in our seats. Giving us more time in class to actually work on them could have provided us with more time to do our assignments if we completed the tutorials in good time.
Also in terms of communication between the lectures and the labs, I think each teacher emphasizes things differently. Which wouldn't be a problem if there wasn't more than one teacher for the class. I think the Web Test took so many of us by surprise because all the Web 2.0 information was getting emphasized in lecture and the different lab teachers were emphasizing different things about (X)HTML, CSS and Dreamweaver. Also I heard from more than one lab teacher that they didn't see the test until after we'd all taken it, so maybe having the lab teachers see what's going to be on the test say a week ahead of time so they could give a sort of sum up to the students about what they should be studying.
How Has The Course Changed Me?
This course has opened my eyes to a lot of different concepts and technologies that I might not have thought about or had the patience to try on my own. I always thought using programs like Fireworks (Photoshop) and Flash would be insanely difficult for someone like me (not so visual artistically inclined) but having the basic beginner tutorials really helped me branch out and try new things with these programs. I was really excited to get to do a Flash animation because I never thought I'd be able to do that, and I got to do kinetic typography, which I've always wanted to do.
I've been told I have a "Designer's Eye" but now it's even more honed than before. I can spot things and say "Hey - there's a CRAP theory at work!" and be able to explain why something visual works or doesn't in my mind. It's also given me a greater appreciation for the work my boyfriend does as a Graphic Designer, knowing what kind of things you have to think about to do that. I don't envy him but I am impressed by his skill and abilities since I know how much work he has to do.
What's The Most Important Thing I'm Taking Away From This Course?
I would have to say awareness. Awareness of design, motion graphics, animation, the web, everything. Now when I look at things I'm analysizing just what kind of font they might have used, why they picked that colour scheme, how they might have designed it, what their concept was. It really adds to your experience of life to be able to break things down and think about how they were made or how they work. The fact that it satisfied even a tiny bit of my insatiable curiosity has left me feeling pretty good about this course.
Thanks Jeff and Lori for all your enthusiasm and passion, I'm really glad I had you as my profs.
It's been a good semester.
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