Live Blogging from iDMAa Day 3: Curriculum Challenges in Art

There are three sessions going on at the same time -- and all of them sounded great, but not easily applicable to my marketing and e-business world.

So why did I select this one? Because the curricular focus of this session is something I can relate to the broader curricular issues.

The topics include:

Reshaping still-image foundations for digital media (Blaise Tobia from Drexel University)

Their focus is how to adapt the basic photography course for digital media majors. So they had to move from film to digital, make screen based viewing primary and link that to value of printing and more history of photography (which happened because they do not need to teach the film processing and print darkroom prtoocols). However, they kept black and white, minimal manipulation, start with a low-tech film based project, using throw-away film cameras and assign fewer more indepth projects requiriing multi-image solutions.

So why keep photography? Um...DUH!! I so agree with our presentor that it continues to be vital to any work! Prof. Tobia went on to describe in detail why each piece from design to history is approached in the course.

This is a good example of how technology and program needs require that foundational courses adapt and change to be able to respond to the unique needs of specialized fields. So the art-based photography can be adapted to assist the digital creative to strengthen their work. In this continuing message of convergance -- this is a GREAT example of that.

Getting non-digital creative students an online presence (Peyton Rowe, Virginia Commonwealth University)

This professor has a wide range of non-technical students and is required to teach them Web Site Design. What did she do in her class?

Used group projects, made the content fun, students listen to real clients (client project), and when all else fails make it all about them (created portfolios), used lynda.com, made them learn a basic level of HTML, used what they knew already with illustrator and photoshop.

While it was all good, following the class, no one has an online portfolio! So what's the solution?

• Instant portfolio site
• Where are they anyway? Social Networking? Virb, Storylink
• That's where she will go...use social networking tools!

This one was great -- fits right into my research in teaching technology and has the same issues that I have with Marketing and PR majors in my classes!

Facilitating Collaborative Digital Photgraphy Critque Online (Selila Honig from Corcoran College and Heather Tillberg-Webb from Elizabethtown College)

Brought two classes together from different schools to allow for critique using Flickr! Honig spoke about critique in art is clearly a tough process and she has developed a series of questions: What do you see (line, color, shape, texture), how does it make you feel, what do you think it means, what formal aspects interfere or add to what you think it means. Tillberg-Webb spoke about bringing the two classes together. And the challenges. She created groups on Flickr and provided discussion areas for the students to talk about the critique.

What went wrong?

1. Students had a lack of intrinsic motivation and a lack of interest in new media
2. The logistical issues included class meets only once a week in different buildings and there was a lack of access to digital lab

Very interesting challenges that I face EVERY DAY! That assumption that students will WANT to engage in this way is baffling!

A tri-course design unit for a digital media visualization concentration (James Wroneki, East Tennesee State Univesity)

The goal for this professor was to get students to create a portfolio over time based on three courses the students have taken over time. The design of the course was teacher facilitated, student centered, project based and profolio oriented. Which keeps the students motivated and engaged. The portfolio class then ties it all together to provide them with guidance to utilize what they have learned to create their projects. They have to do project briefs. Here's the structure:

1. Class 1 -- Visual Thinking: There is a specific design challenge to design an innovative inventive or inspirationa idea for their portfolio.
2. Class 2 -- Principles of Visualization: More technical with programs such as Maya
3. Class 3 -- Model Design: Create their models, textures and render cameras

Professors advise and co-lead students through their project planning and curriculum design process, there is a Midterm review and there is a 1/3 component of their final senior portfolios as the grade.

This allows students to connect their course content to the portfolio to get ready for the work world.

Overall this session provided some good insight into the work that is going on all over the country in getting students to show their work, to understand what they need to know to highlight what they have learned and how to collaborate. Nice stuff!