creative technology / new media
[]
readme
new(s)
workshop(s)
project(s)
CA1
CA2
CA3
CA4
CA5
course(s)
-
creative exploration(s)
/
serious games
/ ethic(s) -
resource(s)
_
#
@
!
afterthought(s) -- 09 / 10
PDF
In retrospect, the course was rescued by
the excellent results of the
worst page contest,
that also made it to the
blog(s).
All in all, as clearly indicated in the evaluation(s), the course was technically far too demanding
for the majority of students,
even though many made an effort to get their portfolio(s) online.
Also many students showed reluctance to submit an essay,
and, as can be read in the comment(s), by the end of the course
only a minority of the students were readt for
grading, some with excellent result though.
As a consequence, I will lower my requirements to the minimum
of having a portfolio online, showing a basic level of skill(s).
It is only in the course of the NM1
course, that I came to realize that another approach
must be taken to deal with the diversity of talents of our students,
an approach that somehow takes into account
the difference between creatives and technologists.
This, again, was made painfully clear by some of the
dropout(s),
that indicated a preference for a more design-oriented
approach, and not an enhanced computer science curriculum.
For the NM2 and CA3,
as well as later, courses, these observations led to the motto
it's all in the game.
Luckily from a personal perspective, the contributions
of the students during the course helped
in getting some papers published,
around the (emerging) CTSG.
In the future NM1 course(s),
the focus should rather be (again) on storytelling, but then from the perspective of
non-linearity and interactivity, as supported by
the (increasingly expanding)
web.
PDF
This year I decided to have a smooth transition from the
CA1 to the NM1 course, to allow students to complete
their interactive videos and develop an accompanying website,
which to my mind provides sufficient rationale
to regard the project as web technology,
also because XML, the authoring format for ximpel, is one of the web's key technologies.
Apart from the portfolio, which can be accessed via the partipants page
above, students were required to produce a worst page, for which an
election was held,
see
creativetechnology.eu/wordpress/?p=615
The election was itself was an extremely enjoyable event,
and as the assignment itself, highly appreciated by the students.
A course such as web technology is difficult, not in the least because
of the great diversity in skills and interests.
As I was absent for two weeks, some were happy with the freedom
and took the time to explore the technology, but others
had a problem to get themselves to work, and would have liked
more direct and guided tuition.
A somewhat disturbing factor is that suddenly the notion
of portfolio became somewhat obscure, because
of the introduction of the mevolution 'portfolio' as a progress monitoring
tool for tutoring. Fortunately, these issues have been clarified
and most students do sufficiently see the relevance of a personal
portfolio for their future career and there work done for
the creative technology study.
No doubt partly due to the work for the group project(s),
no student this year did any of the optional
assigments, ranging over the exploration of jquery,
processingjs, the HTML5 canvas or advanced CSS, despite
expressing a regret that such topics were not dealt with in the
course.
Apart from a lack of time, this also indicates a problem
with the attitude of this years' students, which is overall
a bit passive. Students are, in general, not inclined to
follow up on additional references, and explore the material.
All in all, I am not dissatisfied with the results,
as expressed in the grade assessment(s),
and despite the possible confusion that may arise
when spreading the efforts for the interactive video
project over two courses, I strongly recommend to continue
this approach in the following years, not in the least because
of the impressive results:
creativetechnology.eu/wordpress/?p=622
Interestingly, whereas previous attempts to involve them
in (micro) social networks were met by students with, at best,
reluctance, after in a thoughtless moment
opening a creative technology
facebook group, within an hour more than half of the first year students
(over 20) and as well as a number of second year students were member and (ongoingly) active,
with activity concerning
past, ongoing and future courses.
[]
readme
new(s)
workshop(s)
project(s)
CA1
CA2
CA3
CA4
CA5
course(s)
-
creative exploration(s)
/
serious games
/ ethic(s) -
resource(s)
_
#
@
!
(C)
Æliens
2014