Objectives Review

To master basic digital software and hardware.

                Software

Mastery of the software is adequate for basic usability of the software. I feel that the video portion they took better too than Photoshop. The standardization of layout will definitely help this in the future. File management however was quite bad with many of the students. But I suspect this is partly fault of the OS as Apple OSX isn’t particularly friendly to file management.

                Hardware

Given the issues of storage and other hardware related things, I would still call it novice at best. While not explicitly needed for art, I feel that a better understanding of the hardware end of digital production is needed. (Namely for that they stop asking me why NTFS cannot be written to on OSX)

To gain ability in evaluating and applying knowledge of the aesthetic and theoretical principles of art.

The aesthetic principals of art I feel have been neglected in my education here; however I also feel that this aspect of the course was a little lacking beyond the basic IQ assessments. However, I feel that relying heavily on them would be in proper for this course as it would muddle an already confusing subject for most.  As such I feel that the level in which it is touched on is adequate for this course. (A revision on resolution is definitely in order, Still amazes me how many were using low resolution materials.)

To become knowledgeable about media art, its historical precedents and contemporary manifestations.

This is one section that is completed to my satisfaction. No real revisions I have at the moment for it.

To gain ability in communicating and articulating ideas, both visually and verbally.

Verbally I feel that the students have gained skill in expressing their opinions and rational when critiquing. However the expression of ideas threw art is definitely not the strong point of some students (nor was it of myself). I’m not particularly equipped with the knowledge and ability to make comments on improvements to this. I know enough to know that I know very little.

Things to Consider III

Previously mentioned

Image Compression (brief review)

• It’s time for them to put what was taught to the test. Proper selection of image formats and compression techniques are essential to a well-made website and one that loads instantly verses next week.

CSS vs. HTML formatting

• Why and when to use them as a separate document and in document formatting, along with strengths and weaknesses.

Website snooping and or saving

• It would be beneficial that the students know how to and understand how to find snipits of code and extract and apply them. this information can also aid them in debugging their own site if the need arises and can be preformed either in note pad (not recommended) or a full editor like Dreamweaver.

New Considerations

Standardize the work environment.

• Establish the adobe work environment that the class will be taught in. I suggest the one called “Designer Compact” as it provides access to common menus without cluttering the screen. My work environment is also not far off from this one.

On Role Over events

• It is possible to change images and text once a mouse is over top of it. I have seen this used to great effect before on sites and think it could prove useful to the students.

Pop Ups

• Love them or hate them, they are handy.

Audio Embedding

• A proper way to embed audio that doesn’t involve play back plugins using HTML5 tags.

Video Embedding

• At least one demonstration of video embedding threw either external services or threw HTML5 tags. If tags are used, then we have to cover proper video export for playback. (two formats required for proper browser support)

Photoshop Web Slices

• This would allow them to place legacy hotspots in images and design some more visually appealing layouts of pages. It would also allow those who are more familiar with Photoshop to do most of the design stage in Photoshop.

Things to Consider II

Things I would like to cover in the HTML section

     Basic hand coding of HTML

Knowing how to read and write HTML at a basic level has been hugely helpful for me thought the years and has allowed me to do far more with website assignments than those that didn’t understand it. The major limitation of this though is it requires us to force the students to do the long way something that takes 2 seconds in Dream Weaver…

     Image Compression (brief review)

It’s time for them to put what was taught to the test. Proper selection of image formats and compression techniques are essential to a well-made website.

     CSS and HTML formatting

Why and when to use them as a separate document and in document formatting. Limitation of this is if we are going to be 100% Dream weaver, mainly because it will do all of the formatting on its own along with proper placement of formatting code.

     Website snooping and or saving

I feel that it would be beneficial to the students to know how to save a webpage and or look at the source code of the site. I use this regularly as a part of my site build process and to help enlighten myself to the many divergent manners of programing a site.

Potential problems

     The Program

Honestly, I have never seen a program write better HTML than a programmer. We will undoubtedly run in to instances where Dream Weaver just won’t do something. As such by hand manipulation of the code will be required.

     Web Browser

Each ones a little different in how it displays and interprets data, it would be best that we standardize the browser that we will be programing for.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths and weaknesses of the first half of SA 104

Strengths:

1    .Printing

a.       It was quite good that we dealt with as much printing as we did. Aloes those more conferrable with traditional manipulation a chance to practice it also.

2    .Resolution

a.       Resolution requirements of the assignments were well explained (why we are doing it at that size)

3    .Web Sourcing

a.       Allowing people to source thing’s from the web allowed them to get creative in their final products

4    .Composition choices

a.       Using the still life as the base for doing digital composition was clever and a good way of bridging the gap between Traditional and Digital production

5    .Compression

a.       I thank you greatly for letting me try to explain the importance of compression when working with digital images. Back when I took this class everything was requested in TIFF files without explanation of why.

6    .Video Homework

a.       Using videos as a part of the homework seems to get a good ratio of people actually taking the time to watch it. Seems moving images are more enticing than text.

7    .Help Forum

a.       Having a section where people can ask and reply to questions is handy.

Weaknesses:

1    .Basics

a.       From the feedback I got, I suspect we needed to cover at an even more basic level how to use Photoshop and OSX. (copy, paste, how to open images in Photoshop correctly)

b.      Standardizing Layout of Photoshop across all of the computers would have saved some headaches of alternative layouts confusing students.

2    .Printing

a.       Need to spend more time on printing or get some standardized document of checks for them to reference at will

3    .Compression

a.       Compression document needs revising along with perhaps a new mode of presentation that isn’t as intimidating to those less technically savvy. (something for me to work on)

b.      Demonstration of application of compression in class. Demo why compression can be important.

4    .No Illustrator / vectors

a.       I feel that we should have covered this at some level. It’s a completely different way of working digitally and some people are more conferrable working in them than working in raster imagers (my self included)

5    .Web Sourcing

a.       Allowing people to source thing’s from the web lead to low image fidelity commonly and confusion over resolution. Solution is to cover Google’s resolution filter and explain that you cannot resize an image up without losing fidelity.

6    .Subject

a.       Apparently showing examples and giving a definition for Still Life was not enough for some students to understand what a still life was. No idea how to improve this though.

7    .Pen Tablet

a.       The short, low fidelity, demonstration of the pen tablet should either be cut or extended. It was not convincing at all to try it.

8    .Art Server

a.       Cover it on Day One.

9    .Still Life Demos

a.       Should include some that are created using the same or similar method as the assignment. Helps students visualize what is expected.

10    .Help forum

a.       People that were confused or unsure did not use it.

b.      Most questions were beyond what I can address remotely threw text without confusing students.

Quantizing feedback

Q1. improvements to current document

                1. Better PNG coverage

                2. Explanation of charts

                3. Less wordy (get less technical)

                4. More images

                5. Better explanation of what is the best format for what

Q1.1. where I lost some people

                1. Bit Depth

                2. Basic computer stuff (had a request that it is explained)

                3. Some wording (PSD and JPG)

Q2. Do this again?

                1. YES (most said yes)

                                1. One on import things for the class

                                2. Printing

                                3. Scanning

                2. No (only one person said no)

p3. Organization enhancements

                1. More examples (more visuals)

                2. Greater force on which format is for what

                3. Less crowded

Other.

                1. More time on Photoshop

                2. More on printing and scanning (request for in class demonstration, but we did that twice...)

                3. Other programs (illustrator, InDesign Dreamweaver)

                4. More beginner focus (less assumption on ability’s? were already at dirt basic)

                5. Pre-Press info?

                6. How to touch up photographs

                7. Perhaps doing the lesson in person

                8. don’t make one a test

Thoughts on points.

The first set of responses will be us full when going on threw and making a second version of the document. There are some things I evidently can’t do however without greatly lengthening the document.  Such as brining everything down to complete layman’s terms.

As of towards the wording, I can’t really make changes without knowing what exactly was difficult with it.

The other section is for things that people mentioned that didn’t necessarily fit any of the first 3 categories. Some wanted more time in Photoshop to learn it, some wanted to learn about other programs and some wanted the document I made presented in class rather than only online.