FLASH: A team-based approach to multimedia education

[Tom Green]

> Michael Dunn wrote:

>

>> ...the best flashers are those with skills in both trades - Branden

>> Hall

>

> Dead on, Branden.

>

>>

>>

>> Exactly. In my Director class the teacher said the most important

>> trait in a

>> wannabee developer/designer was the ability to work on a team.

>

> <snip>

>

> Funny you should mention this. (Note To Dorian. Keep working .No

> provocation coming up.  :> )

>

> We swung our entire multimedia programme over to a team-based approach

> about two years ago. We did this because because things were getting,

> as we saw it, "to damn complex". ( Code warriors vs. designers?) We

> saw the rise of the project team composed of specialists in the

> various disciplines (Code warriors  co-existing with designers) and

> mirrored it. The day of the artist as suffering individual or

> jack-of-all trades  was over. Just like what happened in '92 with DTP.

>

> Each group of students- fresmen ,  graduate and "post-graduate"- are

> broken into teams of 4 or 5 and assigned a project for delivery at the

> end of the academic year. For example, this year's projects include an

> interactive exploration of Breughel's painting "Children's Games", an

> interactive presentation of Herbie Hancock's "Sixties Sessions" CD

> compilation and  the freshmen (first year students) produce an

> interactive CD titled "My Life…So Far" that presents the members of

> the group and stresses their differences and their similarities. We

> also insist teach class break into groups and prepare an interactive

> web site for a local not for profit or charity organization.

>

> As I said, we started doing this two years ago and the results have

> been nothing short of amazing. Two weeks ago I asked the graduating

> class ."Who doesn't have a co-op placement?"  Only 4 of 28 hands were

> raised. Two years ago, I asked who has a co-op placement and only 4 of

> 27 hands were raised. A complete flip.

>

> This morning, I had a meeting with a fairly large local web company

> who were looking to initiate a co-op programme.aWhen I explained our

> team-based approach I had the unique experience of watching eyebrows

> go over the hairline and down the back of the head. They said this was

> exactly how they approached project management and we were the only

> school they had visited that "works exactly the way we operate." As if

> this was some sort of revelation. I had a different  expeience this

> autumn with a collegue in an Australian university. He just couldn't

> wrap his mind around what we were doing and felt it was way too

> radical for his "school". Then he saw our placement and employment

> stats.

>

> I'd be interested in learning if any other colleges and universities

> doing this?

>

>

>

>





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