(no subject)
Okay so I finally started my rant about Al's class. Here it is for all you people who actually like and/or are good at writing.
First I will note that it has taken me a long time to decide to write something formally, because Mr. Grivetti is both my advisor and a nice guy who I want to give the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately I realized that is probably why these problems have continued for years now.
Our main concerns with the class include our lack of direction and Al's willingness to change for the student's sake. From the start of the class he admitted that he had very little knowledge in web design. The fact that he has been teaching this class for many years and still does not have a grasp of the programs is obviously distressing to students who are paying thousands of dollars to be in his classes. He insisted the class would focus on web design rather than the technical aspects, but that we would all have working websites by the end of the class. The whole class expressed interest in learning as much of the technical side as possible. As I have learned from my other web class, design needs three things: Writing, design, and technical coding. If we could learn to have a basic knowledge in all three of these things, we would be ready for the real world. The fact that most of the students in this class are now seniors makes us anxious to learn as much as possible, and whether or not our job will be in web coding, having a basic knowledge of the process, the time needed for each aspect, and the possibilities and limits of the program are vital. Not to mention the obvious resume boost!
We had quite a few disagreements about the design versus the technical side of websites. The first half of the semester was spent literally surfing the internet for good or bad looking websites and taking notes. This project should have taken a week tops in my opinion - people of our generation have used the internet enough to know what a url is, what a navigation bar looks like, and what a web site should consist of.
In the first half of the semester I suggested having Trisha Pitz come in and do a basic lesson in Dreamweaver. She works in Marketing and I have heard from alums that she is the person to go to for good information fast. After a few weeks of suggesting her and getting shot down, I emailed her myself. She said she would be happy to give us her time with Al's blessing. The subject was never brought up again. This was obviously frustrating - why not have someone come in for not only our benefit but Al's?
Finally at midterm I began my timesaver class with Trisha. I learned more in a few hours with her than I have at all from the class that is required for my major. She is what most students expect from a professor - she can answer questions and give advice past “look it up in the book.”
Which leads me to my next point. We were asked halfway through the semester to purchase a $50+ book. I already had my book from my other class, as well as online resources I had found on my own when I got tired of waiting for something to happen 3 hours every Tuesday and Thursday. Most of the class either did not buy the book or did, but gained little applicable information from them. In my opinion books should be supplements to a class. They should not be the only source of information, again this is why we spend our money and show up for class: a person, not a book. It would be a lot cheaper to buy Dreamweaver and a book and just teach ourselves.
The tutorials in the book would have been fine if they had been assigned in segments and then discussed in class. Instead Al would randomly decide in class that we should be to Chapter 4 or Chapter 12, and leave it at that. There was no discussion of the tutorials, no answered questions, and definitely no working website.
Today it was announced that if we didn't have Chapters 1-16 completed and printed, we could possibly fail. Now I doubt this will actually happen, but I think the fact that most of us taught ourselves and our classmates a program and have designed multiple versions of our webpages is pretty good considering the lack of direction we've received from our leader. What I suggest is what most other web and computer classes already do: A Chapter or two is assigned, reviewed in class, questions are answered, and the knowledge is applied. This is the basic way classes at UD go as well, as my freshmen sister has reported. It's actually scary that she has already learned things her first year that I was never taught in my almost four years of Graphic Design.
These are my opinions as well as that of the other class members, although I'm not sure they will speak up for fear of failing or making things in the classroom even more tense. What I ask is either Al takes some classes or teaches himself (if we can do it he can too) to use Dreamweaver, or someone else is asked to take this class. Even if something can't be done for our class, I don't want this to continue for those in the future.
Lemme know if I should change stuff.
Other than that I've been really stressed with school. lots of papers and stuff. I'll be home this weekend and next week probably Wed-Friday or Saturday. Yayyy Turkey =)
First I will note that it has taken me a long time to decide to write something formally, because Mr. Grivetti is both my advisor and a nice guy who I want to give the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately I realized that is probably why these problems have continued for years now.
Our main concerns with the class include our lack of direction and Al's willingness to change for the student's sake. From the start of the class he admitted that he had very little knowledge in web design. The fact that he has been teaching this class for many years and still does not have a grasp of the programs is obviously distressing to students who are paying thousands of dollars to be in his classes. He insisted the class would focus on web design rather than the technical aspects, but that we would all have working websites by the end of the class. The whole class expressed interest in learning as much of the technical side as possible. As I have learned from my other web class, design needs three things: Writing, design, and technical coding. If we could learn to have a basic knowledge in all three of these things, we would be ready for the real world. The fact that most of the students in this class are now seniors makes us anxious to learn as much as possible, and whether or not our job will be in web coding, having a basic knowledge of the process, the time needed for each aspect, and the possibilities and limits of the program are vital. Not to mention the obvious resume boost!
We had quite a few disagreements about the design versus the technical side of websites. The first half of the semester was spent literally surfing the internet for good or bad looking websites and taking notes. This project should have taken a week tops in my opinion - people of our generation have used the internet enough to know what a url is, what a navigation bar looks like, and what a web site should consist of.
In the first half of the semester I suggested having Trisha Pitz come in and do a basic lesson in Dreamweaver. She works in Marketing and I have heard from alums that she is the person to go to for good information fast. After a few weeks of suggesting her and getting shot down, I emailed her myself. She said she would be happy to give us her time with Al's blessing. The subject was never brought up again. This was obviously frustrating - why not have someone come in for not only our benefit but Al's?
Finally at midterm I began my timesaver class with Trisha. I learned more in a few hours with her than I have at all from the class that is required for my major. She is what most students expect from a professor - she can answer questions and give advice past “look it up in the book.”
Which leads me to my next point. We were asked halfway through the semester to purchase a $50+ book. I already had my book from my other class, as well as online resources I had found on my own when I got tired of waiting for something to happen 3 hours every Tuesday and Thursday. Most of the class either did not buy the book or did, but gained little applicable information from them. In my opinion books should be supplements to a class. They should not be the only source of information, again this is why we spend our money and show up for class: a person, not a book. It would be a lot cheaper to buy Dreamweaver and a book and just teach ourselves.
The tutorials in the book would have been fine if they had been assigned in segments and then discussed in class. Instead Al would randomly decide in class that we should be to Chapter 4 or Chapter 12, and leave it at that. There was no discussion of the tutorials, no answered questions, and definitely no working website.
Today it was announced that if we didn't have Chapters 1-16 completed and printed, we could possibly fail. Now I doubt this will actually happen, but I think the fact that most of us taught ourselves and our classmates a program and have designed multiple versions of our webpages is pretty good considering the lack of direction we've received from our leader. What I suggest is what most other web and computer classes already do: A Chapter or two is assigned, reviewed in class, questions are answered, and the knowledge is applied. This is the basic way classes at UD go as well, as my freshmen sister has reported. It's actually scary that she has already learned things her first year that I was never taught in my almost four years of Graphic Design.
These are my opinions as well as that of the other class members, although I'm not sure they will speak up for fear of failing or making things in the classroom even more tense. What I ask is either Al takes some classes or teaches himself (if we can do it he can too) to use Dreamweaver, or someone else is asked to take this class. Even if something can't be done for our class, I don't want this to continue for those in the future.
Lemme know if I should change stuff.
Other than that I've been really stressed with school. lots of papers and stuff. I'll be home this weekend and next week probably Wed-Friday or Saturday. Yayyy Turkey =)