I am a young creative who enjoys telling stories and digging into the science behind them.
Outside of school I enjoy playing various sports, contemplating quantum physics, and writing (stories, songs, poems, etc.).
I don’t know where the future will lead, but hopefully I can keep exploring my interests.
Here’s my personal stationary (phone and address of Freestyle Academy).
Freestyle Reflection
I really enjoyed my animation and english classes. The community was strong and the work was presented in a clear and reasonable way.
Digital Media was not the same experience.
The structure of class, of sitting without being engaged with the teacher or peers, made it hard to stay motivated. What was even further demotivating was the structure of the assignments. A bunch of poorly broken up videos to follow along with exactly was not only monotonous, frustrating, and time-consuming, but it also stifled the creative energy I had when I was introduced to the project. Knowing that I would have to sit through hours of boring videos, get frustrated, and not actually learn anything made it hard to motivate myself to do assignments.
Alternative forms of instruction that I think would work better for Digital Media:
1. live-instruction walk-throughs of how to use the tools. In animation, Mr. Cho would explain how to use all of the tools within a software while we all followed along on our own project. This was efficient and engaging. (The “follow along but don’t just copy” would also work with pre-recorded long-form videos)
2. making videos that explain how to make a certain effect or use a certain tool instead of making videos that walk through a few different tools or only talk about half of the process. This would help when trying to remember how to use a specific effect when doing creative projects (possibly even beyond the assignment it’s originally a part of) No matter which of these methods (if either at all) you choose, I would strongly stress my desire for the creativity of students to be maintained throughout the entire project. This could mean only having one big project (with some requirement on how many methods described are used) or having a main project and a few small practice projects (similar to what it is now, but don’t say exactly what has to be done. I do feel like sometimes the number of files an assignment needs can also be disheartening (like with the Pro Tools assignment) so if you decide on continuing to have smaller preliminary projects, please try to limit how many there are and how long (as a percentage of the project time as a whole) students have to spend on these. I know that I don’t have a teaching credential, I don’t know how to teach a class, but I know that these changes would have helped my performance and enjoyment in Digital Media, and I hope you’ll consider some of my suggestions.
I just want to add a suggestion: type out instructions instead of or along with video instructions. Typed words would let kids move more at their own pace and would be easier to go back through.