See Google Sketchup Video at bottom, very important philosophy

Trivia:

Everyone has hear of Plato... and Socrates and maybe Aristotle...
                  Well, Plato's teacher was Socrates and Aristotle was Plato's student.

Plato (English pronunciation: /ˈpleɪtoʊ/; Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn, "broad";^[2] 424/423 BC^[a] – 348/347 BC), was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science.^[3]

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2011 - Teaching Philosophy

Created: Sunday, Sept 18, 2011


Draft - Pattie to Proofread...

Kaizen¹ has lead Mr. M. to formalize something that has been on his mind over the years of he has been teaching.


What is the secret to teaching? Mr. M. knows? maybe NOT.

HELPS

Nomenclature and estimated time to get a "B" or so...
   for EVERY Assignment and Lab activity:

Say the first Slideshow we do in the lab for MM 118 Creative Programming..
It should be marked as:
Happy  Encounter[1 hour(s)]  Learn  Polish  Show

Then, MM 118 Assignment No. 1, Creating a XML slideshow will be marked as:
Happy  Encounter  Learn[6 hour(s)]  Polish  Show

See bottom of page, for templates for Mr. M. to use on assignments/labs.


All of his courses can be broken down to an acronym he came up with:
ELP.  (pronounced like "Elf" - or you can think of HELP)

H: Happy
E: Encounter
L: Learn
P: Polish
S: Show

Mr. M. will try to make you aware of which parts of assignment fall into either E  L or P - you have to decide if you are Happy doing it - that is beyond the capatilities of any teacher.
 
  It is important that we understand the difference and the time requirements for each.

Employment in Multimedia will be based on P - how polished your work is.

Definitions:

Happy:

In whatever area you wish to work in, pick one that gives you JOY, that makes you HAPPY that doesn't feel like you are working by the hour for a job you don't like.

Why is this SO IMPORTANT?
Mr. M. promises you, whatever field in Multimedia you want to work in... you will be competing with others who LOVE what they do. If you don't really care for it... they will take your job every time.

Many students develop a love for something they thought they hate.

2010 - one student said hated photography, just hated it, never would use it.
          by Summer 2011 - purchased a super dee duper Canon camera, and wants to do a lot of great work with Photography

2005 - one student disliked programming in first year... something to be "avoided" - by 3rd year, they found what they want to do..
           FLASH programming, then took a job working in FLASH down east.

Many examples exist...
       sometime they happen the opposite way... on passion may be replaced with another.

Also, if someone in your educational journey thought you were dumb, not gifted, not talented, not going to amount to much...
FORGET all that. The education system if full of things that that have little bearing on your talents and potential.

BEST ADVICE...
    give all your classes and all your teachers a chance to help you find what you can make a career of.

Encounter:

en·coun·ter
   /ɛnˈkaʊntər
verb (used with object)
  to come upon or meet with, especially unexpectedly: to encounter a new situation.

"Encounter" could be

1. reading a book about Composition - or most any topic
   
2. pushing buttons in the most expensive software used in Hollywood (like Final Cut Pro (video editor) or Pro Tools (audio) - or even iMovie or GarageBand or Audacity).
3. Using the complex effects in Photoshop - or any program that seems to magically do all the creativity for you -and anyone, even a monkey, that can learn go press buttons
   
4. Copying and pasting programming code or using templates which software provides - without knowing basics
   
5. Blindly doing a tutorial on YouTube and ending up with stunning results
   

• This is the easy part and least time consuming.
  
  
• This is fun to do and it is easy to be fooled and say "I'm a pro".
  
  
• You can impress friends and family with your work - you may think your ready to work in industry because you can impress people...
  
  
• But your work fall a country mile short from being able to getting a job and any professional will disregard your work entirely.
  
  
• If your desire is to become a first rank "amateur" you can stop here  - i.e. you don't intend to make a career  with your craft
  
  
• This is but the FIRST necessary step in building your skills.
  

Learn:

This come AFTER Experience and when you actually Learn something.

Here is where the all important knowledge of the BASICS and FUNDAMENTALS come in.

This separates the amateurs from the pros.

Many teachers and professionals are self-taught... but like Mr. M. they must spend a ton of time and even force themselves to learn the basics.

The time for this phase, will be many times greater than Encounter phase.

While Encounter can take but an hour, or maybe a day or so.
    The Learn phase is best measured not in weeks, or in semester, but in years.

Polish:

The most time consuming phase by far. Sometimes Polish can be part of Learn, it is NEVER part of Encounter.

Mr. M. rarely can give you all the time you need to polish as part of anyone assigment (and he suspects that true in all courses). The best "polishing" happens outside of the normal college curriculum.


Industry experience is absolute critical, you can get thes for teach, or

Polish usually involves many other areas of Multimedia.
Example:
A gorgeous jQuery slideshow will only be polished if you have learned about colors, typography, photography, composition, art and of course how to program it properly.

Examples and time requirements to Polish something worthy of an Industry pro taking note:

1. A 30 second video.  Time: 100+ hours after Learn and Encounter are completed.
   - No pro will be interested in a LONG video which is poorly done, and no long video can be well done without doing a bunch of small ones first to build your expertise.
   
2. Writing a good one page essay or movie script  - 20+ hours, after...
3. Creating a simple, clean gorgeous web site  Time: 100
4. To create something that Goolge, Wordpress.org or any establish will publish as your work - 100+ hours
   

In this Phase... so many Learning things are connected, even if they don't occur to you.
Example:
   It is impossible to make a good video without learning basics of Photography, Sound, Story, Composition, typography etc.


Great creative work is an intensely ITERATIVE process... doing things over and over again.
Diamond and knifes are polished over and over again to obtain the desired results.

The good news, is in future work, you know what polishing you must do, and you get faster and faster at polishing your work

So... don't worry, after 3 years of working hard, you can have a few polished pieces. In Mr. M. classes, it may be possible to highly polish only one piece in 3 years - but if you exceed the 3 hours + 3 hours it is possible, but don't let your other courses suffer.

You got to be kidding... 100 hours seems like a long time... well, yes it is. Imagine the time a gamer spends learning say World of Warcraft, the 100 hours could be just ONE week or so.... so when it comes to things you enjoy, 100 hours isn't that much and will add up before you know it.

Show:

HELP must have  S at the end. S is for SHOW, SHOW your work.

Without that, even the best attempts at polishing may no be worth it.

A word about "showing your work"
(Reel Art Show)Digital Photography Masterclass


Author: Tom Ang thecriteque - Page 340



Although being creative and expressing yourself is widely encouraged and a popular way to enjoy photography, it seems that many are diffident about presenting their artistic efforts. In fact, the showing of your personal work is a central part of the creative art: in exposing your ideas and expressions to the cold light of impersonal inspection, your work - and your own attitude to it - gains strength. It's the only way. This is not even simply about making your work visible, it is to say that diffidence actually inhibits creativity. Show your art!
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Digital-Photography-Masterclass-Tom-Ang/9780756636722-item.html


dif•fi•dence (df-dns, -dns) n. The quality or state of being diffident; timidity or shyness. 

How good are you - then PROVE IT.

If you think you are good on a city-wide basis, a provincial basis, on a national basis or on a world-wide basis - that is great. But you have to be able to prove it. The only way is to show your work, embrace criticism whether it takes the form of praise, whether you agree with it or not... even if it is harsh criticism. Be careful if you have zero experience and someone has 15 years experience... it is most likely you don't know what you are talking about, and it is most likely they do. If you always argue with them, they will give up and not try to help you by criticizing your work.

The trouble with Multimedia is "everyone is an expert".  It so easy to claim this, to pretend... more than any other field... many claim expert status..
but are at the "E" encounter or maybe slightly into the "P" practice phase....  they have  so far to go, they are not experts, they could never work in industry, they must complete the L and P and S phases before you can take them seriously. They may become agitated  and defensive, even angry if you question them on anything. Clients are sometimes like this... strange, since they are PAYING YOU for  your expertise - but sometimes unwilling to take your advise.



Mr. M. knows the best way is to see someones work and what others think of it on the Internet, forums, youtube, etc. Be part of a learning community, value the "senior" members, try to become a senior member.  Find someone you admire, who is doing world-class work... ask them what they think of your work... more times than not, they will give you some advise.

If your work is polished enough, try to publish it on the Net...

Example



Here is Mr. M. as a JUNIOR member of http://www.dvxuser.com

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?249374-Film-Evaluation-Form-Rate-your-short-or-feature-single-sheet-Word-document-PDF

MR. M. doesn't really like being called "JUNIOR" member... but all SENIOR members started out as JUNIORS .

Imagine, talking to REEL pros, learning from them... all for FREE, and all for FUN!

Micro Learning Projects  (MLP)

These type of projects WILL help you POLISH your work.
See link on LEFT side for Mr. M.'s MLP.





¹ Kaizen (改善^?), Japanese for "improvement", or "change for the better" refers to philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, game development, and business management. It has been applied in healthcare,^[1] psychotherapy,^[2] life-coaching, government, banking, and other industries.

Appendix

For Mr. M. use only... HELP nomenclature

Happy  Encounter[X hour(s)]  Learn  Polish  Show

Happy  Encounter  Learn[X hour(s)]  Polish  Show

Happy  Encounter  Learn  Polish[X hour(s)]  Show