Looking back at Term 1, Year 2…..

So now terms over and i am back in my hometown of Watford, i want to take a look back at the first term of my second year, its certainly been different to last year.

Web Pathway

I shall start by talking about my pathway choice of web. I chose this last year because I’ve long had an interest in web design, dating back from when i studied at a level way back when in 2003 (scary!) Since then though my skills have not really developed much, largely due to the 2 year break from education, i wanted to rediscover my passion for the web so i thought this choice would be the best for me. It also allowed me to enter a field where i could combine both technical and creative skills in equal measure.

So have i made the right choice? I think so, I’ve certainly enjoyed what we have done but wish we had done more. This term has mainly been concentrating on flash/actionscript in relation to our banner coursework. Which has been a great learning experience, but i cant help feeling that i wish i had been taught this stuff last year so we could be doing even more complex things now.

The database lectures/seminars have been interesting, Ive never done any database work before so they’ve given me a crucial foundation in the basics, but i know i need to learn a lot more about them with next term in mind. It’s not a bundle of fun but will be important for me in the future so I’m pleased were learning about them.

I look forward to next term and the coursework task of creating a social networking website and hopefully this time next term i will be far more advanced in my knowledge/skills in web design/development than i am now.

Losing the Snodgrass

The departure of Adrian Snodgrass mid term was a blow, he was a good man and i always enjoyed his teaching. It also disrupted the course somewhat, i found it very very strange that he was made to deliver the coursework on his final day, surely it would have made more sense for David (his replacement) to deliver the brief? It made the changeover a bit awkward, and just lead to some confusion.Dave seems like a good guy who knows his stuff but i feel his introduction has been handled very poorly and he seems to be getting mixed directives from the staff above him, annoying to say the least

MULTI media

Last year we tried our hands at a variety of disciplines within Multimedia, with the idea being that we find out which one we like most and concentrate on it this year, makes sense and i can see why the system is in place. However i find myself this year missing the multi-disciplinary approach of my first year. I look on with envy at the AV students busily editing their films, the animation students making cool looking creations in 3d max. There is still so much i want to learn besides just web and it is beginning to annoy me. Maybe its a case of the grass always being greener on the other side but i miss trying my hand at everything, especially when my own pathway hasn’t really been that inspiring yet.

I plan to combat this in term 2 by going to lectures and seminars of other pathways, devise my own custom timetable if you like. I went to one Animation seminar this year and really enjoyed it. I’d like to learn more about 3d animation as i beleive it could come in handy for the design side of things on future web projects, i also want to find out if there are any audio lectures and seminars for the AV pathway. I have always had a great interest in audio and would very much like to have that as another string to my bow, which leads me nicely on to my next topic…..

Fly FM

As you may know from earlier posts, i am head of production for FlyFM which is NTU’s radio station. Fly’s taken up a lot of my time this term, and is another contributing factor to my end of term frustrations. It has without doubt had an effect on my course, and as i became further frustrated with the start of my course i used Fly as a welcome distraction.

I’ve enjoyed it so much, both from a work point of view and also from the great bunch of people ive be-friended as a result. As the term went on i found myself producing less and less audio and concentrating more on the updating of the Fly FM website. The website is an annoying thing to say the least, the content management system is very frustrating and an overly laborious process.

I’m very glad i got involved with Fly and i have benefited in many areas from my experience. I enjoy creating audio for broadcast and i will look to keep on improving these skills. The chances, albeit limited, ive had to get involved with designing a few bits and pieces for the website is good experience and something different from my course.

I’m considering running for Fly FM officer next year, something i need to think about long hard as if i was lucky enough to be voted in then it would take up a significant chunk of my time in my final third year, but thats a long way off yet….

Time to look to the future….

So in conclusion to this mini essay, a quick run through of where i stand right now.

I have not been happy with the course this year in general. I have been relatively pleased with what we HAVE done, but its what we HAVEN’T done that concerns me. I feel that the foundations of a really good course are there but could do with some re-organising. I think we would really benefit from more small tasks, say a week long in duration, where we have a specific small task that we had to go away and complete and then bring it back for detailed feedback. Much like the tutorial exercises, but focused on more practical tasks. The tutorials are an ideal forum for feedback, and whilst i’m aware that i can raise any questions i like during these sessions, if it was a proper task we were given with a proper objective then i think we’d benefit a lot more than just asking questions here and there.

I’d like to make clear that i realise were expected to do plenty of self directed study. Which is something i agree with, and something that i make an effort to do. However i feel that if we could increase the contact time with tutors and structure it in a more appropriate way and couple it with plenty of self directed learning then i’d be in a much more confident position as a student than i am at the moment.

So thats my rant over, sorry for moaning but it felt good to get things off my chest that have been annoying me. It’s onwards and upwards from now on. I’ve got some projects to be getting on with over Christmas and i shall post details of them here soon

To anyone that reads this i wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Coursework Done….

After the obligatory last minute rush i completed my coursework last week, it was certainly a relief to get it over and done with. This has been a frustrating project in many ways, a bi-product of a very frustrating term but that’s another topic for another post (stay tuned!)

The biggest positive i took from this coursework was that my actionscript skills have come on leaps and bounds. I knew basically nothing when it came to AS before this and now i have a solid grasp of the fundamentals and look forward to building on them in the future.

As for the final output, i would say satisfied is an apt word. I bit off more than i could chew in some aspects and had to dumb down at the last minute to make sure i got it all finished, in particular the London banner suffered from this. I had a rather complex puzzle i was trying to solve using a combination of variables and if statements and booleans and it all got too much for me so i had to revert back to a simple count method. That disappointed me but i had no choice due to time constraints, i guess i should have realised how complicated it would be and should have sought advice on it earlier.

Now time to show you the two finished products……

Seasonal Product – PollenBuster Hayfever Spray

Country – London,England

If you click on the images above you’ll be taken to a page where you can view my working banners, if you would be so kind to leave me some feedback on here I’d be grateful

As i said before I’m satisfied with my results, but i do feel they could have been a lot better. My production process was sluggish and my research was not concise enough, very vague. I’m disappointed with myself in that aspect, if i had planned better and made more of an effort with the preparation I’m sure i could have produced some work that was far more impressive. Still i’ve learnt a great deal and i guess that’s the main thing right?

Reflective Practice – Learning Swallows Doing

A few weeks back we had a lecture on the subject of Reflective Practice, and here are my reflections.

I found this a very interesting subject, and one that will be highly relevant to me when i write my essay later in the year. There were a couple of points in particular that held great significance with me, the first one being this -

“For Many Practitioners, doing swallows up learning”

This quote is alluding to the fact that the pressure of deadlines and commercial work means that the focus is getting the job done as quickly as possible, rather than taking the time to learn new things and explore different methods.

Relating this comment to myself i find myself in completely the opposite situation, for me learning has very much swallowed doing. Over the past few months i have been reading around the subject, learning techniques for various software packages, learning the theories behind my area of practice. That is all very good and will benefit me in the long run, but i feel that Ive spent too much time learning and not enough time putting what Ive learnt into practice. Without actual projects to work on i find myself with too much time ‘experimenting’ rather than producing actual pieces of work.

My Journal as an outlet for Reflective Practice

Throughout the last year and a bit ive kept an online journal to document my experience at university so far, in particular relating to my course. I really got into this last year and ended the year with something like 50 or 60 posts, i have found this to be a really beneficial experience. Much in the same way that people write diary’s of their lives as ways of expressing their feelings, i have found that writing about the trials and tribulations of my course allows me to take a step back and think about where i am and what I’m doing. It gives me a greater sense of perspective and forces me to think about everything Ive done and to evaluate it, if i did not have this journal then i don’t imagine i would actively think about how I’m doing as much as i do. I’d more than likely just plough on with my work without stopping much to think about what I’m doing right or wrong.