http://www.nyip.com/courses/

Thanks for any feedback…

But learning soundslides doesn’t really take THAT long. a couple of classes. Discussing the pros and cons of different times, what works and what doesn’t. There’s a million ways to make it worthwhile. And perhaps your professor is still grappling with all this new stuff as well.

I mean, there are weeks where I drive half hour to class, then found that he let everyone go after 10 minutes. I wish I said something about it, …and I think that there is the students faults there too, such as when we do not turn in assignments, and thurs there is nothing for the professor to really talk/disscuss about.

I see your point. I was wrong before, I don’t mind learning SoundSlides in Doc Class. I think it is useful and would only really take one or two class sessions. Learning SoundSlides was not my real gripe, it was watching SoundSlides and other multimedia presentations constantly throughout the semester instead of either learning it, learning to gather audio, learning to tell stories, etc.

But where do you learn technical stuff? Is there a separate lighting class? There’s not really a separate online editing class for reporting majors.

I think that, until we change the curriculum for a changing field, we DO learn much of the more technical skills either on our own or in classes outside of the journalism department. There is a lighting class withing the photography department. Shaminder, Diana, Daniel Esch and Yvonne have taken it. Of course there is a new media class in our department. And there is a Flash/Dreamweaver/Multimedia class in the RTVF department.

And that’s the point I get — page designers learn how to design pages in a page design class, and reporters learn how to write in a writing class, and photographers learn how to tell a doc story in a doc photo class.

But where do you learn technical stuff? Is there a separate lighting class? There’s not really a separate online editing class for reporting majors.

Again, and as always, we can either learn this stuff in a completely separate track, or we can learn this stuff — convergence-style, to some extent — mixed into existing classes.

The second version requires fewer resources and no great curriculum cataclysm, so I think that’s what the department is likely to do, if they do anything at all.

I have to disagree with some of the things your are saying. This is not at all about me tap dancing around not wanting to do a story. I DO want to do a story, and I want to do it right. You seem to miss the point of a classroom. It is to learn. Even if everyone in class already had a story to do (which we do, we already turned our proposals in), what do you suggest we should be doing during class time?

As for learning SoundSlides and its value in getting a job, I agree, it is important. But, learning SoundSlides is NOT the purpose of the Documentary Photography class. I can do that either on my own time, or in a flash/multimedia class.

Maybe you think I am just whining about my education. From my point of view, this is something that I am paying for.

I didn’t learn much from my time in 145 either, but the only thing that I picked up…. Soundslides did help in getting my internship with AJC. They asked for it!!! and from reading about the restructuring of AJC yesterday…..aside from the unwellcoming news of voluntary buyoffs, they are restructuring the on-line dept. to be equal to the print dept.

Yeap, I agree with you… content is everything. So come up with a story then! It’s just sad that a lot of you in SJSU could not find anything interesting to tell. It’s a big world, and almost none of you (except Dilroy) can find something worthwhile to care about and tells it. I think you know the theory already, they are no different than any story telling/poetries methodsa from the dawn of time…

I am sitting-in at one of the reporting classes in UCB this semester on China and the Environments, and believe me. they dig for their stories… and they love the topics that they are covering…..Go find yours.