Blog #9: What I Leaned In This Class

I vacillate between feeling I learned a lot and learned nothing in MedP160. I think the class was overly ambitious. This was borne out by the fact that we didn’t get through everything on the syllabus, as well as had to expand the deadlines on a couple of projects to be able to finish them.

I did learn something of the nature of Digital Media

(modularity/reproducibility/interactivity) and something of the World Wide Web (protocols/user centered design/meta data). Our foray into creating a short video introduced me to the various pre and post-production skills that go into filmmaking (concept/proposal/treatment/storyboard/outline/screenplay). That project also effectively made us actors, directors, cameramen and editors. I learned how films are structured (narrative/inductive or deductive reasoning) and put together (continuity/match cuts/montage). We also learned a bit of the history of the aforementioned areas.

Where it all went south for me was in the technical areas, specifically Final Cut Express and Flash Animation. It often seemed as though there was a built in assumption that I would be familiar with these programs or that they were very simple. For me they were not and I struggled mightily with them. Due to the size of our lab it was next to impossible to get any one on one teaching, which is where I benefit most. In retrospect, Final Cut Express was somewhat easier to understand but Flash was next to impossible, which is evident by my attempts.

In conclusion, it was an interesting class but there simply wasn’t enough time and personal instruction to benefit me.