bak 2 skool

Back to Basics

So...finally taught my first class today!! :P

It was a pretty good experience, overall. Arrived about 5 minutes before class (missed the earlier bus) and quickly set my laptop up in the computer lab. They've got a nice data projector in there, which I connected my laptop to. There was one problem, though.

Okay, I'm gonnna need you to use a little imagination here, okay? Nothing too complex like 3D drafting in your head, just a little imaginary positioning.

Okay, imagine I'm at the front of the computer lab, right? I've got my laptop and the projector next to me, and the kids are all seated on the floor in front of me, with the rows of Macs behind them. Now imagine I'm trying to give a presentation (and I'm at the front of the lab), only the projector is...ummm...projecting at the back wall of the lab. Now, what does this mean?

If you said "that means the kids are all looking at the back wall and not at you", you are right! Congratulations, you win the No-Prize!

How am I supposed to present to an audience, made up of kids, no less, when I can't see their faces?! :P

So...yeah. It was a little tough. A lot more difficult than my past presentations, and I've had to do some tough ones while I was in the army, so that's really saying something. :P

But besides that, it was really great. I guess it was also a good experience in the sense that it really tested my presentation and communication skills. As I'm sure most of you are aware, kids have really short attention spans. It definitely didn't help that this presentation was on the fundamentals of design (stages, planning, that sort of stuff), which can be dry to say the least.

I had to constantly reassess the situation and figure out which kids were nodding off or starting to lose focus, and try to gain them back by asking them questions and trying to get them involved. It was kind of like playing that really old DOS computer game where there are six bar counters and you're a bar keep and you have to keep shifting counters to refill patron's beers before they get bored and leave. Okay, I guess it's a little inappropriate to compare the kids to demanding bar patrons, but you get what I mean. :P

I have to credit the kids for their courtesy, though. Not once did they actually start talking among themselves. Or tell me that I was starting to bore them, for that matter. ;)

So anyway, I managed to give them an overview of the design process, as well as go into slight detail about the first few stages, up until drawing a site map and designing the page layout.

After the lecture presentation, the kids set about working on their sitemaps and page layouts. I made sure I emphasised the importance of planning with pen and paper before even touching the computer. They seemed a little disappointed that they weren't going to get to play with computers yet, though they readily set about their tasks.

Walking around and watching the kids do their work, it's pretty easy to see that this is indeed a really mixed class. While some of them are really specific in detailing out sizes and making sure the lines are all neat and straight, others are happy with just doing a very rough sketch and being messy. While I favour just roughly sketching things out, it's nice to see some of the kids putting in extra effort to make their layouts look nice and presentable. I wonder if it's because I didn't mention that they don't actually have to hand their layouts in?

I suppose the thing that strikes me most about the work they've done so far today is how similar most of them are to the example I showed them. While I did stress that it was only an example and that they were pretty much free to design their own layouts as they wished, I guess showing them only one example sort of limited the creative process. I'll have to remember to draw up a few more examples for next week's class.

Most of the kids didn't actually manage to finish both their site maps and their layouts today, even though I stayed back for nearly an extra hour. Lisa said she would try to give them some time during the week to finish them off. They're also supposed to gather all the material they want to put up on their sites, although I predict that might take them a while.

Oh yeah, nearly forgot to mention that I finally managed to install Dreamweaver on the class computers today. Lisa's laptop already has it, as does mine (naturally), so we'll probably be working on six laptops next week, if the kids manage to complete their preparations in time.

Here's hoping we'll actually manage to start using Dreamweaver next week. :)

posted by Scott @ 8:08 pm