#school of communications

[daniellericks]

Professor Chronicles: Teaching is Hard But Worth it!

I continue to teach at my alma mater, Howard University, in my beloved School Of Communications, and here is one reason why.

As an educator, particularly as a relatively new Adjunct Professor, there are times when you wonder if you are making a difference. By the time the students arrive on Howard University’s campus, they have already experienced a great deal of adversity in their young lives – school shootings that are far too common, financial hardships, and a pandemic that, according to McKinsey & Company, widened…

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[andreaaaaaa6]

Let me tell you why Northwestern made my academic career an uphill battle

Just got an email informing me of Northwestern's new Sound Arts and Industries Masters program. Let me tell you why I'm skeptical.

When I was there, the sound minor was cobbled between the film department, theater department, and music department. The music technology major was phased out after I started school, leaving limited classes for all of those who wanted the minor with priority given to music students. You had to email ass-early to get into those classes, and without them, you had only two classes in film and theater respectively to choose from. The course list on the page for the minor is outdated and impossible, a good half of those classes are offered only on rare occasion. In fact, a lot of Northwestern’s listed film classes are outdated or rare, like they only offered them once and so they put them on the list.  I decided what my goals were about halfway through school. The first year and a half of the film major forces students to take critical film studies classes and makes it absolutely impossible to get into any production classes. So we take those, get a few general credits out of the way in the meantime. The next year is almost as impossible, so by the time people sign up they’re racing for spots. Or you get critical classes. I actually marched into an advisor’s room and complained about the system, to which she responded “Think of it this way, you’ll get to kick the younger students out when /you’re/ a junior or senior.” That’s not the solution I wanted. I did not pay tens of thousands of dollars to watch TV and write papers on Workaholics with zero citations. I switched advisors because she lost my language credit and continued to be unhelpful. That advisor switched to the theater department before my last year, and I was moved back with the unhelpful advisor.

And then came the Interactive Art Module. I thought there was something new and great that was exactly something I was interested in. Only they offered one class per quarter, it was new, and there was no way I would finish it on time. I had taken all the classes they were offering in my last year already and couldn’t repeat, and there would be no time for a Capstone project. I also found it a little difficult to believe that film majors could complete a Capstone with only a brief intro to Actionscript 3.0 as well as Processing, a great but so far useless coding language that is used almost nowhere. We were not required to take regular coding classes with the EECS students. I dropped the module sadly.  Then there was the animation department. Eric Patrick is a great teacher and pretty much single-handedly covers animation within Northwestern with a class that teaches AfterEffects. In my last year, I panicked, not knowing any 3D animation, and took classes downtown at Columbia College to support my skills. I did not report the credits to Northwestern because I was already taking five classes to cover my bases regarding my major and two minors, and Columbia was a bit of a hassle to deal with in the first place. I took six classes for 10 weeks.  And then lo and behold, Northwestern decides to bring its 3D program back with a guy who is very current with the 3D capabilities and industry but taught from a short paperback book and did not keep us strictly on the path to a project. In short, we jumped from character modeling and rigging to cloth and fire with no real instruction on the latter, and our final changed from a 30 second animated story to a 10 second shot of whatever.  And then someone informed me there were actual 3D animators at Northwestern in a tucked-away department where they created interactive displays of medical phenomenas for the science departments called up on 25 3DTVs and manipulated with an iPad. They used Nuke and Maya and one used to work at Dreamworks, and NO ONE HAD EVER MENTIONED THEM BEFORE. Who were these people? Why were the cool adventure projects kept separate from the actual dreary Northwestern I knew full of sad and miserable undergrads just trying to do what they loved? 

Why was Northwestern deliberately not trying to help its students. And why do they try to maintain the façade that they are.

[eloncomm]

TODAY: Avid Media Composer Workshop

The School of Communications will hold an Avid Media Composer training workshokp from 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24 in McEwen 205.

[eloncomm]

We're back!

Elon School of Communications would like to OFFICIALLY welcome students back to campus! 

We will resume our Tumblr posting today, so be on the look out! 

[crcwhat]

crcwhat.tumblr.com is actually a really great place to spread the word about your projects if you're a CRC or NU student/alum in general

If you have a thing that you're doing, submit or send us a message about it and we'll probably post it because we support you in all your endeavors

[wutsoc]

VISUALFEST 2013 - Winners Announced!

Thank you all for attending the PHOT1010 (Basic Digital Photography) & VIDO1010 (Intro to Video Production) 3rd annual VISUALFEST. This year was a great hit with large numbers of students, faculty and staff showing their support for students creative works.

With out further delay ( I know the students have been waiting for the results. Just ask their professors how many times they have been bugged asked for the results in a 24 hour period)

Photography 

First Place - Nima Doma Sherpa

Second Place - Meylin Hulleman                          Shreyas Krishna Shrestha

Third Place - Shreyana Shrestha

Video Final

First Place - Sweet Dreams -  (Devashish, Avash, Shuvashish, Andy, Ryan)

Second Place - Rasta Man (Jigme, Oscar, Yanet, Frances)

Third Place - Hua Hin (Sweza, Jayena, Nima, Nekita)

Video Action  Sequence

First Place - Wont Back Down (Yanet, Devashish, Avash, Tsering, Jayena)

Second Place - Ninja (Nekita, Andy, Nima, Ryan)

Third Place - Promise (Sweza, Wanwisa, Frances, Shuvashish, Oscar)

Congratulations to all the participants who took place in this awesome exhibition and we look forward to seeing you all in the new semester. Have a great Summer Break!

You can watch the Winning Videos and view the Winning Photographs below.

PHOT1010 Winner

Nima Doma Sherpa - Vivid Rainfall

Nima Doma Sherpa - The Oracle

VIDO1010 Winners

Video Final - Sweet Dreams

Video Final - Action  Sequence - Wont Back Down

[eloncomm]

AAF 'Web Metrics and Analytics Real' Workshop: TOMORROW!

Elon University's chapter of the American Advertising Federation will host the Web Metrics and Analytics Real workshop at 4:15 p.m. Thursday, May 2 in McEwen 011. Kevin Briody, director of digital strategy of Pace Communications, will provide an overview of web metrics/analytics and a framework for how to apply them to a brand’s strategy. He will highlight his talk with real-world examples.