I am doing my teaching observation and practice during the winter of 2014-15 at TAMK, The Tampere University of Applied Sciences, in the Media Department.
One side of this department is Interactive Media and that teaching happens entirely in English, which suits me just fine.
On this page, I will keep a diary of my observation days as well as the diary of the teaching days from the course I will teach in January.
Day One, Monday the 10th of November 2014
Course: Introduction to Animation, 09.00 - 16.00
My first day allowed me for the first time in my teaching career to simply sit back and observe another teacher as well as the students and the overall flow of the class, which is an interesting and unique angle on something I'm otherise very familiar with. In no particular order, here's a few of the things that came to my mind during the day:
- The teacher was a little late to class in the morning, from the mid-morning break and after lunch. It got me to thinking about productivity. Even if a teacher is just 5 minutes late each time, that's 15 minutes missed teaching in one day. Added up over days and weeks and months, that would total approximately one week in the year of missed teaching. Of course, it's very simplistic to look at in this way, but I really feel that productivity should be paid attention to in teaching like in any other area of work or industry. I'm all for being punctual.
- The course began with a short lecture/discussion about animal anthropomorphism in animation. Then students started to work on their own artwork and the teacher went around giving personalised feedback, which I think was encouraging and useful for them. But I started to think about how much a teacher should resist giving ideas to students.
It's something I've come across in my own scriptwriting teaching, whether or not I should help students with my own ideas or strive to nudge them to find creative solutions by themselves. On the one hand, I feel that a good idea is a good idea no matter where it comes from. I also think that students should ultimately be in charge of whether or not they adopt ideas given to them, so they still make the creative choice. I would say that's it's fine if caution is applied and only if the student is not getting to the point they should be by themselves.
- I like the fact that the students get individual feedback, but I would be happier if there was more dissemination, so that students could report back to the class about what they are learning, what choices they are making and what educational angles are coming from that. Just now, the sharing is happening at a very informal level, so neighbours are chatting with each other, but I feel this could be optimized more.
- The course has a structure and goals, and maybe I missed this in the last weeks, but I feel the presentation of the timetable is slightly vague. I would want to be much more clear with everyone about what's happening and how and in what timescales and when the breaks are... In the afternoon, the teacher suggested a break and left for ten minutes but not one student left the room. Now that they are using After Effects on the Macs, I'm wondering if more should be done to force the students away from the computers for their own health. But then, if they are into it and in the flow, why force them off, the school day will be over soon. It's a hard one to call.
So Day One was very interesting and I look forward to more observations in future days...
Day Three, Monday the 17th of November 2014
Day Two, Wednesday the 12th of November 2014
Mid-pitch event at Demola, 13.00 - 18.00
For the second day of my teaching observation, I went along to Demola at the Finlayson site in central Tampere to witness a "mid-pitch" event comprising of 32 groups of students giving short presentations about their demo projects and receiving feedback from other groups and their mentors.
The groups were made up of students from TAMK, the University of Tampere and the Tampere University of Technology. Each group comprised approximately 4-5 students and were mentored by educators from each institution. From what I understand of the Demola project, independent companies and organisations get in touch with ideas about projects they want to develop, which can be anything from apps to help their employees or customers, developing software or working as a think tank for specific products. The projects vary greatly.
I made some observations about the event, here's some of what came to my mind:
- The process was very efficiently run. Each group had just three minutes and ten seconds to present what they have been doing at the mid-way stage in their project. That is a very short period of time. It goes incredibly quickly and one student remarked afterwards that it was the shortest three minutes of his life.
In order to squeeze in all the presentations, they had to be very efficient. That involved briefing everyone at the start about the process, which was that after the three minutes were up, one organiser would raise his arm to signal so. Then, ten seconds later, they would just start clapping and invite everyone in the audience to join in. Of course, this meant sometimes interrupting people in the middle of their presentation, but then at least it was done in a nice way. Better to be clapped to finish that shouted down or the mic and monitor just turned off.
- The whole event had a very positive, international feel about it. As far as I could tell, the majority of the students were non-Finns, so the language that could be heard was overwhelmingly English. There was an air of industry and a kind of "can-do" spirit that I enjoyed very much.
- People were encouraged to give feedback, which was nice, but sometimes the quality of the feedback was questionable. Those presenting were not allowed to answer questions (that was reserved for the break times), yet people still asked questions. Sometimes, the feedback was slightly banal. I'm not sure that this can be avoided though. As long as you encourage people to comment, it's hard to police the quality of their comments and the organisers did a good job of reminding people about the no questions rule.
- Having so many presentations in such a short time is relentless. You have to be really switched on to get through that with full concentration. I think having such an event is energizing but the people running it have to really prioritize organisation and energy for it to work. In my opinion, they did so and it worked.
- During the break, I spoke to a couple of the organisers and they were happy to tell me about the whole project. The Demola concept started in Tampere in 2008 and on the last couple of years they have begun exporting it to other cities, in Finland and abroad - even as far as Mexico. I think it's a great way for students to learn: working with others, working for real-world companies and working on real projects/products with real deadlines.
It was an educational day for me and I'd be happy to find out more about how Demola works in future.
For the second day of my teaching observation, I went along to Demola at the Finlayson site in central Tampere to witness a "mid-pitch" event comprising of 32 groups of students giving short presentations about their demo projects and receiving feedback from other groups and their mentors.
The groups were made up of students from TAMK, the University of Tampere and the Tampere University of Technology. Each group comprised approximately 4-5 students and were mentored by educators from each institution. From what I understand of the Demola project, independent companies and organisations get in touch with ideas about projects they want to develop, which can be anything from apps to help their employees or customers, developing software or working as a think tank for specific products. The projects vary greatly.
I made some observations about the event, here's some of what came to my mind:
- The process was very efficiently run. Each group had just three minutes and ten seconds to present what they have been doing at the mid-way stage in their project. That is a very short period of time. It goes incredibly quickly and one student remarked afterwards that it was the shortest three minutes of his life.
In order to squeeze in all the presentations, they had to be very efficient. That involved briefing everyone at the start about the process, which was that after the three minutes were up, one organiser would raise his arm to signal so. Then, ten seconds later, they would just start clapping and invite everyone in the audience to join in. Of course, this meant sometimes interrupting people in the middle of their presentation, but then at least it was done in a nice way. Better to be clapped to finish that shouted down or the mic and monitor just turned off.
- The whole event had a very positive, international feel about it. As far as I could tell, the majority of the students were non-Finns, so the language that could be heard was overwhelmingly English. There was an air of industry and a kind of "can-do" spirit that I enjoyed very much.
- People were encouraged to give feedback, which was nice, but sometimes the quality of the feedback was questionable. Those presenting were not allowed to answer questions (that was reserved for the break times), yet people still asked questions. Sometimes, the feedback was slightly banal. I'm not sure that this can be avoided though. As long as you encourage people to comment, it's hard to police the quality of their comments and the organisers did a good job of reminding people about the no questions rule.
- Having so many presentations in such a short time is relentless. You have to be really switched on to get through that with full concentration. I think having such an event is energizing but the people running it have to really prioritize organisation and energy for it to work. In my opinion, they did so and it worked.
- During the break, I spoke to a couple of the organisers and they were happy to tell me about the whole project. The Demola concept started in Tampere in 2008 and on the last couple of years they have begun exporting it to other cities, in Finland and abroad - even as far as Mexico. I think it's a great way for students to learn: working with others, working for real-world companies and working on real projects/products with real deadlines.
It was an educational day for me and I'd be happy to find out more about how Demola works in future.
Day Three, Monday the 17th of November 2014
Course: Introduction to Animation, 09.00 - 16.00
Today I spent in the class observing the teacher and students as they worked through a class looking at first of all using Dragonframe, a high-end stop motion animation software, used by the big studios like Disney, Aardman and Laika, then in the afternoon importing the short animation into After Effects and learning how to put some simple effects onto it.
Today I spent in the class observing the teacher and students as they worked through a class looking at first of all using Dragonframe, a high-end stop motion animation software, used by the big studios like Disney, Aardman and Laika, then in the afternoon importing the short animation into After Effects and learning how to put some simple effects onto it.
Below
you can see an example of one stop motion animation created by former students
using Dragonframe, with at least the rain effects put in using After Effects:
As
before, I go through some of the thoughts that came to my mind during the
working day:
- The
teaching style was nice and relaxed. The teacher set a confident, easy and
productive tone for the class and I feel that’s important in terms of giving a
cue to the students about how they should be. If it seems the teacher doesn’t
know or doesn’t care, I feel the motivation of the students will drop off
significantly.
This
got me to thinking about what the emotional skills a teacher must have in order
to perform Off the top of my head, I think a teacher has to be relaxed and confident,
with fairly high self-esteem.
- The
teacher is able to blend his own subjective educational theory into the
curriculum well. He is telling anecdotes from his own experience, using lots of
examples and giving his own personal advice, for example about the optimal size
of the working group when making a stop-motion animation.
- There
doesn’t seem to be quite enough equipment for the students to practice optimally.
There are seven students working on one testing exercise, to get to know the
software, when best would be at most half that many. I worry that the students realize
this is far from optimal and feel slightly short changed.
- It’s
a potential hazard for motivation if the students feel they are not being
supported by the school in terms of enough equipment. That’s quite political
and I see it as part of the teacher’s job to soften this edge between the
students’ expectations and the economic realities of the school world.
- Maybe
the most significant thing that came up today for me was the realization that
it’s really important for the teacher to also be the student, at least
sometimes. That way, they get to keep in mind the experience of what it’s like
and who they are dealing with. Simple things, like giving tasks and goals
clearly, is kept at the front of your mind. Also, for me, getting feedback is
important and that really becomes apparent when I’m the student. It just seems
vital to me, that teachers are also students.
Day Four, Tuesday the 18th of November 2014
Course: Introduction to Scriptwriting, 09.00 - 16.00
Course: Introduction to Animation for Fine Arts students, 09.00 - 16.00
Today was the last day of my observation period. For this day I sat in on a different stage of the same course as before, but for different students.
The day panned out differently as I got to see how the subject was introduced and also how it was pitched to a different kind of students who have their own class culture. Topics covered included the history of animation and 12 "rules" for animating, as well as the exercise of creating a phenakistoscope, which is an animation method from the middle of the 19th century, so quite old. This was new for me and it seemed to be a good way to engage the students in some of the basics challenges facing the animator.
As before, some things that came into my mind during the day:
- I was happy to observe this stage of the class. The teacher made efforts a lot of the time to explain why he is passionate about animation, why it matters objectively and some of the reasons why someone would choose to animate things. The ideas made sense to me and I felt it was useful to justify for the students why they should pay attention. I somehow don't think it's enough at this level to just force the students to assume that what you are telling them is useful. I think it should be clear why it is useful and even better if you can help the students to come to that conclusion by themselves. Effort should go into this.
- Again, like before, there were plenty of examples from the presentation parts of the class and I felt this was somehow key. I feel that you almost can have too many examples. Here I include an early animation from Emile Cohl to liven up this text. It's a bit surreal but I like it.
- Maybe the most important thing that came to my mind from today was that the teacher really knew his stuff, which came through in his comfort in talking freely about the subject. For me, this breeds confidence in the students and makes them more likely to listen. If they can tell that this guy is excited about this subject and he wants to tell us about it, they're more likely to listen. The knowledge and the passion are both so important. If one of those things is missing, I don't think we can expect students to listen for very long.
As the day draws to a close, along with my observation period, so I turn to creating my own course for the students here, which I will teach in January. I'm already excited about that. Watch this space for more info!
Teaching Practice, 7-9.1.2015, overview
Last week I completed the practical portion of my teaching practice, when I held a workshop at TAMK on Narrative Game Making with Twine.
The course lasted three 8-hour days and the students had another week to complete their final assignment, making up the 2 study credits.
The course was part of their optional studies, so I had the pleasure of completely designing everything from the start. I decided to create something that would tackle subjects of games theory, narrative theory, how narrative games work and how the Twine game engine works. I held interactive lectures and gave the students plenty of exercises to clarify understanding and sharpen skills.
One of the most interesting and, in my opinion, successful parts of the course was the creation of a course blog. I decided it would be good to have a one-stop-shop for all course related material, such as structure, links, tasks and so on. I made it so it doesn't look like a blog as it's so stripped down, so it resembles and functions more like a normal website. You can check that out here.
I enjoyed running the course and the feedback I received, through a Socrative questionnaire that all 12 students completed, was overwhelmingly positive.
Today I sat
in on the scriptwriting course to observe the teaching and classroom activities.
For me, I was happier as a “fly on the wall” during the other courses as they
weren’t exactly my area. This was much more challenging as the subject was mine,
so the urge to join in was far greater. I was able to bite my tongue.
During the
day, here’s some of the things that came to my mind:
- The Tabula
course blogging system used here in TAMK is very nice. Teachers are able to put
all the course content, examples, embedded videos, images and tasks into the
same space that students can access at any time. Before I have set up blogs for
courses, but this seems more streamlined, more professional and easier to keep
control over. I will try to use this when I am designing my own course that I
will teach here in January.
- This course
contains a lot of examples in terms of showing clips from films, which is a
good thing. The teacher is showing them and stopping whenever there is
something to comment. Not only is this nice and engaging for the students, but
I feel it’s also important that the examples are as recent as possible, so the
material is kept relevant and fresh.
- The teacher
is asking a lot of questions to the class, outsourcing example-giving whenever
possible, which I think is a good idea. However, she doesn’t seem to have
learned the students’ names, so the question floats in the air until one of two
keen students answers it. That leaves most of the class fairly silent and
passive. I have the practice of learning the students’ names and using them,
especially when getting people involved in the class. It keeps the students
active, interested and doesn’t allow them to drift off.
- The other
thing that has come up in this class is the use of short YouTube videos
explaining certain theories in “fun” accessible ways. I find this approach
good, though maybe not very academic. But, if the teacher acts as a curator and
has personally studied the theories, they ought to be able to say if the video
is accurate and worthwhile. The point is it takes into account the fact that
students at this age and level are more likely to watch an animated five minute
YouTube video than read a chapter of a book or just listen to someone talking,
so it’s pandering to their preferred learning style.
Below you’ll
find an example of one of these videos, explaining the theory of the Hero’s
Journey…
Day Five, Wednesday the 19th of November 2014
Today was the last day of my observation period. For this day I sat in on a different stage of the same course as before, but for different students.
The day panned out differently as I got to see how the subject was introduced and also how it was pitched to a different kind of students who have their own class culture. Topics covered included the history of animation and 12 "rules" for animating, as well as the exercise of creating a phenakistoscope, which is an animation method from the middle of the 19th century, so quite old. This was new for me and it seemed to be a good way to engage the students in some of the basics challenges facing the animator.
As before, some things that came into my mind during the day:
- I was happy to observe this stage of the class. The teacher made efforts a lot of the time to explain why he is passionate about animation, why it matters objectively and some of the reasons why someone would choose to animate things. The ideas made sense to me and I felt it was useful to justify for the students why they should pay attention. I somehow don't think it's enough at this level to just force the students to assume that what you are telling them is useful. I think it should be clear why it is useful and even better if you can help the students to come to that conclusion by themselves. Effort should go into this.
- Again, like before, there were plenty of examples from the presentation parts of the class and I felt this was somehow key. I feel that you almost can have too many examples. Here I include an early animation from Emile Cohl to liven up this text. It's a bit surreal but I like it.
- Maybe the most important thing that came to my mind from today was that the teacher really knew his stuff, which came through in his comfort in talking freely about the subject. For me, this breeds confidence in the students and makes them more likely to listen. If they can tell that this guy is excited about this subject and he wants to tell us about it, they're more likely to listen. The knowledge and the passion are both so important. If one of those things is missing, I don't think we can expect students to listen for very long.
As the day draws to a close, along with my observation period, so I turn to creating my own course for the students here, which I will teach in January. I'm already excited about that. Watch this space for more info!
Teaching Practice, 7-9.1.2015, overview
Last week I completed the practical portion of my teaching practice, when I held a workshop at TAMK on Narrative Game Making with Twine.
The course lasted three 8-hour days and the students had another week to complete their final assignment, making up the 2 study credits.
The course was part of their optional studies, so I had the pleasure of completely designing everything from the start. I decided to create something that would tackle subjects of games theory, narrative theory, how narrative games work and how the Twine game engine works. I held interactive lectures and gave the students plenty of exercises to clarify understanding and sharpen skills.
One of the most interesting and, in my opinion, successful parts of the course was the creation of a course blog. I decided it would be good to have a one-stop-shop for all course related material, such as structure, links, tasks and so on. I made it so it doesn't look like a blog as it's so stripped down, so it resembles and functions more like a normal website. You can check that out here.
I enjoyed running the course and the feedback I received, through a Socrative questionnaire that all 12 students completed, was overwhelmingly positive.
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