FlashinTO

I made an attempt at live-blogging the panels at our last gathering as the panelists discussed issues around education. Here’s the text copy&pasted from CoverItLive.

7:12 Welcome to FlashinTO Gathering v99.0

7:24 Tonight we’re discussing issues around digital interactive education.

7:24 The post that inspired tonight’s conversation is here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_193119254066264&view=doc&id=193125487398974

7:45 Breadth vs Depth
Dave: both are important – but breath is better than depth at the education level. If you’re self motivated you can acquire the depth needed. Breadth will give you more access to a wider assortment of places in the industry.

7:45 Fundamentals are important. Need to go down a little bit and then branch out. Going too deep is not necessarily beneficial over the long run.

7:47 Dan: depends on time available. Balance around a general set of topics. Then provide courses that allow for personal exploration with further depth.

7:47 Andrew: things are constantly changing. 3hrs a week for 14 weeks is no time at all to really learn everything.

7:49 Dan: education should be about more than what agencies want, rather it should help guide what they want. There is more freedom to experiment and go beyond what they are doing.

7:50 Q: how much do you cater to what the industry wants?

7:51 Dan: think logically about what’s needed. Don’t jump right on the bandwagon. Develop courses that are flexible enough to adapt over time.

7:52 David: understanding where industry is going is great. A well developed course is one that is transferable beyond industry trends. Don’t want students to just get jobs for tomorrow, want them to get jobs for many years ahead.

7:53 Dan: teaching how to learn – self-directed learning.

7:55 Andrew: the education system is still using a model that is 100 years old, trying to jump through the political hoops to get a new course approved is a challenge. Develop general courses that are flexible.

7:57 Dan: good way to keep a handle on what’s going on is by surveying alumni. This plus program advisory committees are the basis for course direction.

7:57 Q: what kind of soft skills do you teach?

7:58 Dave: focus on research. Show how to learn as you go.

7:58 Dan: sharing research to the group.

7:59 Dave: presenting and communicating. Presenting and researching create a feedback loop that leads to further research.

8:00 Dan: creativity is the most important soft skill.

8:02 Andrew: treat assignments as client work. Give them a brief. Do research. Send an email at 6:00 on Friday with a crisis to deal with. Base these on real world scenarios. Break free from the mold of “here’s an assignment and hand it in”

8:02 Dan: having empathy will really put you in a good place to work with other people.

8:03 Andrew: it also provides you a sense to forward look at what a client might want and deal with problems before they arise.

8:04 Dave: be curious. Teach them how to experiment and try different things and see what the result is. Setup working groups as a way to learn how to deal with others.

8:07 Dave: how to follow procedures. Hand things in according to specifications. Pay attention to details.

8:09 Andrew: have students create a blog at the start of the semester. The finished product is often less important than how you got there. This is more important to industry than the portfolio piece. Can also create some competition amongst students.

8:10 Q: one of the required skills is leadership, how is that taught?

8:11 Dan: project management courses are how they approach this.

8:13 Andrew: tried setting up each section in the program as it’s own studio. Some groups tried poaching people from another group. Some would work all night to get the project done. Gave good opportunity for leaders to emerge.

8:14 Dan: do you force people to do the work in a group project that they are the best at? No, rather have the “best” act as mentors to those who want to develop as designers, coders, etc.

8:15 Dave: networking is one of the other most important skills. Leads to work, new ideas, new opportunities. Help others and they will help you.

8:17 Andrew: keep talking to people every time you come to something like FlashinTO.

8:18 Dan: branch out beyond your group you attend with. Introduce yourself to new people.

8:18 Talk about your work with others.

8:19 Dave: in general, get out of your comfort zone. Go to events you might not normally go to. ie. Mobile Mondays vs Mobile Dev Group.

8:45 Next panel: The Industry
We’re shorthanded for this one so Simon and Matt have stepped up to speak on this perspective.

8:49 Q to Simon: what is it that catches your eye when looking for students to hire for agencies?

8:50 Simon: There are three bands of students in a class, those there for something to do, those who need to apply themselves a bit more and those who are already putting a level of polish on their work beyond the courses expectations.

8:52 Simon: students aren’t ready for agency life. They expect to suck everything out of you over a short period and then spit you out. Not sure there is anything that can be done to prepare people for this.

8:53 Matt: asks the Sheridan IMM open house group, what they thought about the program and can easily tell those who have passion.

8:53 Simon: re-iterating the importance of handling clients changing whims.

8:54 Andrew: students have unrealistic expectations of timelines. Asks them to estimate how much time it will take to achieve something and then compares their actual time to this. Timelines are important part of being prepared for agency work. Things happen at such a high speed and students aren’t prepared.

8:56 Andrew: in school you only lose 10% for being late vs $100000′s in the real-world.

8:59 Matt: over-confidence or over-sized egos that students come into the workplace with needs to be brought down to reality. High pay expectations, etc, are not realistic. Students are not prepared to start at the bottom rather than work their way up. Schools are teaching a lot of the intro level skills but not enough of what is needed later in their careers.9:00Simon: something that is often missing are production management type skills – the people who sit in the middle of technology and creative.

9:02 Simon: often students coming in knowing the latest and greatest but are forced to spend hours doing banner ads and left wondering when they get to do cool stuff.

9:03 Andrew: knowing the latest tech isn’t as important as being creative. Same as buying art supplies, go to the dollar store to buy vs buying particular brand names, neither makes you a great a artist.

9:05 Simon: do your own work as a creative playground as a counter balance to bending to every whim of a creative director.9:10Interviewing skills are important. How to talk and sell yourself. Learn how to carry a conversation about anything. A few examples given of people spending 60 mins in an interview talking about things like motorcycles or going to see movies and only 10 minutes talking about the job.

9:10 Andrew: budgeting, how much things cost. What does a banner cost?

9:11 Matt: have a sense of how much things cost, how much does it cost our business to have 10 people sit in a meeting for 2 hours debating the colour of a button.

9:13 Q: dress, how important is how you look at an interview?

9:16 Andrew: student went to Organic interview dressed in an in-appropriate t-shirt and was actually told to never wear that t-shirt to an interview again.

9:17 Simon: dress how you would be expected to dress at the job. Dress like you would for a first date. Make a good impression, show that you made an effort.

9:18 Andrew: Just ask. Do some research. Find out what you should wear.

9:20 Comment: dress can be important even beyond the interview, dress for the job you want rather than the job you have.

9:20 Make an impression!9:22Comment: remember any email you send could be forwarded elsewhere.

9:22 Matt: knows people who will check your twitter feed when hiring.

9:28 Third panel: The Students

9:31 Colin: a second career student, was a musician but went looking for new opportunities in digital media.

9:33 Colin: schools need to manage expectations and accurately portray programs.

9:37 Q: Student take on breadth vs depth?

9:39 Colin: went to the program with an expectation that he’d get an assignment and walk away with an understanding of how to complete it. A one year course isn’t enough to do any more than give an overview. Discovering that growth comes more from learning on a per-project basis by doing things for others after graduating.

9:41 Matt: went to interactive multimedia because he wanted more depth. Had some knowledge but wanted deeper knowledge. Ended up handing in a final project that he’d built before the program because he didn’t get the knowledge he’d hoped to in order to achieve his original project vision.

9:43 Matt: feels that focusing and specializing in something is a great way to sell yourself and get into a particular vertical. Lots of opportunity for getting into a particular job stream.

9:44 Nitin: breadth is important. At least knowing what all the different job posts is an important start. Wanting depth is great because it shows you have interest in passion.

9:47 Colin: breadth is useful for a producer type role, the person who sits between the developers and designers, etc.

9:48 Nitin: breadth is good in school, but post-school it’s good to focus on something in particular as a marketable skill.

9:55 Wrapping up! Thanks for joining. See you next month for Gathering v100.0