Another post about the future of Graphic Communication
7:25 pm on the 13th of January, 2008Ollie Bray wrote tonight about how much he likes the Commoncraft video tutorials. I felt compelled to leave a comment.
I first saw their video on RSS a few months ago and I couldn’t watch it all the way through, being perfectly honest I found his voice hugely off putting. I was put off by the accent and the silly humming at the start. It meant I didn’t pick up on how well a difficult subject was put across until relatively recently.
Anyway, I felt compelled to leave a comment for Ollie saying just that, but as I typed my comment it grew into a post in it’s own right. I got thinking that if only the videos had regional variations then I’d like them much more, as I was watching the new one on photosharing I was struck just how simple it was to put together - I mean the technology for doing so, actually coming up with such a clear an engaging presentation takes a very clever person indeed.
I got thinking that it would be dead easy for a group of pupils to recreate these presentations, they’d pick up a lot of skills in doing so, and even if they just copied the story it would still be an exciting and beneficial task there for pupils of any age.
Now, how is this tied into Graphic Communication? For those of you outwith the subject: in Standard Grade one of the folio pieces that pupils usually make is a storyboard of how to…make a cup of tea/iron a shirt/draw a monkey etc. These are always paper based and hand drawn, it’s a fun task for most pupils. Now, my argument is that these are great skills to have (manual illustration, information layout on a page, choice of colour and typeface and so on…) but, these skills are already used in lots of the folio pieces. In terms of the literal meaning of Graphic Communication videos like these are a perfect example, and if you were to make them like the common craft videos then you still have the manual drawing skills.
This is just another thought about where the subject could go to keep it relevant and interesting for pupils - as well as future employers. What do you think?
I’m sure many subjects could claim this sort of task so why not me? I may look into trying this with my S4 Graphics class sometime…
January 13th, 2008 at 8:01 pm on the 13th of January, 2008
I think this is perfectly reasonable using something like Jing but how do you get it accepted for SQA validation?
January 13th, 2008 at 8:38 pm on the 13th of January, 2008
That’s a good point Ian, I was looking at it purely as a task that would be worthwhile doing, and ignoring the practicalities, they only get in the way.
Is it vastly different from submitting CAD work? Or an essay that’s been typed?
January 13th, 2008 at 9:18 pm on the 13th of January, 2008
Hi Stuart,
I’m glad you’ve been able to take another look at the videos. We’ve come a long way since that first RSS video and I appreciate your kind words about the photo sharing video. However - my voice, that’s still the same.
January 13th, 2008 at 10:25 pm on the 13th of January, 2008
Oh no, caught!
Lee, I feel like quite the hypocrite - I’m sure that if you were to look at the flickr tutorial I did then you’d have the same problems with my accent, and of course you video is the one getting millions of views, I think it’s clear who has the upper hand ;-).
January 13th, 2008 at 10:50 pm on the 13th of January, 2008
Unfortunately it is different as the CAD and the essay are printed out.
I suppose you could use it a verbalisation of the process before taking it ‘backward’ to a drawn storyboard. Or use the planning for a screencast as the assessed piece of work.
I love the fact that you have been caught LOL.
So long know one loses their local identity viva the Flat web
January 13th, 2008 at 11:43 pm on the 13th of January, 2008
Hah! Please don’t think that I took anything you said as offensive Stuart. I’ve seen it all before. We’re both Technorati addicts and see a lot of what people say. I wish I could comment on everything, but I have to admit it’s fun sometimes to drop in and say hello, perhaps unexpectedly. I do this with a smile on my face - I hope you do too.
Trackbacks/Pings
Leave a Reply