As a graduate of a 4 year program who now is a touring automation tech I have several issues with the article. I had a really great team of professors so maybe I just don't understand what is going on in the article. A lot of my issues come from putting the blame on the professors and not encouraging the students to put in some work. The professors need to understand where their students want to end up so they can guide them into opportunities that will help them into that path. Points 4 though 6 are about the only ones we see eye to eye on.
The first
point about teaching
DMX over eithernet: A designer won't care how the 1's and 0's make it to the fixtures. Good to know the technology is out there but setting up a
system just to do it? Give the kids some credit they have been exposed to networking for a while and should be familiar with the basics.
Points #2 and 3, about renting in some high dollar toys, Grand MA 3D will do most of this for free, two weeks of messing around in a computer lab will still be better than getting a couple hours of hands on experience.
Point #7, studying for tests, again the instructor has to know the students and the goals of the program. If the goal is to funnel kids into grad programs and internships under designers
ETCP won't be something that benefits them.
Point #8, get your kids involved, or as I would say - you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. A teacher can't make their students be involved in an organization and certainly can't get them a job with any of the people on the list. The "kids" need to want to be part of the organization, to understand the benefit of what those orgs offer the industry. And the "kids" also have to be willing to uproot themselves to go work with any of the designers listed, and be ready for the experience.
Point #9, if a student can't take what they learned about running the
barrel on a
360Q and apply it to a
Source Four they missed a lot of critical thinking applications. I think the rotating
barrel and
bench focus method are the only things that would be different about a
Source Four and a 360 Q. Things that can be explained quickly even while someone is in the air during focus. Frustrating yes, but if they were able to do everything else well not that big of a deal, now if they ask at every focus
call that is a problem.
Point #10,
RDM I've never used it and the only people that I know using it are new installs and I have not heard great things about it, and until all the old optos die out I doubt it will be seen on many
arena tours. Also this
point seems to be written very oddly.
Point #11, media servers, cool to learn about but what gets pushed out of the syllabus to make room?
I would add to your list keeping a running list of places alumni are working and have worked while in school. There are some great summer
stock companies out there that can teach a student more in 8 weeks than any school can do in an academic year. Keep a list of those ones so you can let students know. Also keep tabs on the ones that get bad reviews, and have the students returning with bad habits. Try and steer students away from those. At my school it was pretty much self policed among the students but as upperclassmen graduate the info could go with them.